ADVERTISING company DDB Philippines has been shortlisted as consultant for the crafting of advertising materials targeting opportunity and emerging
markets of the Department of Tourism (DOT).
The disclosure was made available on the Philgeps web site, which publishes bidding opportunities by government agencies. The contract for content production for opportunity and emerging markets is P100 million. Duration of the contract is on October to December 2019.
In an e-mail to BusinessMirror’s queries regarding the government agency’s advertising campaign, DOT Spokesman and Undersecretary for Tourism Development Planning Benito C. Bengzon Jr. said there will be “at least five TVCs [television commercials] that will be produced this year for the fourth quarter onwards, and they will be airing in traditional and digital platforms. They are targeted to our emerging market regions. The products to be featured will depend on the travel needs of the target audience.”
Emerging or opportunity markets are those from which the Philippines receives tourist arrivals of 100,000 or less. As per the terms of reference (TOR) for this project, the DOT aims to “achieve at least 14-percent growth rate for these regions in [fiscal year] 2019 versus the previous year.”
The targeted markets are: the Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Israel, Turkey); Western Europe (Austria, Norway, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland); Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam); the Middle East (Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia); as well as Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekateringburg, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Kazakhstan, Ukraine).
The production of content for each opportunity market is budgeted at P20 million each. As per the Philgeps web site, the opening of technical bids for this project is on July 31, 2019.
Separately, the DOT is bidding out a P500-million contract for a media placement agency for the ads above. Contract duration is from September to December 2019, with additional media values until February 2020), according to the project’s TOR. Bids will also be opened on July 31, 2019.
This developed as the DOT has finally started rolling out its new TVC to international markets, beginning with a placement on the news network, CNN.
Titled, “The Call,” the TVC “is the culminating omnibus AVP (audiovisual presentation) resulting from the crowd-sourced-inspired refreshed campaign of ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ launched last February 2019,” said Bengzon.
Asked to explain the concept behind “The Call,” he said: “The campaign mainly focuses on positioning the Philippines as one of the pioneering countries for sustainable tourism while maintaining the famous tagline.”
The ad begins with the sound of a phone ringing in the background, then video shots of beaches, lush green mountains and placid river waters in the Philippines are shown onscreen. The call is answered by a female saying, “Hey you! Sorry you can’t make it to the Philippines,” who proceeds to enumerate what she and her group have been doing.
As she continues to speak, more video of different scenes in the Philippines are shown, including foreigners’ street dancing, lazing in a bamboo hammock on the beach, etc. It ends with an invitation to viewers to “Be Part of the Fun,” the words appearing on the screen. The TVC may be viewed on the DOT Facebook page.
The TVC was crafted by advertising agency BBDO Guerrero, which edged out four other advertising companies to land the P250-million contract to create the refreshed Philippines brand campaign for the DOT. The same agency also undertook the first campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign launched in 2012 under former Tourism Secretary Ramon J. Jimenez.
Touch XDA, a unit of advertising firm DDB Philippines, was earlier awarded a P250-million contract for media placement. (See, “DOT to premier ‘refreshed’ ad campaign in March,” in the BusinessMirror, January 25, 2019.)
DOT officials didn’t want to say in which CNN edition the ad was airing, the frequency of the airing, nor the duration of the government agency’s contract with the international news network—basic information released by previous DOT administrations, as payment for the ads and their placement are funded by taxpayers through the annual General Appropriations Act.
Those who have seen “The Call” locally say it has been airing the past month every morning in Manila during the programs Anderson Cooper 360 or Cuomo Prime Time.
Bengzon said the TVC is also currently being aired “in various networks and platforms targeting our top source markets such as National Geographic and CNBC…to name a few. It will continue to air until fourth quarter [this year] when new materials will be developed.” While the TVC has yet to be shown in any of foreign travel and trade fairs aboard, he assured “the material will be used in promotional tours and events the DOT and TPB [Tourism Promotions Board] will be participating in thereon.” TPB is the marketing arm of the DOT.
Separately, the TPB is expected to procure the services of a media planning agency to place the current TVC in key tourism markets media for the rest of the year. TPB handles the promotions in top source markets for tourists, such as South Korea, China, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and India.