China hires Mindshare to create tourism campaign
14 Nov 2009
China is concentrating on overhauling its tourism branding overseas, and has hired Mindshare to work on a new positioning that will boost its standing as a destination.
Mindshare Beijing has won a brief from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). CNTA previously used in-house and local agencies. The brief to the agency is to help CNTA reposition China as an attractive tourist destination on a global basis.
The pitch process first took place last year. CNTA met with several creative agencies and media agencies. However, the pitch was put on hold due to the recession as the client was unsure about the number of tourists that would visit China. The pitch kicked off again in August when CNTA sensed that the recession was coming to an end.
Mindshare's business planning for CNTA includes consumer insights, brand positioning and market analysis for the project. SiewPing Lim, leader, Mindshare Beijing, said that China was looking for a more cohesive brand strategy. ''Many countries have a slogan to promote its tourism industry. Malaysia has 'Truly Asia', New Zealand has '100% Pure New Zealand', Korea has 'Korea Sparkling', but China has no cohesive global positioning and vision. Its tourism industry may have a slogan on paper but no one really is familiar with it.''
Mindshare will come up with a new slogan that will be applied globally as well as redesign the CNTA logo. The work will be delivered by the end of December.
