The Bermuda Department of Tourism has selected Fuseideas as its new agency of record for North American marketing for the period of April 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013.
Fuseideas prevailed in a request for proposal process initiated late last year. The tourism organization declined to comment on the review process or finalists. Spending on the account is estimated at $13 million.
Fuseideas' founder, CEO Dennis Franczak, said the Boston agency’s first work is expected to break in May and will include mobile, digital and social elements. Sixty-five percent of the tourists visiting Bermuda come from Boston and the New York tri-state area.
The Caribbean island previously worked with GlobalHue until the Detroit agency’s contract ended last March. The working relationship drew criticism after it emerged that the two-year $28 million pact had not been put out to tender, and Don Coleman, GlobalHue’s founder, was a longtime friend of Ewart Brown, who was then Bermuda's premier and tourism minister. Brown was subsequently replaced by Wayne L. Furbert, Bermuda’s minister of business development and tourism, and the Bermuda government set up a procurement office to oversee the awarding of government contracts.
In the interim, Bermuda has been working with Ingenuity Media. Current ads use an illustration of pink Bermuda shorts and the tagline “Feel the love.”
Fuseideas' other clients include Adidas, National Geographic/Cengage, ESPN, the Massachusetts State Lottery, Massport, HBO Latin America and Univision.