Creative Advertising Helped Increase Belize GDP

Industry August, 31 2016 Glib Savchenko

The authors of the campaign abandoned conventional strategies used to attract tourists and focused on the stories of locals.

Belize abandoned the traditional for Caribbean countries tourist advertisement with beach landscapes and stories about couples who spend their honeymoon there helped the country to improve its economic indicators, Adweek writes.

Discover How To Be was developed by a local tourism department and Olson agency. The campaign focuses on stories of locals instead of advertising beach tourism. As part of the effort to attract more tourists, the state also managed to convince several airlines to increase the number of flight to Belize.

“We set rules from the beginning—no honeymooners, no frozen drinks, nobody getting a massage by the pool,” said Kevin McKeon, chief creative officer at Olson. “We want to go for someone who’s a little more ambitious about what they’re looking for in a vacation. The takeaway is you’re going to meet some fascinating people and come back with a story you didn’t expect to have.”

According to Adweek, this approach proved more than successful: according to the Central Bank of Belize, the country’s GDP increased by 2.24% since the launch of the campaign.

Several new videos were recently released as part of the campaign. One of them presents a story of Eladio Pop, a 60-year-old cacao-grower.