Crowdsourcing Advertising Campaigns: “It’s more fun in the Philippines.”

Europe is cold and longing for sun; distant holiday destinations lure with videos and photographs of beaches, palm trees and bikini-clad women. The fact that countries try to attract tourists with advertising campaigns is not new but the Philippine government is treading new paths. Instead of spending money on professional advertising film clips and expensive advertising writers it is letting the Crowd have a go: Under the motto “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are requested to post a short slogan about what is more fun in the Philippines than elsewhere. Add matching photographs and you’ve got a large-scale, meticulously designed advertising campaign.

According to information on the news page of dailycrowdsource the Philippine government expects to increase the number of tourists from 3.7 million in 2011 to 4.2 million this year. “What the social media has allowed us to do in such a short time is allow the most number of people to help build the brand by participating in the effort to define it more sharply”, says Ramon Jimenez, Tourism Secretary of the Philippines.

The strategy seems to be working: by February 8, the Facebook page of the campaign had over 17,000 fans, and the Twitter photo gallery encompassed 163 pages. Most of them contained humorous word-image combinations and photographs of beaches, landscapes and cheerful Filipinos; also a few ironic and macabre contributions that will be discarded by user votes. Some hotels, golf and yacht clubs have also recognized the opportunity and are advertising with paradisial photographs. But most of the contributions come from private individuals and amateur photographers.

Whether professional or not most of the photographs make you chuckle or invite you to dream… especially as long as Europe is freezing.

“Mountain Biking – It’s more fun in the philippines” used with kind permission of Carlo P. Carlon

Dieser Artikel wurde am 06.March 2012 von mandy geschrieben.

Mandy Meyer-Steffan