What was the first step on the journey?
Once we’d decided we needed a new approach, we began the process of putting the project out for tender. And the first step meant us getting absolute clarity internally on what we were looking for.
There’s an old adage…
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”
Before going to market, you must have clarity on your ultimate destination. You need clear objectives and a clear strategy – which we had. I think it’s essential you put these fundamental building blocks in place first.
It’s a process you must go through. You have to know where you are trying to go and what you want to achieve to be able to develop an effective brief, a request for tender and to be able to objectively evaluate the applicants.
With this project, we were within the thresholds to opt for a selective tender process. This involved an extra step of desk research and due diligence as we shortlisted agencies to invite to tender.
We looked at creative executions we liked, like the Waterford Greenway, and organisations who’d recently gone through impactful brand repositioning, like Cork Chamber – both of whom highly recommended TOTEM as an agency.
Because we were able to objectively assess everyone against our tender criteria and had clarity on what we were looking for someone to deliver, in the end the final decision to appoint TOTEM was a straight forward one.