Tourism down to three as M&C Saatchi pulls out
M&C Saatchi has apparently pulled out of the Tourism Western Australia pitch.
M&C Saatchi executive creative director Ben Welsh is quoted in AdNews today as saying it was decided to withdraw after meeting with Tourism WA last week.
“We just felt that it wasn’t really going to work so we pulled out. At the end of the day, you need to believe you can work well with someone,” Welsh said.
All four shortlisted agencies had interim meetings with Tourism WA last week to get feedback on the directions they were heading with their pitch submissions.
M&C’s withdrawal leaves Host, BMF and 303 still in the running.
M&C Saatchi have strong tourism experience, with perhaps one ‘hit’ and one ‘miss’ in their history. The hit was the ‘100% Pure’ campaign for New Zealand; the miss was the now infamous ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign for Tourism Australia.
A final decision is expected in July.
10 Comments
Bet my eye tooth another one pulls out.
Gutsy decision…obviously don’t need the spondulics.
Just a teeny weeny WA account?
Where the bloody hell aren’t ya?
Didn’t Soap Creative ditch them as a client last year also?
Yup Soap ditched them..
Haven’t the others realised yet that Tourism WA is the ultimate “poisoned chalice” of WA Advertising accounts?!
Looks like Marketforce are not the only ones who can use a calculator then.
According to the Tourism WA website, 2006/7 tourism in WA was worth $7.1 billion and employed 79,000. Tourism WA believe a budget of less than 0.5 percent is a reasonable budget for the campaign. Are they kidding or don’t they know better? Maybe their abacus doesn’t have enough beads on it for the calculation?
Forget West vs East coast agencies for a moment, if you’re going to get serious about tourism in WA then they need to get serious about budgets and outcomes at Tourism WA and hire the best agency they can afford.
8.39am
You really do need to keep up.
Check out the WA Budget commitment: “The Budget also provides additional funding of $5.7million in 2009-10 for tourism marketing to ensure WA remains highly competitive as a tourist destination. This initiative will help to protect jobs with the tourism industry employing nearly 80,000 people across the State.”
Hmn. Seems M&C might have got a heads up on this… wonder if any of the other eastern states agencies involved in the WA pitch are eying those QLD billings?
from B&T
TOURISM QUEENSLAND OPENS $50M AD AGENCY REVIEW
Tourism Queensland has launched a pitch process for its advertising account, with new state government funding set to boost its marketing budget to more than $50m.
The tourism body opened a tender for the retained creative business but also stipulated that it intends to launch another major global campaign to follow the much-publicised ‘Best job in the world’ promotion.
CHE, which handles most of Tourism Queensland’s brand work, will pitch for the enlarged account.
CumminsNitro Brisbane, which created the ‘Best job in the world’ campaign, is also likely to be in the running. The work, which involved a competition for someone to act as a paid caretaker of Hamilton Island, garnered widespread global media coverage.
The pitch will be one of the largest reviews in Queensland in recent years, with the state government pouring extra cash into attracting visitors to the area.
In addition to Tourism Queensland’s existing $40m marketing budget, the state government has handed it an extra $35m over the next three years, or $12m a year, to lure tourists to Queensland.
Speaking to B&T Today, Anthony Hayes, CEO of Tourism Queensland, said that he was looking for just one agency, but was keeping an “open mind” on the process.
“The future is all about being flexible and we’re open minded about whether we’ll use just one agency,” he said. “We need an agency for day-to-day brand management, but the ‘Best job in the world’ campaign is a good example of the bigger, more aggressive brand ideas we want.
“We’ve set ourselves new goals and the ‘Best job in the world’ campaign met those benchmarks. We have a number of big ideas of our own and we want an agency that’ll be part of the team.”
According to the tender, Tourism Queensland is looking to an agency with a Queensland presence that will be able to service its 14-strong network of worldwide offices. The new global campaign will be launched next year.
Well if it’s in the Budget it must be happening then?
Thanks for clarifying that Tourism WA.