Do you have a Lion-shaped gap in your agency’s trophy cabinet? Does French indifference to your previous campaigns gnaw away at you in the wee hours of the morning? Well, fret no further agency heads, the Vanuatu Tourism Office is looking for a creative agency.
Vanuatu, located some 2,200 km east of Cairns, is looking for an agency that specialises in digital and social media and can deliver “a range of creative assets and innovative campaigns” to raise awareness of Vanuatu and drive intention to visit the destination across a 13-month project, starting in November.
With new flights launching to Vanuatu from Qantas, Jetstar, and Solomons Airlines in 2024 from the east coast of Australia, the Tourism Office said there is a “significant opportunity” to grow tourism arrivals.
The successful agency will work within Vanuatu’s established brand platform, “Answer the Call of Vanuatu,” and will collaborate closely with GTI, Vanuatu Tourism Office’s Australian representatives on a wide variety of creative PR and marketing campaigns.
The agency will be tasked with the creation of two fully integrated innovative campaigns, be responsible for VTO Australia’s always-on social media strategy and be required to produce a range of creative assets, including digital advertisements, paid social creative, outdoor and printed materials throughout the engagement within a $250,000 + GST retainer (plus $150,000 expenses, inclusive of GST).
Small Pacific Islands have proved to be a happy hunting ground for Aussie creative agencies looking to scoop silverware in the south of France. In 2018, the Palau Pledge saw Host/Havas take home three Cannes Lions Grand Prix — including the Dan Wieden Titanium Trophy.
The Palau Pledge is a world-first eco-tourism conservation pledge which gets stamped into the passports of tourists visiting the Micronesian nation of Palau — some 2,200 km north of Darwin. Some of the requests in the pledge included, “Don’t collect shells”, “Support local businesses and communities”, “Don’t feed the fish and sharks” and “Don’t scrape fins over coral reefs”.
Then in 2023, The Monkeys, which is set to be subsumed into Droga5 in a matter of weeks, again took home the Dan Wieden Titanium Lion for the “First Digital Nation” campaign it created for the island of Tuvalu — some 3,600 km northeast of Townsville.
“The Titanium Lion is the one you want to win as it’s all about where the industry is going not where it has been. And this particular project is a great showcase for the power of Accenture Song & The Monkeys,” Mark Green, outgoing CEO of The Monkeys told B&T at the time.
Agencies are encouraged to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI), which should include but is not limited to:
- Background on the agency including Australian location/s and where team members are based
- List of (in-house) services
- Current client list
- Maximum 3 case studies (from 2021 – 2024 only)
- Up to 2 x case studies with a max budget (including all creative, talent and media costs) of AUD $500,000
- 1 x case study with a max budget (including all creative, talent and media) of $150,000.
- Organisational chart
- Team bios for key team members – please note which team members are in-house permanent
employees and which are contractors.
- Team bios for key team members – please note which team members are in-house permanent
- One-page written description of the most likely overall approach you’d take to grow visitor arrivals to Vanuatu on digital and social channels with this budget
- Rate card
