Singapore Tourism Board hunts for global creative and media agencies

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Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is on the hunt for a global creative and media agency to help shape and execute its marketing strategy for a period of two years and three months, with the option to be renewed thereafter on an annual basis for three years. The briefing is on 22 October at 10 am and Ebiquity is handling the pitch.

Shortlisted agencies will be notified in the week of 22 November. Creative agencies in the final round will pitch on 3 December while media agencies will pitch on 7 December. TBWA\ Singapore and Zenith are the incumbents and started work in April 2016 and 2017 respectively.

According to the Gebiz tender seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, the key areas of creative services include account management, strategic communications planning, communication plan execution and evaluation, influencer management and marketing, marketing innovation, digital production services, and training.

Interested agencies should recommend a global creative strategy for leisure and business tourism, demonstrating strategic thinking, strong application of analytics and sharp insights on the current tourism landscape, competitive environment, consumer and traveller behaviour, the tender said. The agencies should also offer fresh perspectives building upon the Singapore destination brand, Passion Made Possible.

At the same time, the proposal should also demonstrate how the agency would refresh Passion Made Possible in terms of a campaign approach and creative execution, against the backdrop of technological, political, cultural and consumer changes in the past two years. The global creative strategy proposed should also be adapted and executed for China, South Korea, and the US, as well as focus on sustainability and demonstrate how Singapore's Green Plan 2030 ambition can be woven into the proposed strategy.

The appointed agencies shall manage their respective networks (inclusive of both local offices and affiliates) to ensure that they fully understand STB’s business, contribute to developing in-market strategies to dovetail the overall global marketing strategy and execute the respective market plan in an agile and impactful manner to be ahead of competition in-market. According to STB, respondents may participate as a single agency or form a consortium or as a holding group.

Meanwhile, the key areas for media services include account management, media planning and buying, content services, media campaign reporting, and governance and transparency. The agencies are expected to support STB in both domestic and international marketing and work closely with STB marketing group in Singapore as well as STB regional offices in countries including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, UK, the US and South Korea, among others.

Similar to the creative pitch, the media pitch should recommend a global media strategy for leisure and business tourism showcasing strategic thinking, good analytics and sharp insights on the current tourism landscape, competitive environment, consumer and traveller behaviour. It should also showcase strong capability in the use of data and insights, and leveraging relevant emerging tools, technologies and platforms. The tender also specified that the proposal should contain marketing innovation and creativity in consumer/travellers targeting and engagement cutting through today’s increasing marketing clutter, delivering impact and ROI.

The proposed execution plan should also show how it can be adapted and carried out in China, South Korea and the US, and demonstrate how it would come alive in the execution of the proposed global media strategy. Interested media agencies will be invited to participate in a digital live test on 3 December to showcase their execution excellence in campaign set-up and optimisation.

Meanwhile, an additional 24-hour brief challenge will also be issued for both the creative and media pitches prior to the pitch presentation relating to the above execution plan parameters. At the same time, agencies will also need to outline the suite of tools made available to STB.

During the shortlisting round, STB will evaluate respondents' submissions based on agency industry standing, agency experience and expertise and case studies. The final selection round will require respondents to take into consideration shifts in macro environment, STB's tourism and marketing visions, as well as how STB can re-capture mindshare and market share with the progressive re-opening of borders. In this round, agencies will be evaluated based on the strength of proposal, impact of execution plan, strength of proposed working model and team, and the renumeration model and pricing. Agencies should ensure that key members of the proposed working team are involved in the pitch presentation if they are shortlisted.

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