Cayman Islands Pick Two New Marketing Agencies

With growing competition from neighboring Caribbean nations and the changing face of its own islands, the Cayman Island Tourism Board (CITB) decided it was time to explore new options to support the Creative and Public Relations needs of its business.

To accomplish the task of selecting new marketing partners, CITB enlisted RSW/Agency Search, a company that provides organized and proven methodology for marketers seeking new agencies.

With the help of RSW/US Agency Search, CITB initially reviewed the credentials of close to 100 firms, including the incumbents. In the end four PR and four Creative agencies were then selected to present.

According to Mark Sneider, the President of RSW/Agency Search, "the two incumbent agencies had done a great job over the previous 10 years supporting the needs of the Islands. However, the winning agencies - BrightRed/TBWA and CoynePR - outperformed them on a number of different levels."

Sneider elaborated, "both BrightRed/TBWA and CoynePR presented conceptual campaign directions that were well grounded in sound strategy – which were built out of very inspiring consumer insights. Many of the other agencies weren't as strategic or as organized in how they thought about the business challenges of the Cayman Islands."

With regard to the incumbents, Sneider went on to say, "I've seen this happen to agencies. We have been managing agency relationships and playing in the agency-client space for the past 10 years. Agencies get complacent and they stop generating the great work that they once created.  We see it every year in our Agency-Client surveys: marketers tell us that the top reasons why they leave their agency are because they either run out of good ideas, their service level drops, or they stop operating like a strategic partner."

Since its founding in 2010, RSW/AgencySearch has managed searches for clients in industries including healthcare, tourism, grocery/retail, fast food, auto, food/beverage, and durable/industrial goods, among others.