The South African Tourist Board (Satour) is putting its global
creative account, worth pounds 35 million, out to pitch and is talking
to a number of undisclosed agency networks about the task.
The review is in its early stages, with agencies meeting for their first
briefing this week. It is not yet known if the review will extend to
media. The UK incumbent on media is MindShare.
The pitch will be led out of South Africa. It is understood that the
first stage of the process will involve a brief on how to attract
visitors from the UK and China to the country. The organisation is
hoping to attract 1.5 million tourists annually to South Africa.
Satour announced the appointment of Willem Eksteen as the managing
director for UK, Ireland and Nordic countries two weeks ago.
At the end of last year Satour unveiled a new logo and brand identity
aimed predominantly at the UK market.
At the same time it also embarked on a multimillion-pound campaign aimed
at wooing tourists from the USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy and the
Netherlands.
The aim of the campaign was to increase the number of visitors from
887,000 in 1998 to a projected target of 1.4 million by 2002.
The majority of the budget was spent on a campaign created by Skotaville
Communications, an agency within the Ogilvy & Mather Rightford
group.
In the UK, the print campaign was focused on London.
Satour also teamed up with Taxi Media last November to decorate 40
liveried London taxis with the South African flag. South African
Airlines also flew the cab drivers involved in the scheme over to South
Africa so they could speak with enthusiasm about the country to their
captive audience.
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