JTB starts co-op advertising
WESTERN BUREAU –The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) yesterday began its ‘co-operative’ advertising campaign that will see the island gaining 50 cents on the dollar in print advertising from tour operators whose numbers are used to tag the television advertisements.
“The co-op ad got off the ground and all is going very well,” Paul Pennicooke who chairs the JTB’s marketing committee told the Observer yesterday.
At a JTB press conference last week, Pennicooke explained how this type of ad campaign would work. “If for example we tagged US$200,000 of the US$2.7 million (that is to be spent on television advertising in the United States) with say Apple Vacations they would have to give me US$100,000 in print in newspapers as a quid pro quo,” he said.
The US$2.7-million television advertising in the US began on January 6 with brand advertising, 1-800-Jamaica, to promote the destination. This advertising will be complemented by the co-operative ads, which will run until March.
Meanwhile, the JTB will spend an additional US$1.4 million on advertising in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.
Pennicooke said the sum would serve to finance television and print advertising in the UK and print advertising in Italy and Holland where he said there was an increase in the number of air lifts to Jamaica.
“The Italian and Dutch markets were selected for the print campaign because there is significantly increased lifts from these markets compared to previous years. In the Dutch market for example Martin Air is back. They started coming back into Jamaica on the first of November and that’s out of Amsterdam,” he said.
Added Pennicooke: “In the case of Italy, there are increased flights out of Milan. As a matter of fact over the New Year’s/Christmas period there were four flights from Italy into Jamaica. Throughout the winter we will be having three flights per week coming to Jamaica from Italy.”
The television ads in the UK will begin this weekend while the print ads for Italy and Holland have already begun.
Pennicooke, who is also a senior executive at Couples Resorts, said an additional US$1.1 million would be spent on co-operative advertising later and that slate of advertisements will target the Canadian market.
But while he admitted that he could do with more advertising dollars, he said the US$5.2 million at their disposal, in addition to the print advertisements to be gained under their co-operative advertising agreement with the tour operators, would allow them to penetrate the various markets and have an impact.