Sunara InSpires Jersey's Tourism Industry

The first session of the Tourism Conference on November 24th consisted entirely of Men in Suits (or in Lawrence Huggler's case a fetching pink jersey) thinking very strategically. Then it was time for the presentation of Jersey's Marketing Strategy for 2007. You could almost hear the salivation as Simon le Huray, Jersey Tourism's Marketing Manager stepped up to the plate. The notoriously opinionated industry prepared itself to condemn another depressingly similar advertising campaign.

Simon's first step was to introduce us to Sunara Spires, the Director of Communique 360, Jersey Tourism's recently appointed Advertising Agency. A smart move - within minutes she had the audience in the palm of her hand. No pretty adverts for us to condemn, no detailed media plans. In it's place a clear, well-thought out strategy that focused on socio-demographic and regional profiling to match the island's tourism objectives to a media campaign.

We'll have to wait until mid-January to see the TV campaign and press ad's, but the strategy makes sense and the general feedback was positive with one delegate stating that it was the best strategy he had seen in 15 years.

The results will be the key measure of Communique 360's strategy, but it's a positive start. You can find a copy of the presentation at www.jersey.com/conference.