The STB pitch: What's on the cards?

Singapore - Four years after it appointed its current roster of agencies, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is again looking for a roster of core agencies to build its brand, and not just executing creative work.While no official call has been announced, the government body is currently in a major agency review to decide its line up of partners for next year, when the contract expires in March 2013.In an interview with Marketing, Sophia Ng, assistant chief executive of marketing at Singapore Tourism Board, said what will be different this year is that agencies will come together to form a roster of core agencies for the STB and will have to display their track record and experience in the pitch.Incumbent agencies include Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) for creative while Mediaedge:cia (MEC) and XM Asia hold media and digital duties respectively."We will appoint [agencies] separately, but we will not work with them separately," Ng said."This is a fundamental shift from our previous pitch. They are now as part of the pitch required to display their track record and experience." She added that STB is going for a brand building approach ahead."We are looking for partners which will help us to build our brand and not just do creative work and win awards; someone who is able to appreciate our business and give us good feasible, viable solutions."She added it was a misinterpretation by the industry that all government agencies have to change agencies every two years and that from experience, STB's agency relationships had been longer than two years."We definitely aim to go for long term relationships," she said. She also denied that it was an imperative for the selected agencies to be network agencies.