A year wasted with DOT’s botched country brand

It’s been two weeks since the Department of Tourism introduced its proposed new country brand, “Love the Philippines.” It has since come under fire for using stock images of other countries in its mood video. At this point, so much has been said as to what happened and who is responsible for this fiasco. These are my thoughts on the matter after hearing multiple sides of the story.

Last September, I wrote a column that said we are all waiting to hear the plans and programs of the DOT. As we are all aware, tourism is a strong leg of the economy which lost much traction during the pandemic. I felt that civil society had the right to be apprised of what the DOT’s recovery plans were.

Months passed and I heard nothing game changing on the tourism front, except perhaps for Boracay and Palawan being named by Conde Nast as among its best island destinations. There were no major infrastructure or connectivity projects announced, no major promotional offensive in the pipeline and no new tourism product that would electrify the market. Instead, we were all made to wait for the new country slogan that was forthcoming.

A whole year came and went and the “Love The Philippines” campaign was finally unveiled last June 27.

It was anti-climatic. Any professional worth his salt in advertising knows that a good country slogan must embody 12 characteristics. It must be unique, memorable, appealing, inclusive, positive, descriptive, relevant, timely, adaptable, have a call to action, be brand consistent and above all, authentic. The slogan must tell a compelling truth.

My problem with “Love The Philippines” is that “love” is a strong emotion that only comes about after one had gone through the Philippine experience. But isn’t the objective of the campaign to persuade potential visitors to visit the Philippines first? How can they love the Philippines if they haven’t experienced it yet? It seems confused as to who its target audience is.

The fact that stock images from the UAE, Switzerland, Indonesia and Brazil were used makes the campaign fail in uniqueness, authenticity and truthfulness, too.

By no means does “Love The Philippines” match the impact, rationale and strategy of “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” The former slogan multiplied our foreign tourist arrivals three-fold over just six years.

Three things bother me about this mess. One, the DOT wasted one year with nothing remarkable to show. Two, using fake images is deception, plain and simple. It will undermine all campaigns launched by the Philippine government, moving forward. Three, the fiasco was picked up by foreign media, including the BBC and CNN. It caused deep embarrassment to the Filipino people and the Marcos administration.

Secretary Frasco has since fired the advertising agency responsible for the creatives and the video production, Doyle Dane and Bernbach (DDB Philippines). The agency was also made to issue a public apology.

But DDB Philippines is not the only one at fault here. DOT, under Sec. Frasco’s leadership, carries more accountability. After all, it was DOT’s idea to re-do a perfectly good and successful country slogan. It was DOT who released the video in haste, knowing full well that it was only a mood video meant for internal use. It was DOT who failed to do its due diligence before publishing the material. As the client, DOT has oversight responsibilities and the final say on all aspects of the campaign.

It leaves a bad taste in the mouth that Secretary Frasco is pinning all the blame on the ad agency. To me, it represents the worst traits of politicians who point fingers at others rather than take responsibility. It reeks of a trapo move.

It was also said that no public funds were spent on the campaign. This confuses me. At first, Secretary Frasco admitted that P49 million was spent on the creative aspect of the re-branding. Later on, she claimed that nothing was disbursed. In my experience, no ad agency would start, let alone complete, the creative process and collateral production without a down payment. It seems the claim that no funds were spent is a way to soften public blowback.

So where do we go from here? The worse thing we can do is to waste another year conjuring another campaign. Equally damaging is to proceed to use the “Love The Philippines” slogan as Sec. Frasco alluded to last week. I agree with Senator Nancy Binay. The slogan is already tainted in the international community. It has been “beaten and battered in the real world.” It reeks of deception and blunder. And as mentioned earlier, it fails in the principles of advertising. It is as catastrophic as the “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” campaign.

My best suggestion is to forget the rebranding altogether and continue using the already successful slogan, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” Whatever resources are left at the DOT’s disposal are better spent on tourism promotion, product development, skills training and logistics/connectivity improvements.

Tourism is an important foundation of the economy that is growing in importance. At its peak in 2019, tourism employed 5.8 million Filipinos and accounted for 12.7 percent of gross national product or roughly $46.5 billion worth of goods and services. Its contribution to the economy was achieved on the back of 8.2 million foreign visitors and 120 million domestic travelers. In 2022, tourism arrivals were barely 2.1 million. We have a long way to go to achieve full recovery. We are way behind ASEAN-6 in term of foreign arrivals.

I am not sure if Sec. Frasco will resign on the back of this incident as delicadeza dictates. If she does not, let’s hope that she successfully navigates the industry out of this self-inflicted mess. One thing is for sure, Secretary Frasco has to work double time to make up for the wasted year.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aj_masigan