Visit Victoria has appointed Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne as its lead creative and strategy agency, following a competitive process.
The Saatchi & Saatchi tender demonstrated the agency’s strengths in integrated marketing, digital and data, shown through its proposition to deliver "impossible outcomes through the alchemy of creativity, intelligence and technology".
“Victoria has an abundant array of incredible events and experiences," Visit Victoria CEO Peter Bingeman says,
"For each of these, there is a unique story to tell and we look forward to partnering with Saatchi & Saatchi to tell these stories to audiences in Victoria, Australia and internationally.”
Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne managing director Mark Cochrane says the agency was "humbled and thrilled" to work with the iconic tourism brand.
“When we started Saatchi Melbourne four years ago, we had an ambition to not only be connected to the culture of the city and the state, but to hopefully be value additive to it as well," Cochrane says.
"Now 55 strong here in South Melbourne, we are excited to be given the opportunity to work with Visit Victoria, and to tell stories about the place we call home.”
With a rapidly changing domestic and global tourism market, Saatchi & Saatchi will partner with Visit Victoria to evolve its entire marketing ecosystem and approach so it can be "more inspirational, more targeted, and more progressive" in how it connects the state’s experiences and events with its current and emerging customer segments.
Peter Bingeman acknowledged outgoing creative agency Clemenger BBDO for eight years of successful partnership in boosting visitations to Victoria through campaigns such as Wander Victoria, Your Happy Space and A Twist at Every Turn.
“The partnership between Visit Victoria and Clemenger BBDO was strong and effective. I’d like to thank the team at Clemenger BBDO for helping us to ignite the imaginations of travellers to visit Melbourne and regional Victoria,” Bingeman says.
“As we move into the next chapter, Visit Victoria is very excited to partner with Saatchi & Saatchi particularly around how we use integrated marketing, digital and data to maximise our creative campaigns and initiatives.”
The move to Saatchi & Saatchi comes after recent news that Nick Garrett would be stepping down from his CEO role at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne to be replaced by Gayle While.
Another longstanding client Fonterra has also recently left Clemenger, appointing TBWA Melbourne to its creative account.
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