Tourism campaign misses point

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August 18, 2012

Dear Sir,

As a regular visitor to Bermuda and a US ad agency exec for over 20 years, I think the new tourism campaign is utterly useless. I can’t imagine anyone choosing to visit Bermuda as a result of seeing these ads. By contrast, watch the two videos here … promoting Newfoundland. I’ve never had any interest in going to Newfoundland, but these two spots make me want to go there:

http://www.cbc.ca/nl/blogs/whatodds/2011/01/new-tourism-ads-drenched-with-colour-history.html

Or this one, from Australia tourism (they’ve taken this 3-minute video, and cut it into numerous 30- and 60-second spots): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC3gaq2gSOE

These examples do so much to capture the spirit and “feel” of the destinations. I’m jealous. I wish the agency promoting Bermuda injected even a tenth of the same warmth and emotion into their campaign.

Bermuda has so much beauty to show, and such wonderful people and culture, yet none of this is apparent from this latest effort. It spends all its energy (and precious little time it has to engage recipients of the messages) trying to debunk what the agency thinks are common misperceptions about Bermuda. All the focus is on countering potential objections to visiting Bermuda, instead of showing us what is so wonderful and unique about this singular island.

I can’t glean one single thing unique to Bermuda in these images of people cocktailing, etc — and I know the place well! These pieces fail to capture the essence of Bermuda: its unbelievable beauty, the charm and spunk of her people, the spirit of the island, and the sense of relaxation and escape that permeate every visit there. Five million bucks out the window, as far as I’m concerned. Bermuda is not a “party” island, as this approach insists on driving home. They missed the target completely, and they didn’t even get off a good shot at the one they were aiming for!

Obviously targeted exclusively to affluent, white, east coast US young people, the only good that will come of this campaign will derive simply from the repeated exposure gained from saying Bermuda is two hours away. In my opinion, they would have been better served to spend $100,000 designing a simple image montage campaign (with images that actually show Bermuda and her people!) that says “120 Minutes to Heaven: Bermuda is just two hours away,” and then spending the remaining $4.7 million in broader and repeat placements to dramatically increase exposure. Cast a broader net, and cast it a LOT more often.

KIRK HARDCASTLE

Kansas City, Missouri

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