Mojo Melbourne on alert as Tourism Victoria calls pitch to appoint lead agency and boutique agency
Tourism Victoria, which has been with Mojo Melbourne for 18 years, is seeking tenders from marketing agencies to assist in promoting Victoria as a leading tourism destination. CB flagged the impending pitch last month.
A forthcoming tender process will see Tourism Victoria appoint a lead marketing agency and an additional boutique marketing agency for the next four years.
The business could be of interest to new shop CumminsRoss, as the pair were responsible for helping to create the ‘You’ll love every piece of Victoria’ campaign when the pair were at Mojo in the early 90s.
The successful lead agency will develop Tourism Victoria’s marketing strategy and major marketing campaigns for Melbourne and Victoria’s key regions, destinations and sectors.
Key responsibilities will include brand strategy for national and regional campaigns, advertising and campaign production, media and channel planning, digital and social media activity and consumer research.
As primary brand custodians of Tourism Victoria’s award winning You’ll love every piece of Victoria Jigsaw campaign, the appointed lead agency will provide strategic insight on evolving and refining the creative direction of the longest running destination campaign in the world.
To assist with day-to-day marketing requirements Tourism Victoria will also appoint a boutique marketing agency which will be responsible for fast turn-around creative production.
The boutique agency will work with trade partners to deliver regional, product-led, Melbourne seasonal and event campaigns with a focus on tactical and retail campaigns, direct marketing, digital activity and production services.
Successful agencies will be engaged from approximately 1 October 2011 until 2015 with Tourism Victoria having the option to extend for an additional four years.
The tender document will be accessible on the Victorian Government tenders website: tenders.vic.gov.au from tomorrow: Wednesday 2 March 2011.
The successful agencies will be announced in October.
As the Victorian Government’s lead tourism authority, Tourism Victoria undertakes domestic and international marketing activities in collaboration with Tourism Australia and trade partners.
16 Comments
Cummins Ross.
Fiver on it.
Generous odds 12:35, but to give it the appearance of probity, a ‘pitch’ will occur.
This one will be as big a surprise as CGU!!!!!!!
Cummins Ross will be lead agency.
Naked will be the ’boutique’ agency. (ie Matt Houltham) and don’t be suprised if Joel Thompson (ex creative digital director of Mojo) pops up somewhere working with Naked and Matt.
The tender has obviously been written to accommodate this outcome – hence the need to define need for a ‘lead’ agency AND a boutique ‘marketing agency’.
All power to Matt and Joel – good guys who deserve it!
One problem. CumminRoss can’t do the amazing work that Tourism have created over recent years. 18 years ago they were making rubbish work for them.
Keep an eye on GPY&R.
Coulson also has a long history of good work for Tourism Vic.
Actually his and Spiller’s work were much better than the early stuff.
Come on guys you all know how it works. You get in there and slag the opposition. Tell them their production quality is shit and then proceed to fuck it up right royally and move on. That’s how it’s done
Let’s be honest.
If Vic Tourism want the same quality of work as they consistently got for a number of years through the glory days of Mojo Melbourne, there’s only a handful of agencies that would genuinely be in the running.
Personally in the Melbourne market, I’d trust GPY&R and BBDO to deliver on that. There’s no way I’d trust Cummin’s new shop. No way. In fact, outside of those two agencies, I don’t think I’d trust anyone else unless they were given a good enough retainer to specifically staff for this account by cherry-picking the right sort of people.
What the fuck do they want a ’boutique’ for? Pick the right agency and allow them to resource your business appropriately.
How nicely do you reckon Sean would play with the Naked crew? From Day One, he’d be figuring out how to get Naked out of the equation. Remember… CR&P’s stated business plan is to provide a genuinely full-service offering that is unique to Australia. Being seen to need the assistance of a shop like Naked (which is now trying to be executional because that’s where the money is) sits very uncomfortably with that stated ambition.
Whichever way it goes, I reckon Mojo are gone and the feathers are going to be flying in Melbourne. But if Mojo do lose the business, I think we should all recognise that they did an incredible job over a long period of time on the best travel/tourism campaign I’ve ever seen.
When they started working on this account, Victoria was seen as ‘impossible’ to market, because it had/has no singular identity.. no postcard image… no easy sell. They nailed it, strategically and creatively. And did it for a lot of years.
So who is doing the work for the client at Mojo Melbourne!??!? the secretary… the place is a dead zone, as will Sydney be soon.
Hey guys. Go easy.
It’s a little unfair to suggest that the creators of this campaign – Sean Cox, Jason Ross and Sean Cummins did work that was anything less than launching a new, fresh strategy in a new fresh way for a brand that had no real tourism credentials. The early work was the bedrock for all the wonderful stuff that has happened. It was 18 years ago. Most of you weren’t even in the business. I started a few years afterwards but knew these guys. I did work experience with them at Mojo and the place also had people like Ant keogh , Ben and Liz, Greg Willmot, Lachie Macpherson. All under Sean’s CD -ship. So they were all responsible for the early work
And the early work was simply overlooked for a lot of awards because like most things it didn’t fit into the style of the times. It was fresh. it was ahead of its time.
So know your facts, know your history and for god’s sake… be nice.
Whoever wins it will do great work. because it is a great campaign.
Hi Sean!
At their previous agencies, Jason and Sean had the last three or four tenders to win this business. And didn’t.
Why would it be any more likely now?
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I dont believe Sean ever pitched for this business before. He was happy with Tourism Queensland I suspect.
I feel an ‘event’ at Mojo Towers coming on with important people jetting in from everywhere and multiple speeches using the phrase ‘Mojo family’ a lot.
11.36AM… Sorry Sean, but it’s a bit of a stretch to claim that your 1980s jigsaw pun is the bedrock for Mojo’s beautiful ‘you’ll never want to leave’ work. There is no DNA except for the client’s mandatory logo slapped on the endframe.