Apr
11
Necesito España
Tourism is one of the most important industries in Spain injecting billions of euros in revenue into its economy. Approximately 58 million foreigners visit Spain each year, making the country the third-most popular tourist destination in the world after France and the United States. However, in recent years the tourism sector has been hit hard by the global recession.
It’s been a long time since Turespaña, Spain’s tourism board, has come up with a new advertising slogan. With the industry in a collective slump, this year is considered a good a time to start reminding the world that Spain remains an ideal tourist destination.
Its classic marketing phrase created back in the 1960s,( “Spain is Different”), was officially retired long ago. However, it remains an iconic phrase that people still use to this day.
The new slogan, which was announced last month, is “Necesito España. (I need Spain).” When I first heard of this marketing campaign I was excited to see the ads, but I was a little disappointed once I saw them.
The ads look great but something is…missing. The commercials are about the foreign traveler’s experience in Spain but two of the four ads seem kind of generic in terms of imagery. You don’t come away with a strong sense of the distinctive personality of the people and the culture of Spain. It’s all rather safe and bland.
And I think I know a possible reason why. The ad agency behind the campaign is McKann Erickson, a U.S. advertising firm, famous for many big ad campaigns and well-known ad slogans. But perhaps it would’ve been better if Turespaña had gone with a homegrown “Made in Spain” ad agency to get a more unique flavor to the ads.
The first ad of a young family on a beach vacation looks like they could be in Florida. Yes, there are brief shots of La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia, a dish of paella and of a volcano on the Canary Islands, but the overall imagery isn’t distinctive enough.
With the exception of a few shots, there is little one-on-one interaction between tourists and Spaniards. (Although the very brief clip of the two old Spaniards giving the family conflicting directions by pointing in opposite directions made me laugh. Blink and you’ll miss it.) The foreigners are having fun but in a bubble where they don’t need to rub elbows with the natives.
The second spot, the one with the three young friends, works because it does represent what pretty well what a young single person’s vacation would be like in Spain. Also, I appreciate that the female in the group looks like she could be Spanish. It appears that the two guys are foreign friends who have come to visit, perhaps not for the first time because the closing line is “necesito volver a España.”
But the best commercial, in my opinion, is the last one with the Asian couple because it gives a good sense of place, mixing images of narrow streets with famous monuments and beautiful landscapes. It’s romantic, dreamy and glamorous and I feel like I’m in Spain when I see that particular spot.
But I think my biggest problem with the ads is that they’re all in Spanish. Comments on YouTube from Spaniards are uniformly positive about the ads. But they’re not the target audience. Turespaña claims that the target audience for this ad campaign is an international one, residing outside of Spain. They specifically wish to increase the number of visitors from Asia and North America.
However, it’s been a little over a month since they announced the campaign and they still haven’t released any versions of the commercials in English or any other language. There’s no info on their website as to when they will launch the campaign in English and what other languages will be included. C’mon Turespaña, that’s Marketing 101: Know your audience and cater to it.
To those of you have been to Spain or live in Spain, what do you think of these ads? Do they effectively capture what it’s like? And to those of you who have never been to Spain, do these ads make you want to pack your bags and come for a visit? Tell me what you think in the comments below.
April 11th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Hola,
Primero felicitarte por tu blog porque me enseña mucho de lo que hay en “el otro lado”. Yo soy profe de español y aunque nunca he ido a España, desde que doy clases me ha dado mucho interés; un interés que ha sido infundado por mis estudiantes que, por su cercanía con el país, asumo, muestran muchísimo interés y fascinación por el país.
A mí lo que más me atrae de ir a un sitio es la gente, el modo de vida, de modo que, en general, este tipo de campañas turísticas no me atrae. Lo que siente de todos estos comerciales, en general, es una repetición de estereotipos y un turismo dirigido a esos que quieren aislarse por un rato del trabajo, de la vida cotidiana y meterse en un rincón donde nadie los moleste. No es lo que esperaría al ir allá. Esperaría una experiencia basada en la interacción con locales y en conocer esos lugarcitos de los que hablas cuando mencionas el anuncio de los asiáticos.
Personalmente el de los tres amigos es el que más me gusta. Creo que es porque refleja esa interacción que yo esperaría y también por esa frase inicial “Amigo, la primera palabra que he aprendido en español”. Pero, como dije antes, en general todos me parecen típicos anuncios turísticos y poco atractivos.
Saludos,
April 11th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
“Necesito volver”. This ad campaign is effective for guiris like me who already lived in Spain, to entice us to come back… but that’s a pretty small demographic – I think they’d be wise to translate the ads
The Asian couple is my favourite too.
April 11th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
The Asian couple is my favorite also, but that may have something to do with it being the last ad and was most recently viewed. I think they’ve missed the mark by not putting the ads into another language, but maybe they are testing them out first.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
España es mucho mas que esta campaña muestra. Para mi, España es El Parque Nacional de Teide, donde hay poca gente, o la hermosa ciudad de Murcia, donde he asistido clases de español, o el pueblo de Jumilla con los vinos exquisitos y gente amable y menos acostumbrados a los turistas! Cuando yo voy a España no me atraen las cosas comunes. Hay playas y discos por todos partes, pero España tiene un montón de lugares y gente muy fascinante. Muéstrenos ellos!
April 12th, 2010 at 2:42 am
I think this is a missed opportunity. For a while, Spain has been trying to brand themselves as the avant garde destination in Europe, but what image are they trying to craft with these ads: family friendly, good for friends, good for foreigners? How is this different than most other top destinations? They are beautiful commercials, but are generic and don’t tell us much. A good example of place branding would be Sevilla’s campaign. Check out my post about it:
http://rensmicrodiplomacy.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/branding-sevilla/
April 17th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
¡Gracias chicos por vuestros comentarios!
@Maria y M K Perez: Ídem.
@Benny: Yes, a small but very enthusiastic demographic.
@Cat: They need to start rolling out the campaign in other languages pronto, otherwise this campaign will be dead in the water.
@Ren: I like that Sevilla campaign. Thanks for mentioning it!
April 18th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Lo que me gusta en la publicidad, es “necesito España”… pero a esas personas que nunca antes han visitado España, ¡no tiene sentido! Quizá los productores ejecutivos han decidido aplicarse a esos muchos millones que sí ya han pasado sus vacaciónes en el pais, tratando de convencerles a ¿una segunda o tercera visita? A mí personalmente, no necesito publicidad: ya sé, hombre, necesito España, fluya en el sangre de mis venas, ¡anhelo de mi corazón! aunque, verdad, es cosa de idioma, pues tengo el mismo cariño para Mexico o incluso paises, aún desconocidos, de America del Sur…
May 26th, 2010 at 8:34 am
I have never been to Spain yet but having a vacation there has always been a dream. Let me share that I only knew how beautiful Spain is because the country was featured in a local show here in my country. I agree that if Turespaña decided to invest in an ad, they would need to know who there target market is. i don’t think anyone living outside of Spain would understand what the ad is trying to say (except those who speak spanish, of course). Spain is such a nice country and I hope that people from all over the world gets to understand this.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:51 am
Mi preferido es la tercera, con la pareja.
Hace unos meses hice parte del Camino de Santiago con dos amigas mias y al ver la concha amarilla volvi al camino. Tambien a Madrid en el museo del Prado cuando vi Las Meninas, mi obra preferida de Velazquez.
Aunque soy una americana de 25 anos estos imagenes me hicieron volver al pais que es, para mi, un segundo hogar.
Me gustaria ver el anuncio en ingles. Traducido entre dos personas… un espanol y un americano/ingles. No queremos mas fallos como el anuncio para la ensenanza bilingue en la Comunidad de Madrid. YES WE WANT! Que error.