Ricky Carandang and Alberto Lim were appointees that seemed to be a good idea at the time, they were great at their day jobs, why wouldn't they elsewhere?
But we all know what happened next, Carandang faded in the background and Alberto Lim later resigned.
The first tourism campaign was truly a disaster. Not only was the logo a clear rip off of the Polish logo. And, really, why Poland? Are we similar to them in anyway? Do we have the same tourist attractions? And, what is it about that logo? Is it particularly special? Does it contain some unique and some super effective factor? Why were we copying it? Or, is it because it’s one of those slightly less known campaigns that can be copied and possibly (but not likely) not be discovered?! Is it because Poland starts with the letter P and the Philippines also starts with the letter P, and this saves the lazy creator some working time? Why even put a tree and 2 waves, how obvious do you want to be? And why even use the same color scheme? It’s like the creator just didn’t respect the viewing public. Come on, I, a lay person, can come up with a much better logo and concept than that! Let’s not even go with the Tagalog “ang ganda” slogan that even needs to have its own subtitle right there on the logo itself (“adj. beautiful”).
Ever since my trips to Seoul and Bali last year I have been harping about our country’s tourism efforts. These 2 places don’t have much in terms of natural scenery but they're still doing much better than us.
From what I've observed from my previous trip to Korea, where I went to some provinces, they really do not have anything natural to look at. It’s mostly amusement parks, resorts, towers, food places, koreanovella shooting sites and shopping spots. These are all manmade but if you go to Korea’s website they have everything in detail, it’s all there. If you want a purely Koreanovella tour, click on the dramas that you are a fan of and they will tell you how to get to which drama location. They even have profiles of top actors, actresses and music stars on their website. Clearly, they've used Kpop as a tool to infiltrate the world tourism market. When you go to Seoul they have a full on tourist friendly system, that is, they even provide various city tour buses that stop at a lot of tourist places (Seoul tower, museums, palaces, shopping spots, etc.) and they have a variety of routes as well. All you need is to pay for 1 route, hop on the bus, go out, then go back to the bus stop and catch another bus to your next stop.
Bali, though an island, and supposedly known for its beaches, don’t have good beaches. The beaches are sub par, 10 times uglier than those found in Boracay or any Batangas beach or even Puerto Galera. The sand isn't even white or at the very least white-ish. Yet they have so many tourists, despite the bad publicity from the bombings of years ago. They have so many luxurious resorts and using “luxurious” is beyond an understatement when compared to all the resorts here in the Philippines. Their resorts are huge, fancy, and filled with tourists. (Note that I have not been to Palawan but I assume that while the resorts there are probably nice, they probably won't be as vast as those found on Bali). When you think of it Bali isn't even that expensive, despite its five star hotels and resorts. A cocktail at the bar of a top hotel resort cost me about 10 USD, which really isn't much considering the place was very posh. The Balinese people are not particularly rude, they seem friendly enough. They’re of the more spiritual Hindu culture and have a very islander attitude to them as well.
That is, if we always say our friendly people are our touristic asset, all I'm saying is, the Bali people also know how to be nice to tourists. They know its their bread and butter, and they treat you really well on your vacation.
And, remember Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love? Well the Balinese uses the movie/book in their tourism efforts as well. I've seen books being sold at the airport with posters and signs labeling it as a book that has featured Bali. Remember that place where Julia Roberts stayed in the movie? It was said that it used to take maybe a few weeks to a month to reserve for rooms at that place but now you can’t book even if you tried. I know because my friend tried, they told her its fully booked for months, to a year, I think.
So, what about the new "It's more fun in the Philippine" campaign?
I was one of those who was really glad to have a marketing oriented person appointed for the job because, really, that is what's important these days. I’m sorry Tamano (of the Tamano Perspective), who once negatively said on his show that no matter how much marketing is done if the infrastructure is lacking then it's not going to work. I totally disagree with this. Just think of how many countries there are that have bad infrastructure and still have so many tourists.
Or better yet think of so so products that still sell (or sell a lot!) just because it has good marketing. There are so many! I'd go with a better marketing plan than a better product any day.
So, the new campaign concept?! Well, it’s better. It’s a vast improvement. I haven’t seen everything and I just saw one article about it. But, hey, I will give it a chance, it’s something. I have been saying for months on end, they should just come up with something, just anything slightly more substantial, and just go on and sell it.
“Our strategy is simple: while other countries invite you to observe, Filipinos can promise a more heartfelt and interesting experience. Wherever you go, whatever you do in the country, it’s the Filipinos that will complete your vacation and will make your holiday unforgettable,” says Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr.
See, at least we now have a concept here.
The new slogan—"It's more fun in the Philippines", the website: http://itsmorefuninthephilippines.com.
They say the slogan is more of a punch line, to be used like: "Commuting. It's more fun in the Philippines" juxtaposed with a scenic photo of boats in Coron, Palawan.
In addition, the campaign seeks to engage every Filipino to promote the country through social media, which is also not a bad idea. If this is what we are good at, if we can vote Miss Philippines as the most photogenic one year after year, if we can get the Palawan cave into the wonders of the world, if we can make Filipino contestants win in every international text based competition... Well, why not use this "advantage" for Philippine tourism?!
This is truly a vast improvement. I sincerely hope it goes very well. I'm crossing my fingers.
No comments:
Post a Comment