WPP Group’s international marketing unit VML has signed a two-year, $20 million agreement with the Tourism Authority of Panama to develop a marketing and communications strategy and international campaign to attract U.S. and Canadian tourists to the Central American country.
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The contract marks the first time since 2012 that the Republic of Panama has hired a foreign agency to promote the country’s tourism efforts.
VML’s services for Panama’s DOT will include implementation of a marketing and communication strategy and promotional program, which will include online and traditional marketing and advertising as well as “limited public relations activities, targeted primarily toward tourists in the United States and Canada,” according to Foreign Agents Registration Act documents filed in December. VML will also supervise market research efforts and will manage media planning and buying, as well as data analytics initiatives.
The agency will conduct its services outside of Panama but may engage a third party advertising agency within Panama to assist with the contract’s on-site requirements.
Total cost of the contract will be $20 million, which will be distributed in intervals until 2018.
Kansas City-based VML in October was named global marketing agency of record for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. The agency, which was founded in 1992, maintains more than two dozen offices worldwide.
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