Daringly different, yet unmistakably bold in every way – we want to rid the world of boring marketing one creation at a time which is why we only do marketing that actually works…
/ DO YOU EVEN DIGITAL?
As passionate marketing enthusiasts we understand the complex and multifaceted digital challenges facing businesses in 2022 – particularly in light of the global pandemic which has rendered digital success even more important than ever before.
The truth is, quality content can be really difficult to create without the right in-house expertise and the ever-changing complexity of digital algorithms makes self-managed targeted advertising an extremely time-consuming process for even the most experienced user.
These challenges can often present as outright barriers to entry, with many businesses finding themselves completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of time, data and technical expertise required to effectively scale their brand and gain traction in the digital world.
But the growing global reliance on developing a strong digital footprint isn’t going away any time soon, which means that businesses lacking access to quality digital specialisation will invariably develop inefficiencies and get left behind the competition.
So how can Tourism Fiji best position itself to achieve its goal of embarking on a period of sustained multi-year growth and exposure in the face of an ever-evolving digital landscape without sacrificing crucial business resources such as time and money?
/ THE-LOWDOWN EFFECT
Well, that’s where we come in… The-Lowdown is a full service marketing agency and digital publication focused on delivering a bespoke suite of services tailored towards meeting the varied specialised needs of cross-industry brands globally.
Our growing reputation has already seen us achieve consistently excellent results for the likes of Michelin, Adidas, Nestle, Bentley, Lipton and
The-Lowdown’s global community has seen year on year growth for over a decade now, with 1.5 million enthusiasts worldwide following our every footstep, however the real testament to our marketing prowess resides in our enormous owned audience data pool of more than 50 million users.
We like to see ourselves as somewhat of an iceberg – that is, that whilst our content is our most well-known asset, the very fabric that underpins what we do as an Agency and as a Brand is in the mass of data and advertising expertise beneath the observable surface.
Our ethos and focus isn’t simply a quantifiable one though. We make a habit of investing quite heavily in the people and the brands that we work with and this very emphasis on relationships has allowed us to form some truly wonderful partnerships since our inception.
CONTENT SO VISCERAL //
IT’LL MAKE YOU FEEL SOMETHING
TOURISM FIJI
/ EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
The-Lowdown Agency welcomes the opportunity to express its interest in a partnership with Tourism Fiji as it seeks to add Agency Partners for 2022 and beyond in an effort to reignite a post-pandemic travel market.
After taking the time to analyse Tourism Fiji’s brief, we’ve collated a list of some key take-aways from what was a comprehensive directive:
- The ‘Open For Happiness’ campaign launched on Dec 3 to celebrate the Dec 1 re-opening of borders for fully vaccinated individuals.
- Tourism Fiji’s primary role is to market and promote Fiji as a unique and incredible tourist destination for the purpose of maximising sustainable and long-term benefits to Fiji.
- The objective of the Agency Partner will be ‘to help elevate Fiji’s global brand profile across the globe’ with Tourism Fiji seeking a data-driven approach and a focus on maximising spend and efficient budget use.
- Primary markets are Australia, New Zealand & North America with secondary markets in China & UK/Europe and emerging markets in Japan, Singapore & India.
- There is scope for Fiji Airways to co-utilise the selected Agency Partner, however this will be at their independent discretion.
- Tourism Fiji have identified Creative Services & Global Media/Digital Services as the key areas for Agency Partner support with identified annual budgets of $3-5m & $10-12m respectively.
TOURISM FIJI
/ PARTNER EXPECTATIONS
Tourism Fiji have identified the below key expectations for its 2022 Agency Partner search, highlighting that whilst supplementary agencies will likely be used, its search for a primary agency partner will be based on the following:
- Track record of excellence in the relevant field/s
- A creative and innovative approach
- Partnership approach with an ability to support capability building with Tourism Fiji team members
- Strategic handle on Tourism Fiji’s operation, consumer drivers and how to position Fiji to have its own voice in the competitive travel landscape.
- Ability to deliver in key markets: AUS, NZ, NAM, Asia, UK/Europe
- Value for money and efficiency of spend
- Ability to work with Regional Directors in market, through local agency representation, to take global buys and ensure they work effectively in the local target destination markets we operate in.
- Ability, particularly with digital marketing, of maximising spend globally for maximum effect to achieve stated Strategic Priorities and measures.
Having analysed the above expectations of Tourism Fiji in detail, The-Lowdown Agency feels confident in its ability to not only meet each of these expectations, but exceed them.
Our objective within this Expression Of Interest Proposal is to communicate this to Tourism Fiji in the best possible way.
TOURISM FIJI
/ AGENCY CATEGORIES
Tourism Fiji have provided the below breakdown of requirements in regards to the specific types of Agency Partners that it is seeking. As a full-service marketing agency, The-Lowdown would like to express its interest in supporting Tourism Fiji with all of its identified requirements.
Creative Agency Partners
Strategic Brand Creative & Advertising Agency – Leads on brand development and strategy, creative strategy and hero campaigns.
Supplementary Creative Agency – Agencies who are available on a project basis to support year-round campaigns and content development.
Global Media & Digital Partners
Global Media Agency – Leads on global media strategy, global digital buy, supports partnership building with digital media providers and provides real-time reporting of performance.
Global Digital Agency – Supports the development of innovative, personalised and data driven digital initiatives, maximises integrated marketing across digital and social channels, tests new digital marketing initiatives, strengthens digital capability across the team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rSt7NXkkbg
‘BACK ON THE ROAD’ CAMPAIGN
In 2021, The-Lowdown Agency was commissioned to ideate and produce a TVC campaign to generate post-lockdown awareness for Michelin to engage its audience, thus, ‘Back On the Road’ was born, generating more than a million views across Michelin’s respective digital channels.
TOURISM FIJI
/ CHOO-CHOO-CHOOSE US
Having championed similar post-lockdown campaigns for other businesses, The-Lowdown would love to play a role in supporting an established client like Tourism Fiji in unlocking the world again – I mean, let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to play a role in kickstarting the travel ecosystem again!
As an Australian agency, The-Lowdown has a strong understanding of one of Tourism Fiji’s primary target demographics, with extensive experience in New Zealand, North American, UK/European & Japanese markets adding to a strong personal in-house understanding of Fijian & Indian culture.
The-Lowdown’s deep understanding of travel and adventure culture through clients such as BFGoodrich is also supplemented by campaigns such as our ‘Back On The Road’ TVC campaign for Michelin which was developed in contextually similar fashion for a post-lockdown industry kickstart.
We have a prestigious reputation for delivering the highest quality of content for the likes of Bentley & Lipton with a proven track record of efficiently utilising global ad spend to scale businesses like We Are Likewise and strategise ad campaigns for the likes of Michelin & BFGoodrich.
Our entire business model is underpinned by a strong data-driven approach (something that Tourism Fiji have identified as a key requirement) and this understanding of data is exactly what allows us to build robust advertising strategies, evidenced by our own 50 million+ acquired data pool.
TOURISM FIJI
/ A DIFFERENT BFG STORY
In 2020, The-Lowdown Agency was appointed the lead agency for BFGoodrich, Michelin and TYREPLUS in Australia/New Zealand and were tasked with developing a strategy that would effectively penetrate the marketplace in a meaningful way. Our specially developed content and communication plan was key in driving growth – not only across marketing metrics, but in overall brand equity and our focus on adapting content and communications to suit local demographics was at the core of our success.
The-Lowdown supports BFGoodrich with Social Media, Content Creation, Data Insights & Advertising, and these key services continue to be expanded upon with ad hoc campaigns and additional activations due to the success we’ve been able to achieve. We’re proudest that after one year of working with BFGoodrich Australia, our work was recognised as best practice by Global headquarters with Australia the only region granted permission to activate new marketing channels including Instagram. In 2021, we successfully developed a strategy and took to market the Australian BFGoodrich Instagram page – a great achievement for both BFGoodrich and The-Lowdown Agency!
What Tourism Fiji could learn from this work is to avoid blanket approaches when applying an omni-channel approach to its marketing activities. Having a clear and concise understanding of who your target market is and adapting your strategy to suit each persona, region and platform with a tailored strategy will always work best. And s always, meaningful and personable content that resonates remains king.
TOURISM FIJI
/ THE T-LD EXPERIENCE
Whilst The-Lowdown Agency does not have direct experience within the tourism sector, we have a strong background in weaving key Australian touristic elements into the fabric of various campaign briefs. This includes but is not limited to:
- A nationwide campaign promoting adventure for Michelin’s ‘Back On The Road Campaign’, where Australian seascapes and destinations were actively and purposefully showcased.
- Iconic locations of Sydney, Australia were captured to align with a convertible vehicle’s demographics during The-Lowdown’s Content Creation for Bentley Motors.
- A nuanced understanding of BFGoodrich’s target demographic which is heavily infused with adventure, travel and tourism with our content curation focusing on the lifestyle of its audience.
- Additional exposure to the 4×4, off-road, caravan and camper-trailer via past clientele, which involved a similar level of exposure to the lifestyle of ‘getting off the beaten track’.
There are currently no conflicts of interests to note and whilst The-Lowdown do not have experience with Tourism Fiji’s preferred Content Management System (Kentico), this does not present as an intimidating factor for us as we regularly discover, learn and integrate new systems as required.
TOURISM FIJI
/ OUR STRATEGY
Our approach to localising global strategies and plans would be to adapt the global strategy by crafting a tiered target market response. This would be carried out by conducting market research and building out different persona types including the region of the persona.
From there, a localised content and communication plan would be produced to effectively elevate Fiji’s brand profile within each relevant region. Supporting localised insights can be identified by utilising our third party market research, reports and statistics tools – such as IBIS World.
As a hallmark example of a campaign we were able to activate across multiple markets, Bentley Motors wanted to create engaging visual stimulus to target their identified demographic and link this to the upper echelon of luxury and premium automotive.
We were responsible for delivering content that would resonate with Bentley’s brand position, where the target market could visualise the lifestyle that Bentley Motors enables. We delivered this by creating an impactful campaign that demonstrated the key USP’s of the Bentley vehicle being promoted, in-situ to strike an emotional appeal and attachment to the brand.
The result? A stunning piece of content that was picked up and seeded by Bentley’s global channels not just once, but twice! Check out the content below, along with the feedback we received from Bentley Global Headquarters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVFT6hMGmWE
CONTINENTAL GT CONVERTIBLE
The-Lowdown Agency’s production of the Bentley Continental GT Convertible which was subsequently picked up by Bentley’s global channels and distributed across its digital platforms not just once, but twice!
TOURISM FIJI
/ INSIDE THE-LOWDOWN
Culture is everything. There is nothing we believe more than that statement.
The-Lowdown has prided itself on providing opportunities to young and hungry individuals who don’t just want a job, but want to be part of something bigger. The very bones of the business are built on culture and community – it’s how we began as a digital publication over a decade ago.
We’re a colourful, youthful and adventurous bunch but above all else, we value old fashioned values such as respect, loyalty and transparency. This is what allows us to be the tight-knit community that we are and it’s infectious because it’s the same culture that’s spilled into all our client relations!
Having fun isn’t enough on it’s own though, to succeed in marketing you need to remain progressive, cutting-edge and technologically inclined, which is why we don’t just look for the best external talent to join The-Lowdown, we always look to upskill from the inside first.
Our ethos for progression is merit-focused and output-driven, and we have been able to witness individual after individual grow beyond their initial role and capacity into a powerhouse of specialised expertise. We’ve found that with the right attitude, it’s pretty damn hard to fail.
Put simply, we love our multi-cultural collaborative agency and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
TOURISM FIJI
/ OUR LOVE LANGUAGE
The-Lowdown has a proactive and collaborative approach with clients and we tend to place a strong emphasis on thoroughly understanding our clients needs and objectives in order to first ascertain exactly what it is that they’re after – then we look to make our service as integrated as possible.
We like to communicate with transparency and honesty and we see ourselves as consultants of the marketing space. Many agencies are tentative to put forth their honest opinions if they go against the grain, however we feel like our role is to be as honest as possible.
Our communications tend to be direct and confident as our recommendations are always based on research, analytics and past experience. This means sometimes having thought-provoking conversations about strategies to deploy, and this is exactly what the client is paying for.
Our clients would describe our relationship as highly collaborative and flexible but more importantly, completely autonomous in the areas where autonomy is required or preferred. Agility and the capacity to pivot on short notice are also traits our clients have come to expect from us.
As an agency, we essentially see ourselves as the activators of your objectives, which means the phases of our integration are clear and linear. First we understand, then we analyse, then we activate. It’s not necessarily easy, but it really is that simple.
TOURISM FIJI
/ THAT’S A WRAP!
The-Lowdown Agency would like to thank Tourism Fiji for the opportunity to be able to express an interest in supporting the lifeblood of the Fijian economy. We’ve had a great time putting this proposal together and we hope that’s been translated in our tone.
We look forward to any future opportunities that may present themselves and wish you nothing but the best in choosing the agency that best fits the philosophy you’re looking for in a partner.
Vinaka vaka levu!
Moce 🙂
WE’RE THE EXPERTS IN MARKETING //
SO THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE
