ISC withdraws from Tourism Malaysia pitch

The agency behind the ‘Malaysia: Truly Asia’ brand campaign, ISC cited among its reasons for withdrawing are the agency’s concerns over the ambiguity of the tender process.

In a statement released today, the ISC Group decided on Wednesday, 26 January to withdraw its tender for Tourism Malaysia, having serviced the account since 1999.

A spokesperson for the ISC Group said in a statement, “We regret having to make this painful decision, especially as the government has set such ambitious tourism targets between now and Vision 2020.”

Two factors contributed to this decision, the spokesperson said. First. upon submitting the tender document on 16 August, the agency has not received any communication about the tender process timelines.  The tender stated that the contract is supposed to commence 1 January this year. "We have had our team on standby now for over five months," he said.

"As we near the end of the tender’s 180-day validity period, 12 February 2011, we are not sure if there will even be time to make the industry accepted practice of presenting and clarifying our proposal to the tender selection committee,” The second reason given was the agency’s increased workload from its new business wins.

Tourism Malaysia called a pitch in early August last year, and by the end of the year, the ad industry had yet to hear any news about the tender.

A spokesperson for the group said ISC’s withdrawal announcement follows an earlier official letter to Tourism Malaysia explaining its reasons for withdrawing its tender for the European, North American and Oceania markets’ contract stipulated from 1 January this year to 31 December 2013.