[caption id="" align="alignright" width="219" caption="Gary Leopold, ISM Boston"][/caption]

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According to ISM Boston’s website, Gary Leopold, their CEO, “not only eats, sleeps and breathes travel, he knows it from the client side.” After having a conversation with him, one would appreciate the completeness of the sentence – and the man.

Not only has Gary led ISM Boston – a niche travel marketing firm – for almost 25 years, he has also been involved in the strategic planning for all accounts, one of them being Emirates Airline. ISM Boston recently won the Emirates account for North America after a review. He was gracious enough to speak to us about the unique challenges faced by airline brands and how they can succeed – both in the US and abroad.

In essence, Gary feels that airlines need to give autonomy to marketing agencies and push them to innovate – like Emirates does. Over the five years ISM Boston has had the Emirates account, they seem to have surpassed their own expectations on the quality of work produced for Emirates.

When asked …

Dear Readers,

I’m delighted to share the news with you that Interbrand’s Brandchannel.com has just published the white paper on airline branding, “Six steps to building a swashbuckling brand,” authored by me. Brandchannel.com is the leading online exchange about all things branding. Hence it is an honor for the it to be selected as the featured white paper for last week. You can read it online or download the paper here. I’d love to have your comments and feedback.

Thanks for all your support.

Regards,
Shashank