The Bermuda Tourism Authority has issued a social media RFP. Bermuda speaks to adventure seekers, explorers, romantics and originals. The island is set apart by its location and way of life. Bermuda is where people, cultures, and one-of-a- kind mystique swirl together, connecting visitors to a place far from everyday life. The Bermuda Tourism Authority shifted messaging to position Bermuda as a year round destination and to appeal to the next generation of travelers. As a result, Bermuda is attracting a younger demographic and a new generation of Bermudians are writing the island’s next chapter.
Just as Bermuda is going through a paradigm shift so must its social media vision. The ultimate goal is to make a deep connection with the consumer and inspire them to book and share their travel to Bermuda.
ABOUT THE BERMUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY:
The Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) was created in April of 2014 as the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for the island, to drive demand and desire for Bermuda globally as a world-class destination for leisure vacations, business travel and tourism investment. We analyze relevant tourism data from key tourism sectors, to monitor and measure the industry’s performance and its alignment with the priorities of the National Tourism Plan.
Designed as a “next generation” DMO, BTA addresses marketing & sales as well as product and experience, fully utilizing the expertise within five core divisions (Sales & Marketing, Product & Experience, Tourism Investment, Operations and Research & Business Intelligence) to drive desire and demand for the island and its tourism industry.
OUR OBJECTIVE:
Hearts & Minds. Travel is not a rationale purchase – it’s emotional and aspirational. That’s why so many global brands use travel in marketing their own products, resulting in an extremely cluttered marketplace. Bermuda must break through all of that noise to connect with people emotionally and convince them that Bermuda is the place for them right now. They are in search of a movement –that inspires participation and engagement by all of Bermuda’s partners — both on island and off. One that consists of compelling, innovative content that moves consumers to travel to Bermuda and share their experiences as well as for those that will engage and spread the word. Destinations succeed best when the DMO, its travel industry partners, visitors and residents are active advocates and collaborators that help promote the Bermuda brand.
Per their RFP, “2016 has been a growth year for BTA on social media. Behind a more robust, creative content strategy, increased direct engagement, third-party partnerships, and a boost in spending to acquire the right followers while driving on-channel activity, BTA is on track to surpass most of its key performance indicators (KPI) set at the beginning of the year. The creative approach requires the development of distinct and own-able creative content with high performing assets to support an integrated marketing initiative capturing the island life that is Bermuda, from the island’s rich history and engaging people to some of the world’s most beautiful beaches and a myriad of things in between. This project must also include the complexities of standing out in the current marketplace, the multitude of channels to consider and competing destinations that Bermuda must rise above. Candidates must demonstrate a proven history of strategic and effective travel and tourism related social media campaigns across all channels in the global marketplace.”
They seek an agency able to design and execute a comprehensive social media campaign that will drive awareness, engagement and channel growth and deliver a measurable return on investment. The social media strategy will play an integral role in the BTA’s entire multi-channel, integrated tourism marketing efforts. The plan should fully complement and support BTA’s overarching marketing & sales objectives to:
- Generate incremental air arrivals to Bermuda 24/7/365
- increased spending on-island
- reduced seasonality
- Leverage the opportunity and maximize the impact of America’s Cup
- Increase and layer group and leisure demand in 2017 and beyond
- Continue to build differentiation for the Bermuda brand
The selected agency will successfully craft a content strategy to be an organic traffic driver to GoToBermuda.com, increase share of voice among the destination’s competitive set, grow younger raving fans, support overall increase in visitation, collaborate with on-island partners and stakeholders and develop comprehensive metric reports for all channels.
SCOPE OF WORK:
BTA seeks to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of its social media efforts through the selection of a social media agency of record.
Scope includes:
- Create and build trust through facilitating conversations and sharing between users and community.
- Build scale for a tiny but mighty island country.
- Develop a content strategy that brings value to consumer using linkage and research.
- Make community members the heroes.
- Relay the destination message in creative ways.
- Differentiate BTA among other DMOS and brands with our distinct character and storytellers.
- Coach others how to utilize our brand voice and have our followers/ambassadors evoke emotion and personality through their own posts and photos.
A more tactical outline of the Agency’s scope includes:
- Day-to-day Consumer Social Media Activities and Ongoing Strategic Counsel
- Day-to-day consumer social media activities, ongoing strategic counsel and recommendations across all social media executions – including but not limited to consumer campaigns, partner projects, and crisis and issues management
- Drafting all social copy with Bermuda’s distinct, genuine brand voice
- Securing explicit permission for UGC assets from social users, followers and partners, as needed
- Weekly input into editorial calendar by recommended channel cadence for optimal performance
- All monthly, quarterly and annual reporting for organic, non-paid and paid social activity including competitive set analysis.
- Recommendations and process management for continued day-to-day paid social advertising (post boosting) and monthly growth campaigns (pending approval of paid social advertising budgets.)
- Develop official @Bermuda Tweetdeck (SocialBakers) for BTA monitoring, engagement and retweets, including key influencers, media, partners/stakeholders
- Develop and update quarterly Twitter Chat calendar featuring key dates, participants, hashtags and topics. BTA will execute on an ad hoc basis, quarterly
- Continued oversight and coordination of social infrastructure or vendor/resource needs (e.g., demos and recommendations of social CRM tools, analytics tools, etc.), as needed
- Frequent and regular communication with in-house team and other partner agencies (advertising, public relations and global representation firms)
- Social Photography/Video Content Management
- Support the ideation, development, and launch of a program to facilitate a photo community/hub utilizing on-island photographers and their images with the appropriate fee structure and photo credits.
- Provide ongoing support, including monthly shot lists, curated collections, and other photography requests
- Recommend strategies on curating and executing video content over You Tube and other channels.
- Additional Services May Include:
- Formal social influencer programs, including travel and itinerary planning, coordination, content execution and reporting
- Provide as-needed content development support for the following social assets:
- Motion graphics (e.g., GIFs, Flipagrams, etc.)
- Light photo editing and adjustments, including monthly/bimonthly updated channel banners and avatars, if necessary
- On-the-ground social media support for events and other on-island/offline activities
- On-line editorial content copywriting
Proposal due by December 16th to:
Bermuda Tourism Authority C/O Victoria Isley
675 Third Avenue, 20th Floor New York, NY 10017
ATTN: RFP – Social Media Agency of Record Email: visley@bermudatourism.com
Previous PR firms who have worked for Bermuda include MMGY Global & Turner PR. Leading travel PR firms include Quinn PR, Zimmerman Agency and Lou Hammond Group.