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Manchester, United Kingdom — 22-25 September 2009WYSE Archives
Welcome to our newest member – made
Interview with Vince Mutty – CEO
Tell us your story. How did made get started?
Made tourism was born in 2010 by its founder and managing director, Jonathan Mountford. After a long and established career in the entertainment marketing industry, including 6 years at McCabes, Jonathan was invited to join Dewynters to create a Tourism Marketing Division. It was during this time that he recognised that there was a gap in the market, there wasn’t an agency in the UK whose sole focus was communicating with the tourism sector on both a consumer and trade level.
Jonathan co-founded made and from its humble beginnings, has grown over the last 8 years to be one of the leading tourism marketing agencies in the UK.
What makes made different from your competitors?
Unlike our competitors, made isn’t a full-service agency and we are solely dedicated to tourism marketing, aimed at both consumers and the travel trade.
We work alongside and are engaged by ‘full service agencies’, where we work as an extension of their offering to provide expert knowledge on how to reach tourists both domestically and internationally, establish long-term relationships with the travel trade and to represent clients at a host of tourism focused events globally.
What is your favourite success story from your organisation?
It’s very hard to pinpoint one success story from our eight-year history! We have worked with hundreds of clients during this period, growing their audience, patronage or brand awareness and ultimately increasing sales for them. Their ongoing success is definitely our favourite story.
What can we expect to see from made in the future?
made is constantly expanding in what we do, both in terms of markets that we work with, operate from and our client base. We have just recently opened an office in Melbourne, Australia and the immediate future sees us growing our relationship with arts and cultural clients there.
Currently a large portion of our clients are in the theatre and entertainment sector, and our long-term strategy is to further broaden this to include more of the world’s other tourist attractions including galleries, exhibitions, and consumer experiences.
Which trends do you see in educational and active youth travel?
Even though the UK is experiencing record levels of employment, low wage growth coupled with increasing inflation is squeezing the pockets of many UK families. This, along with education and local council funding cuts, has affected educational trips as schools and teachers are under increasing pressure to reduce costs.
This has challenged theatre, attractions, museums and galleries to show their worth in the education market. Because of this, we always recommend our clients to show that they are not just a fun day out, but also a highly educational resource that feed into the National Curriculum and that develop personal growth skills.
This has allowed our clients to continue to succeed in the educational sphere, showing their relevance in what may otherwise be a challenging time.
What was your motivation to join WYSE Travel Confederation?
More and more of our clients are looking to communicate with travellers in the youth and educational sector, so it was a logical step for us to join the confederation. Our membership will give us a greater understanding and insight into this growing segment and will help us to deliver better results and recommendations for our clients to give them a return-on-investment for their marketing strategies aimed at this segment.
Have you attended a WYSE Travel Confederation event? If so, what was your experience with the event?
We did attend WYSTC 2016 in Belgrade where we made strong connections with those in attendance, growing our network of contacts and influencing us to return in 2018.
What is an industry challenge your organisation is facing at this time?
Much like the wider marketing and advertising industry, the challenges we face include the continuing fragmentation of advertising platforms, reduced budgets and the evolution of digital marketing.
A large portion of our business relies on traditional media including bespoke print, establishing relationships with travel trade partners and representation at travel events across the world.
Whilst we know and can demonstrate return on investment on the work we produce, more and more of our clients are looking for the newest digital options that are trackable to justify their marketing spends.
Member snapshot
Established in 2010, made is an award-winning tourism marketing, representation and PR enterprise with offices in London and New York. Our client base includes private and public-sector companies in the entertainment, hospitality & leisure and sports industries. We also offer a destination marketing service.
Our goal is to ensure that our clients’ products or services get noticed and remain in the hearts and minds of the travel industry, as well as the end consumer. Through our extensive contacts, dedication and knowledge we will work with our clients to ensure that tour operators, travel agents and holidaymakers know them the world over.
For more information, visit their website: https://www.made.travel
Membership: WYSE Travel Confederation Service Provider Member
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