Tuesday 11 December 2018
Tourism Australia has confirmed the appointment of Digitas, a subsidiary of the Publicis Groupe, to oversee its global digital and technology services requirements, commencing work in January 2019. Incumbent ASAP+ has also been retained for all digital services in China.
The news follows confirmation earlier this week that M&C Saatchi is to manage Tourism Australia’s global creative services account.
The digital creative, CX and technology scope of work includes assisting Tourism Australia to refine its higher value target traveller and strategically aligning its digital platforms and user experience to better attract, inform and convert these customers to travel to Australia. Digitas and ASAP+ will also support Tourism Australia’s agency roster for major campaign development.
Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan said both agencies had demonstrated strategic vision alongside a strong track record of delivery.
“Digital is the real battleground in today’s world of destination marketing and we attach huge importance to our digital assets and the huge global footprint they give us.
“Both Digitas and ASAP+ demonstrated a real understanding of our target customer, both globally and in China, and identified where we can engage most meaningfully with them on their digital journey. They showed us a compelling vision and a clear pathway to execute it,” he said.
Tourism Australia Chief Marketing Officer, Lisa Ronson said the new digital appointments effectively completed its agency roster across media (UM), creative (M&C Saatchi) and digital (Digitas and ASAP+) and, alongside Tourism Australia, provided a world class destination marketing team.
“Competition for the share of the global travel wallet is intense and as a destination marketing agency we are increasingly looking for cut through and high impact ideas.
“Digitas and ASAP+ certainly tick those boxes as our new global digital partners. We see them playing a key role working alongside M&C Saatchi and our media services agency UM in helping to integrate our brand narrative across all digital touchpoints,” she said.
Digitas Australia CEO Adrian Farouk said: “As potentially one of the most competitive digital pitches of the year, we are humbled and excited to work with one of the country’s most trusted and revered brands.
“We love working with ambitious clients and can’t wait to drive more meaningful connections for Tourism Australia through the smart application of digital; creating data-fuelled stories and tech-enabled experiences to reach audiences in powerful new ways,” he said.
CEO of ASAP+ Dave Rumsey said it was an honour to continue as one of Tourism Australia’s two digital partners.
“The competition for digital attention in global travel has never been greater, especially in Australia’s biggest inbound market, China. We look forward to bringing our ideas and digital expertise to a table that not only contains world leading agencies but also a courageous and innovative world leading client in Tourism Australia,” he said.
The new digital arrangements initially run for three years, with an option to extend the contracts for two further 12-month periods.
For more information please contact:
Leo Seaton, Tourism Australia
02 9361 1863, 0447 463 197
lseaton@tourism.australia.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TourismAus
