For the “Ne” sayers, though there don’t seem to be many here, who think this ad campaign internationalizes, thus cheapens and trashes the place of their birth, their country, Latvia desperately needs new ideas, resources to boost its economy.  Just yesterday, I spoke with a relative from Wien, whose looking for a small place to rent near the beach in Latvia for a few months in the summer.  He’s a former resident of Latvia and with much regret left his country back in the 90’s, not too long after independence for economic reasons.  He was very despondent about the current state of affairs in Latvia, saying that he could never afford the same kind of apartment he had in Wien with a comparable one in Riga.  Many of the Sov style apartment buildings in certain areas of Riga, which were affordable, were starting to deteriorate, badly in need of repairs which would end up being too costly in the long run.  Jurmala had become another little Moscow littered with McMega dachas built and/or acquired by the ‘noveau’ rich entrepreneurs, likely having made their fortunes through dubious means.  That all the young people were going or gone and nothing was left, but the ‘valda un pensionari’. 

And...I guess you can’t please some of the people all of the time, but I think this current ad has met it’s objective--it’s short, catchy, grabs your attention.  There may be wrinkles to be ironed out, improvements to be made, but from what I understand this is just the first step in an ongoing process.  Stendzenieks pointed out that he was trying to find something different, unique about Latvia which would catch the eye.  Like Latvia, other countries have their ‘pludmales’, beaches, forests, so these are areas where we really can’t compete.  He chose to focus on something ‘unikals’(hey, who else has blue cows even if there are only some 610 and they’re not quite ‘that’ blue).  And the all those girls--everyone knows Latvian girls are amongst the most beautiful, anyway!  Someone else on the Domburs’ program mentioned that Latvians were a very creative people and this particular ad reflected that, likely drawing in more people to see just how talented Latvians really are.

There was a clip from some previous ads and one of them was the ‘Welcome to my Country’ with Brainstorm, the Pope, Bill clinton.  Beautiful scenes, very moving, but as Stendzenieks related, all these Latvians would be dabbing their eyes sobbing ( I’m definitely one of those), while the rest of the people watching, non-Lats would be wondering why, but would remain silent out of deference and politeness.

Susanna, just before you wrote that last sentence in your post, I was thinking, ‘did you miss your calling”?!  I think you’d be great in the travel business!

Irena

For the record, a few years ago the short film ‘Welcome to My Country’ won an award at an international film festival in Ukraine. Our Embassy in Kiev entered it and an international panel of judges judged it the ‘Best Tourism Film’ at the festival. The award went to Vides Film Studija, who produced it for the Latvian Institute. Oddly enough we never intended it as a tourism film, but so be it. I mention this only to puncture the myth that this film is only popular with Latvians. Our experience over the last few years is quite the contrary. We get quite a lot of comments from foreigners who have seen it, but the greatest praise has come from Latvians who call us to say how proud they were after showing it at some international event and getting a rousing response.  In one case, an Arab boy at some international youth festival proposed that the song become an youth anthem for national pride. He wanted everyone to learn the words and sing it for their country as well. Well, Renars Kaupers has a knack for catchy tunes, and this song has weathered well over the years. The director Dainis Klava did a brilliant job of matching visuals to the music. Foreigners may not know what each image represents, but they do get the emotional impact of the video.

Latvia has a lot of talented people doing some very creative and interesting things. Our job at the LI is to tap into that talent and put it to use for the country.

Ojars claims that “there is.....no image at all” specifically demonstrates the need for a theme which is recognizable,popular ,and accurate. Continuity of such simple theme is vital to the development and refinement of an “image”. 

Andrejs indicates that the “nightlife” need no advertising. I submit that such image merely needs some refinement!

McT’s vision of “sodden drunks and sex tourism sector” merely demonstrates the failure of the tourism sector to refine the “partier “ image to emphasize top-notch restaurants,operas, concerts,etc. which is the nightlife attracting real economic tourism.

The small artsy groups and trimda nostolgic old people may provide emotional satisfaction to the locals and trimda for the “culture”,however,the total monies spent by these groups are probably miniscule. The primary purpose of tourism is to make money for the economy,the secondary purpose is to “bring them back again”.

The debauchery issue merely exemplifies the need for a classy and professional grade tourist baseinstead of the prostitute seeking"hillbilly" barhoppers that give serious partiers a bad rap.

By the way Ojar,has there been an increase in tourism since the “other” ad campaign was launched? The one that most LOL’s despised.

Tourism continues to increase in Latvia, although I doubt whether anyone can attribute it to ads. There are many factors involved, including word of mouth, low airfares and heavy promotion by travel agencies. ‘Inspiration Riga’ just produced an outstanding supplement for the Norwegian newspapers. It’s in Norwegian (Richard Baerug produced it) and it uses testimonials by Norwegians who have been here.

Raising the awareness of country is multi-faceted task. Ads are only one small part of it. The LI will be doing preliminary internal and external research this year and will develop a comprehensive national branding strategy by the end of November. A serious strategy for raising positive awareness and building a country’s reputation is a long-term undertaking which requires coordinated involvement of all the national stakeholders - government, business, cultural players, NGO’s, the educational community etc.  A catchy slogan or clever logo does not build a country’s reputation, because most intelligent people know that a catchy slogan and clever logo are created by ad agencies and paid for my governments. A successful nation branding strategy does not tell foreigners what they should think - it provides information in a way that allows them to think for themselves. 

A comprehensive nation branding strategy is like a huge toolbox, filled with many instruments, large and small, each designed to accomplish a specific task in a specific situation. A tourism ad is simply one screwdriver. It won’t allow you to do everything, but you still need it. As screwdrivers go, Stendzenieks’ campaign is pretty handy at this point in time.