Destination BC is overhauling its marketing and advertising.
The tourism marketing crown corporation has issued a tender call seeking brand strategy, creative services, media planning and media buying contractors. Destination BC intends to choose multiple vendors for each of the four areas, with as many as 10 qualified suppliers to choose from in each category. Deadline to apply is Aug. 15.
The tendering document says Destination BC is “looking to radically alter how we connect to and engage with potential travellers.” It also says the marketing team has reorganized and created a content team with a content director, managing editor and content experts while the Crown corporation is “moving away” from its single agency of record relationship.
Spokeswoman Clare Mason said Camp Pacific has been agency of record since 2012 and the contract ends Jan. 31, 2017. The agency, formerly known as Dare, has involved its affiliates Jungle (media buying) and Citizen (travel media relations) in Destination BC work. In late 2014, China-based BlueFocus bought the agencies’ parent, Vision7, for a reported $210 million from U.S. equity firm Mill Road Capital.
“We are taking this opportunity to rethink how we work with agencies, as we move toward a new content marketing model, aligned with our new strategy,” Mason said.
In 2014-2015, Destination BC’s biggest marketing-related supplier was website and app developer FCV Technologies for $1.5 million.
Destination BC spent almost $9.4 million on advertising and marketing in 2015-2016, down from $10.3 million a year earlier. Tourism was a $14.58 billion industry in B.C. in 2014, up 5.1%. Direct and indirect employment was more than 127,000.
Mason also said Destination BC's marketing and visitor services teams are also launching a digital marketing strategy and marketing technology platform request for proposals, to find an agency that understands “the changing environment of tourism marketing and is capable of providing strategic digital, data and marketing execution expertise.”
