How Not to Brand a Country

It is always worthwhile dropping by the Being Reasonable blog to see what is going on. My RSS feeder showed an article entitled "How Not to Brand a Country".

Ooh … now that sounded interesting! What did I expect to see? Well, to be honest, something a little closer to home! But the post does two great things — it explains what does not work (too much process, too little action) for Botswana (linking through to the Brand Story blog), and then links through to examples of what does work, and why (India’s Yoga themed travel pitch).

So it made me think about the new campaign for Brand Australia – Where the Bloody Hell Are You.com. Let’s see how this stacks up against the criteria for "strategically smart":

  • Leverages a theme associated with Australia — yes, we are a nation of cussers, sorry straight-shooters who will call a spade "a bloody spade".
  • Connects with a passionate community — yes, everybody likes to have a good time.
  • The theme has an upscale profile — yes, it appears that we have cleared away the negative aspects (stopped the sharks, turned on the lights etc) but everybody has forgotten to turn up!
  • Then creatively, does it shy away from the stereotypical "picture postcard" approach? Again, just like the India campaign, it implies an "exotic, exciting" destination.

Oh … and it is viral too. You can send the video to a friend.

Now that is a story to tell!

S.

One thought on “How Not to Brand a Country

  1. That’s nice! I’ve been looking around tourim New Zealand sites for a while and you’re right, they’re all a bit stale. Yes we have a stunning, stunning county, but we also have a unique culture that doesn’t really seem to feature. What you end up with it a kind of impersonal, photobook of New Zealand that’s just not quite us. The way countries are marketed does need a little re think!

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