Advertising in disguise

The brand strategy experts at Whisper suggested months ago that the Malta brand campaign is "meaningless white noises" and that the MTA should rethink its approach:

The Malta Tourism Authority, or MTA, has for months engaged in a branding effort. According to The Times of Malta: "Diversity, heritage, and hospitality have been chosen as core values that will make up the Malta brand for tourism purposes under the vision Enriching Your Life." What is being passed off as a brand for Malta tourism is instead an advertising campaign, forcing Malta to explain itself rather than demonstrate their key difference. Which is fine if the MTA has an annual advertising budget of a Fortune 500. But the reality is this: Solutions presented as a brand outside of a competitive context set up a country for large year-over-year advertising spends with little hope of success.

The reason? Diversity, heritage and hospitality are core values that apply equally to any number of destination tourism brands, such as Croatia, or Cyprus, or Catalina. A brand vision such as Enriching Your Life is meaningless white noise; inane cheerleader pap that sounds good to Malta insiders, but is irrelevant to the external audiences Malta seeks to influence. What is it about Malta that separates the Malta experience from other tourism alternatives? How does Malta fulfill a passion not satisfied elsewhere?

The MTA project thus far fails to provide answers. But, these are the exact questions a good brand strategy should answer. Branding is smarter than advertising. Understanding the difference is crucial to any tourism destination attempting to drive tourist visits on a 6.2 million Maltese Lira advertising budget. For example, effective brand strategy substantially decreases advertising expense. Just ask Alaska. Tourism branding is competitive sport. Malta should rethink its approach to get in the game.