RI Selects New Tourism Vendors - Will State Finally Get it Right?

RI Selects New Tourism Vendors - Will State Finally Get it Right?

The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation announced on Monday the four vendors it has chosen to undertake its new tourism and business attraction campaign, totaling $4.3 million for a 12 month period starting March 1. 

The announcement marks the latest major development for the state since the botched rollout of the state's original $5 tourism campaign in March 2016, after tapping two out of three out-of-state firms in the fall of 2015 to brand and promote Rhode Island. 

"The botched rollout had nothing to do with us. To be clear, the working media side of our budget outperformed any aspiration they had of putting Rhode Island on the map in either tourism, or especially business development over time," said Marian Salzman of Havas PR, the only firm retained from the last effort, but this time only for business attraction - for a $691,000 contract. 

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"The rollout was an awful three month period, but by the time Lara [Salamano] got here [last summer], it's been all systems go in getting the best possible media placements and amplifying and boosting them," said Salzman, of the addition of the state's new chief marketing officer, following departure of Betsy Wall. 

Who's Getting the Money

Commerce had broken down how the contracts could be awarded back in November, when it issued two request-for-proposals for advertising and PR agencies -- one for business attraction, and one for tourism.

On Monday, Commerce announced that two Providence-based firms were selected, with RDW Group getting $1.7 million for strategic planning and paid media buying, and NAIL Communications getting $1.4 million for both tourism and business attraction campaigns. 

NJF, a MMGY Global company headquartered in New York City with satellite offices in Boston, was awarded the public relations portion of the tourism campaign for $473,000.

"In terms of creative development, [NAIL] knocks it out of the park, and will help us solidify the Rhode Island brand," said Salamano at the Commerce meeting on Monday. 

Salamano called MMGY "research driven" with "robust research teams," calling the firm's involvement "locally sourced."

"[They] will spend time here," said Salamano. "Everything will have a metric to it."

Of the $4.29 million investment, Salamano said the state expects a "conservative" $7.76 million return on investment. 

"We want to under promise, and over deliver," said Salamano.

Board Concerns

Salamano was asked questions by Commerce board members following the presentation -- including the timeline of when to expect work product.

"It will be developed but we need to hit the ground running," said Salamano. "We're already setting up with this will look like. Our great opportunity is the shoulder seasons. [And] we're looking at fall for the [new tourism] website."

Following the meeting, Salamano offered some more insight into the process. 

"We won't touch the logo, [and] we won't be developing a tag line," said Salamano, of the sail boat image -- which during the ill-fated campaign of 2016 contained the much-maligned tag line "Cooler & Warmer."

"A brand is bigger than a tag line, it's about a voice," said Salamano. "We will be developing an advertising campaign, with digit ads, hopefully TV ads, outdoor advertising."

"We need to figure out what the concept is and what medium that works best with," said Salamano.