Destination British Columbia Issues RFP For Brand Strategy and Creative Services

To support our strategy, we have undergone a re-organization of the marketing team structure to create a Global Content team, which includes content, brand, design, video and social media experts. We have brought some creative skills in-house (creative and content strategy, ideation, development and production). However, we still have a need for the support of a roster of brand and creative experts at key points in the annual planning process, either to guide, inspire and supplement the skillsets of our in-house experts, or to be available for full-service support from creative ideation to ad production.

Specifically, we are looking for support in three Service Areas:

• Brand Strategy: strategic and creative brand consultation and project management to support the ongoing evolution and stewardship of the SNBC brand.
• Creative Services (full service): full-service creative agency support, including creative ideation and planning, and creative production (for digital and traditional media); most work is done at the agency office.
• Creative Services (consultant service): a more agile, non-traditional approach to creative services support, where a single consultant or a small agency team works in conjunction/alongside DBC’s in-house team; most work is done in DBC’s office.

Background:

Destination BC launched a new corporate strategy and a new consumer brand in 2014. Building a strong and inspiring destination brand is essential to our success. It helps us reach our full potential as a tourism destination, achieves growth in visitor revenue and volume, and achieves our goal of becoming the most highly recommended destination in North America.

In 2017, we launched an updated marketing strategy. Our global marketing team’s efforts are centred on the following key aspiration:

Showcasing nature’s transformative power, we will motivate travellers to visit and explore British Columbia now and to become our destination advocates.

The marketing strategy identified that the path to purchase for travel has become less linear and more frenetic with travellers consuming content from multiple sources, on multiple devices, at multiple times of the day. To reach these travellers, we are creating marketing activities and programs that apply an always-on, consumer-centric, data-driven approach; we aim to provide the right consumers with the right content at the right time.

Our programs and activities will be structured around four strategic pillars to drive visitation and revenue through all of our channels:

• Captivate: Create emotional urgency to visit BC
• Advocate: Amplify traveller advocacy to share their BC experiences
• Generate: Generate leads for BC tourism businesses and travel trade
• Cultivate: Elevate and amplify BC’s powerful tourism marketing network

To support our strategy, we have undergone a re-organization of the marketing team structure to create a Global Content team, which includes content, brand, design, video and social media experts. We have brought some creative skills in-house (creative and content strategy, ideation, development and production). However, we still have a need for the support of a roster of brand and creative experts at key points in the annual planning process, either to guide, inspire and supplement the skillsets of our in-house experts, or to be available for full-service support from creative ideation to ad production.

Scope of Work:

Qualified Suppliers will be expected to have proven experience and capabilities to provide the following services to the extent that all or some of these are required to meet the objectives of Destination British Columbia as described in the Corporate Strategy. All Respondents will be required to work collaboratively with other Destination BC agencies and partners.

1. BRAND STRATEGY:

Support on strategy and stewardship for the Super, Natural BC brand, from alignment to engagement to expression.

• Strategic Consultation: Provide ongoing strategic consultation to Destination BC, its stakeholders, and its other agency partners on the Super, Natural British Columbia brand, including its creative expression;
• Ensuring Brand Resonance: Work with Destination BC’s Research Team to understand brand resonance and consumer insights related to the brand, and in so doing, lead the evolution of the brand to ensure it remains current and relevant to consumers; work with Destination BC’s Brand team to initiate and execute brand-building projects;
• Focus on Results: Collaborate with Destination BC and its partners to achieve Destination BC’s brand awareness objectives as outlined in its Corporate and Global Marketing strategies;
• Lead Best Practices: Provide ongoing advice on branding best practices; and
• Provide Ongoing Analysis: Provide analyses, insights and recommendations on campaigns, evolving marketing, consumer and tourism trends, as well as competitive analyses.

1. CREATIVE SERVICES (FULL SERVICE):

Full-service creative agency support, from ideation to concepting/”big idea” to content and advertising production. Most work done at the agency office.

• Lead creative concept development (themes, big ideas, unification of concepts), that reinforces the Super, Natural British Columbia brand across all distribution channels, in collaboration with Destination BC and other agencies or contractors;
• Lead production of content and/or advertising that brings creative concept to life; and
• Support in the stewardship, development and implementation of the Super, Natural British Columbia brand in all markets and channels.

1. CREATIVE SERVICES (CONSULTANT SERVICE):

Agile, “plug-and-play” support for Destination BC’s in-house team, from leading/facilitating creative ideation to creative briefing to video storyboarding to creative direction on outputs. Most work done at DBC’s office.

• Support and facilitate DBC’s in-house team in creative strategy development (translating business objectives and audience insights into clear, actionable creative direction);
• Support and facilitate DBC’s in-house team in creative concepting and ideation (development of concepts or positioning, and related content ideas, based on the creative strategy);
• Support DBC’s in-house team with ongoing creative direction (creative oversight and alignment across all outputs to ensure creative consistency, 10 working closely with our Brand team and our in-house studio team to execute);
• Support DBC’s in-house team in production planning (ideating, planning, and storyboarding for video projects) and production (eg. on-location creative direction at shoots); and
• Support in the stewardship, development and implementation of the Super, Natural British Columbia brand in all markets and channels.

Due Date:

May 14th

Address:

Leah.Poulton@DestinationBC.ca

Strong travel PR firms include Coyne PR and 5WPR.