IT’S still more fun in the Philippines, but should we state the obvious?
Tourism Secretary-designate Christina Garcia Frasco confirmed that a new brand campaign will be launched next year, and was confident that the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) budget will be substantially increased to accommodate the creative changes that need to be made.
“It’s possible that we will be changing that ‘It’s more fun’ [slogan]…. Of course [the Philippines will] always be fun; that doesn’t need to be said because it’s true. But beyond that, we are a beautiful country with beautiful people and a wealth of products and destinations, and we want the brand to fully encapsulate all of these nuances of our country beyond having fun,” she told reporters after speaking to members of the Philippine Tour Operators Association (Philtoa), during its general membership meeting on Wednesday.
Asked whether the DOT had enough budget to develop and launch a new branding campaign, Garcia Frasco said, “I have already proposed a recalibrated budget, and the same is now being reviewed and I will obtain feedback on it once the President submits his national expenditure program [for 2023] to Congress.” Lawmakers cut the DOT’s budget to P2.74 billion this year, from P3.52 billion in 2021.
An expensive change
For his part, Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Marketing Charles Bautista told reporters, “It takes a lot of investment and a lot of consultation to come up with country branding. We discussed this with Secretary Frasco…We want to make sure that whatever brand campaign we’re going to do is that it’s in consultation with marketing experts. Also, we need to look at the overall expense as it takes a lot of money to really roll out a campaign.”
He added, “Once it’s going to be rolled out, we’re going to launch it and look at the wide-scale application, because we’ll be changing billboards, we’ll be changing a lot of the collaterals, we’ll be changing a lot of the graphics that we use, online and offline. So we need to look at the both financial and logistical aspects of a brand campaign.”
The TPB is the marketing arm of the DOT, and is tasked with international media placements supporting the country’s brand campaign in key markets. But the DOT’s own branding campaign budget was cut to P309 million, just as the country reopened to foreign visitors
(See, “Not fun! DOT branding campaign budget cut to P309M,” in the BusinessMirror, February 1, 2022.)
The DOT, under former Secretary Wanda Teo, also planned on changing the country brand and slogan, but was prevailed on by then United Nations World Tourism Organization chief Taleb Rifai to keep it, “because it works!”
Filipino Brand
The development of the “It’s more fun” slogan alone, cost the DOT P5.6 million, the project of which was bidded out in late 2011, and eventually won by advertising agency BBDO Guerrero. Launched in 2012 largely through social media, the slogan generated a lot of netizen-created memes, making it one of the most successful country brand campaigns in the world, and winning for BBDO a number of international advertising awards.
Frasco described the Filipino Brand as “doing justice to our cultural identity as a nation and harness our strengths as a people…. We will come out with this once the same has been finalized and presented to the President and merits his approval. You can rest assured that this is a matter that we’re taking very seriously and giving just thought, taking into consideration also the change in circumstances since the pandemic, where people are now in search for substantial and immersive experiences that are anchored on a cultural experience.”