Tourism Australia appoints M

10 December 2018

Tourism Australia has announced the appointment of M&C Saatchi to manage its global creative services account.

The agency will provide Australia’s national tourism organisation with global brand, advertising and production services, commencing work in January 2019.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan, said the appointment followed a comprehensive and competitive selection process aimed at continuing its focus on delivering world class creativity aligned with its strategic marketing objectives.

“I think Tourism Australia has set a pretty high benchmark in recent years with its marketing work and the brief we put together for this tender was very much about building upon that. The calibre of responses we received was exceptional.

“In the end, M&C Saatchi proved to be the stand-out agency in terms of their strategic and brand thinking as well as the culture and operating model we wanted for our business,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

Tourism Australia Chief Marketing Officer, Lisa Ronson, added: “The ideas M&C Saatchi shared were extremely creative, and they demonstrated the kind of big thinking we need to effectively differentiate Australia from the competition.”

“The Tourism Australia team have bold creative ambitions and their passion is contagious. From the beginning it has felt like a great partnership, we cannot wait to get started,” Jaimes Leggett, CEO of M&C Saatchi said.

Ms Ronson thanked all the agencies who participated in the tender process, paying special tribute to current agency partners Clemenger BBDO and Droga5. 

“Over the past five years, we’ve has great support from our agency partners who have helped deliver some exceptional creative work. This includes Clemenger BBDO for stand-out campaigns such as Restaurant Australia and Aussie News Today, and more recently, Droga5 who were responsible for the Dundee campaign we launched at the Super Bowl,” Ms Ronson said.

The new arrangements with M&C Saatchi initially run for three years, with an option to extend the contract for two further periods of 12 months.

The outcome of a separate tender for Tourism Australia’s creative digital technology requirements will be announced on Tuesday 11 December.

For more information please contact:

Leo Seaton, Tourism Australia
02 9361 1863, 0447 463 197
lseaton@tourism.australia.com