Canadian Tourism Commission Seeking Global Paid Media Agency

The Canadian Tourism Commission, doing business as Destination Canada (“DC”), is Canada’s national tourism marketing organization. DC leads the Canadian tourism industry in marketing Canada as a premier four- season tourism destination where travellers can enjoy extraordinary experiences, either for leisure or for a business event.

As tourism is one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors, it is strategically important for Canada to generate export revenues that provide new dollars to the Canadian economy. Through increasing the prominence of Canada globally via tourism marketing, that is supported by aligned market research, we help to create jobs and generate wealth for Canadians by stimulating demand for Canada’s visitor economy.

DC’s approach focuses on those global markets where Canada’s tourism brand leads and yields the highest return on investment. DC is currently active in 11 key geographic source markets including: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

They have issued an RFP for a Global Paid Media Agency.

Canada’s Tourism Brand. DC is Canada’s national tourism marketing organization. They collaborate with the Canadian private sector, international travel trade, meeting professionals, and the governments of Canada, the provinces, and the territories to position Canada as a place where travellers can create their own unique and extraordinary personal experiences. Through a targeted, focused approach to marketing, they develop and implement marketing strategies that are relevant to customers’ needs.

The legislative mandate is to promote the interests of the tourism industry and to market Canada as a desirable tourist destination.

They

• sustain a vibrant and profitable Canadian tourism industry;
• market Canada as a desirable tourist destination;
• support a cooperative relationship between the private sector and the governments of Canada, the provinces and the territories with respect to Canadian tourism; and
• provide information about Canadian tourism to the private sector and to the governments of Canada, the provinces and the territories.

Media and public relations activities develop key relationships with media to influence positive coverage of Canada. Key activities include organizing experiential travel for international media, as well as providing broadcast-quality video, images and information via our Media Centre that result in more stories about Canada.

The focus is on being present where travelers are speaking with travelers, and supporting the conversation. They showcase Canada travel photos, videos and story ideas to strengthen Canada’s position as a world-class travel destination.

They also use social channels to communicate travel offers as part of the overall goal of converting followers to paying customers.

The chosen media agency should have deep expertise in researching, strategizing, establishing, running and optimizing paid media activities within our core and emerging markets.  They are looking for true partners who welcome conversations about ideas.

The chosen agency will have a deep expertise in digital, and will understand that the appropriateness and effectiveness of different channels varies market by market. The agency should be obsessed with analytics and continually monitor and optimize program performance.

DC’s vision is to create an environment in which travelers around the world are discovering, appreciating and sharing content that speaks to their personal interests and makes them want to come to Canada now.

They seek to partner with an Agency to develop a central strategy that leads with a strong vision and allows markets to implement that aim with content, and via channels, that are authentic, culturally relevant, and effective in their specific regions.

In 2015 and 2016, DC concentrated the majority of marketing efforts (approximately 90% of our budget) on maximizing opportunities within the United States — a short-haul, highly productive market — and our core markets of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia. The remaining effort was spent cultivating our emerging markets (Brazil, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea).

In the past two years, they have run always-on marketing programs with one or two periods of heavier investment in paid media and content, depending on the market. There is also a seasonal component to our marketing efforts — positioning Canada as a year-round destination with highlighted experiential travel opportunities in the summer and winter.

In 2017, they estimate they will spend a minimum of $10 million on media buys in the United States and between $500,000 to $1.5 million on advertising in our core and emerging markets, depending on the market.

The Agency should collaborate with DC’s Marketing Department, at Headquarters in Vancouver and within each market and region, as well as our GSMA on the following type of activities.

DC’s Agency should work to produce paid media plans for DC’s core and possibly emerging markets rooted in content and influencer marketing taking into account research, trends and strategic objectives. They should collaborate to identify content partners. In addition, they should identify and vet media vendors, keep abreast of existing and emerging technologies, and assess the impact and opportunity of cultural trends.

The landscape has shifted and DC has moved away from traditional advertising to a strategy that involves working with a number of influencers and media brands to develop content with and for DC on third-party sites. The Agency should localize the global marketing communications plan through the development of regional messaging in ad/media copy, and channel and content marketing that delivers qualified customers to our partners: trade, destination marketing organizations, etc.

The chosen Agency should design and produce display advertising, and develop native ads in multiple languages.

Media Buying and Management – the chosen  Agency should curate and manage the optimal mix of media types (including paid social and paid search), advertising formats and placements for DC’s always-on, seasonal and opportunistic activities, and collaboratively work with Marketing Team to finalize the approach.

Proposal due by August 11, 2016 to:

Kulsoom Baig
Procurement Officer 604-638-8345
procurement@destinationcanada.com

The marketing world continues to evolve from Canada – including Shift Communications that was recently purchased by a Canadian company.