GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF TOURISM SEEKS SOCIAL MEDIA FIRM 

In order to build a strong audience community and to aggressively promote and market India both in the domestic and overseas markets, the Ministry of Tourism proposes to enhance its presence in all leading social media platforms. The Ministry of Tourism, at present, has its official accounts on major social media handles including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Pinterest and Periscope.

The objectives of the Ministry of Tourism under social media activities include:

• To reach out to the ever growing population of netizens worldwide to create awareness about India.
• Drive traffic to the Incredible India Portal and eventually increase tourist traffic to India.
• To create a strong audience community
• To increase visibility of India in the global tourism markets.
• To create a simple and user-friendly system for exchanging ideas and feedback.

Towards achieving the above objectives, the Ministry of Tourism proposes to commission a professional agency for Social Media Management for a period of three years, subject to yearly review and with the provision that services of the agency may be dispensed with at any time, giving three month notice, in the event of nonperformance, under performance or any other reason which would be specified.

Background

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India is the nodal agency for the formulation of national policies and programmes and for the coordination of activities of various Central Government Agencies, State Governments/UTs, and the Private Sector for the development and promotion of tourism in the country. The Ministry of Tourism through its twenty field offices in India and eight offices overseas undertakes publicity and promotion of India through an integrated marketing and promotional strategy and a synergized campaign in association with the Travel Trade, State Governments and Indian Missions. The specific elements of promotional efforts undertaken overseas include advertising in print, electronic, outdoor and online media, participation in international travel fairs and exhibitions, organizing road shows, India seminars, etc. 1.2 Promotion of India is also undertaken by the Ministry through its flagship website www.incredibleindia.org. Traffic to the website is generated through advertising campaigns and other promotional measures. A State of the Art Incredible India website compatible with all digital platforms and latest features has recently been launched.

Scope of Work

Social Media Management

                i. Creation & Maintenance of Social Media Platforms for Ministry of Tourism:

                The Agency shall create (as and when may be required) and maintain Social Media Platforms for MOT including but not limited to, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Periscope, Pinterest, Twitter, Vimeo and Youtube.

                ii. New Look: Give all Social Media Platforms a new look every week by putting up new creative features, theme lines, links etc.

                iii. Updates: Daily informative and promotional updates in the form of relevant text, pictures, audio, unique &interactive content, interviews, news, quiz, etc.

                iv. Creatives:

• Developing creative units like banners / posters and video content of up to one minute duration on events, achievements, etc. for posting on social media handles, as and when may be required.
• Developing and producing creatives and videos of up to one minute duration for campaigns on thematic subjects to be posted on the Social Media handles. These thematic campaigns may be on subjects like Monsoons, Indian Winter, Culinary Trails, Heritage Sites, Adventurous India, Wellness, etc. Such content would be produced with fresh shoots. Each Campaign on a particular theme would comprise 6 creatives and one video.

                v. Live Coverage: Providing for live coverage of events, conferences, festivals, etc., on the social  media handles of the Ministry, as and when required.

                vi. Press Releases: Publishing online press releases (of the Ministry of Tourism) on sites in and outside India.

                vii. Multimedia Releases: Issuing multimedia releases within and outside India.

                viii. Engage with users: Regularly organize online surveys, quizzes, contests on all platforms in consultation with the Ministry of Tourism.

                ix. Publicity: Publicize all festivals and cultural events as suggested by the Ministry of Tourism, using these social media platforms.

                x. Query Management: All queries received on all platforms which need not require inputs from Ministry of Tourism must be replied to within 24 hours and all queries which require a consultation with the Ministry of Tourism should be answered within two working days.

                xi. Gate Keeping: Moderation of all platforms with a frequency of 6 times a day in order to deal with spam, unauthorized advertisements, inappropriate content etc.

                xii. Media Tracking: Use a good industry standard monitoring tool for analyzing comments /remarks about India in various media like newspapers, magazines, blogs, social media platforms etc. both offline & online, national & international.

                xiii. Tagging: Create relevant tagging & linkages of content on all platforms.

                xiv. Procuring photographs and videos as may be required, for one time usage.

Amplification:

                i. Providing amplification of Digital Marketing Communication and Messaging through planning and execution of a Social Media Marketing activity across both Paid Media and Non-Paid Media avenues. Media planning & providing professional inputs and support in buying of media for Social Media Campaigns for running banners, adverts, etc. during the period of contract on themes/subjects to be decided in consultation with the Ministry of Tourism. This would entail the assistance and supervision of buying off the media slots by the Ministry of Tourism to ensure best rates and negotiations directly from the media owner.

                ii. Executing and managing the digital campaigns released by the Ministry including undertaking activities like optimization of campaign, reporting etc.

                iii. For the above Social Media campaigns the creative units (banners etc.) will be provided by    the Ministry of Tourism through its creative agency (production/resizing/adaptation etc. will be out of the scope of this tender). It is the responsibility of selected Social Media Management agency to work in close coordination with the Creative Agency of the Ministry of Tourism.

Key Influencer Program

                i) Planning and Executing “Key Influencer Programs” on Social Media platforms.

                ii) The Influencer programs will aim at engaging Top 100 influencers in the tourism industry.

                iii) The Influencer programs will focus on blogs & forums and other social channels.

                iv) The Influencer programs will need to generate content for social channels and blogs, web listings, directory submissions etc. and spread awareness about India and the Social Media campaign.

Social Media Monitoring Program

                i) Planning and executing a “Social Media Monitoring Program” on Social Media platforms.

                ii) The Social Media Monitoring Program will undertake monitoring across 150-200 keywords primarily in the primary source markets for India.

                iii) Social Media Monitoring Program will create and manage a Monitoring platform which will be both predictive and reactive in approach.

                iv) Social Media Listening / Monitoring: Social Media Listening with 100-150 key words, with a dedicated personnel for listening / monitoring and providing monthly reports to the Ministry.  The data tool will be provided by the Ministry and cost on the same will not have to be incurred   by the Agency.

                v) The key Languages to be monitored will be Hindi and English

Other related and miscellaneous work include providing monthly strategic inputs for creative campaign of the Ministry of Tourism.

Providing feedback on best practices in marketing and promotion in countries across the world on Social Media.

                Team: The agency must position a dedicated team at its office in Delhi NCR to handle the Scope of Work detailed in this RFP, during the period of contract. The identified team would work closely with the Ministry of Tourism. In the event of any change in any of the identified team members during the contract period, the same is to be conveyed to the Ministry of Tourism in advance, along with details of the new Team Member identified as a replacement and is to be approved by the Ministry of Tourism.

Due Date

May 13

Address

The Deputy Director General (Publicity),

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India,

Transport Bhawan,

1, Parliament Street,

New Delhi – 110 001

Strong Agencies worth considering include Coyne PR and Hunter PR. h