OMD has won the global media account for Tourism Australia, beating incumbent Carat for a three-year contract with global spending worth around $180 million. (NOTE: That amount is in U.S. currency.)
In addition to the Aegis-owned Carat, which has worked on the business for the past six years, Omnicom’s OMD competed against other agencies like WPP’s MediaCom and Publicis Groupe’s ZenithOptimedia.
OMD, which begins work on July 1, has a contract that runs for three years with an option to extend it for two additional 12-month periods.
Australia recently launched the 2020 Tourism Industry Potential, an initiative aimed at increasing tourism in a country where it is the largest services export earner and provides nearly a half-million jobs. The Australian government estimates tourism contributes A$34 billion in gross domestic product or 2.6 percent of the country’s total GDP.
Carat helped to roll out the country’s current global brand campaign, There’s nothing like Australia. The loss for Carat comes less than a year after it was aligned with Mitchell Media Communications Group, Australia’s largest media buyer which was purchased by Aegis.
