Just in time for the upcoming Canada 150 celebrations this summer, l’Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec (the Alliance) has concluded its review of media and creative agencies. It has once again selected Touché as its media agency of record.

The Montreal-headquartered agency has held the account for the previous three years. This win means it will keep it until 2020 with an opportunity for a one-year renewal. The agency will accompany and advise the Alliance on media management and investment from an international perspective.

The account was won in an integrated fashion, issuing a single contract for media and creative (with creative awarded to Cossette). However, two separate RFPs were still issued.

Sébastien Viau, VP of marketing for the Alliance, said the goal for the organization in the coming years is to dive even further into digital channels, which it has been doing over the past several years, in order to achieve a mandate of being “always on.” In order to do that, said Viau, “We need to rely on technology, data, working with the Googles and the Facebooks of the world.”

Viau told MiC on top of advertising buys through Google and Facebook, Tourism Quebec also plans to pair with media partners like National Geographic and GQ to create digital content to bring attention to the province on a global scale.

Currently, Viau estimates that close to 90% of the organization’s media spend goes toward social and digital, with most of that investment moving away from events, sponsorship and print. Because of the global nature of the organization’s marketing, television was never a major priority as international buys are too expensive.

The organization has a goal to contribute to a 5% increase in the province’s tourism revenue growth.

Touché has undergone its own repositioning recently, unveiling a new slogan (“Fueled by data, driven by creativity”) and updating its structure within the organization to focus on data-driven media buying.

This past year, the agency has seen a number of awards and nominations for its “Blind Love” digital short for the Alliance, including a Gold Internationalist Award and two nominations for the Festival of Global Media.

Pictured: Tourists gathered at the Piknic Electronik de Montreal underneath the l’Homme de Calder statue, courtesy of Tourism Quebec.