It has been said that if the lead singer of Catatonia’s accent were
any broader, the Wales Tourist Board would have it set in concrete and
called a national monument.
The WTB’s director of marketing, Roger Pride, denies that he has designs
on Cerys Matthews’ larynx but happily admits that the international
success of bands such as Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers and the
Stereophonics doesn’t make his job any harder. Marketing any destination
is difficult, marketing an entire country more so and, when it comes to
Wales, there are a few negative perceptions to get past.
’It has traditionally been very difficult to get people to think
positively about Wales, but that is no longer true,’ Pride comments. The
WTB’s award-winning advertising and direct marketing campaign has played
a significant role in that shift. The campaign, created by FCA and
running since January 1998, has shown an impressive return on
investment.
Pride claims that for every pound spent on advertising, pounds 60 has
been spent by visitors. ’That return doesn’t take account of the
perceptional shifts we’ve achieved. It is a long-term process.
Ultimately it is about increasing tourism, creating jobs in Wales and
increasing tourism’s relevance to the Welsh economy,’ he says.
Generating a 60-to-one return is not a bad start, yet Pride is nothing
like his name. He is certainly proud to be Welsh, and is passionate
about marketing his country, but he is also rather modest. When talking
about the campaign he is keen to share the credit and quick to praise
the agency.
Asked about the most satisfying aspect of his job, Pride talks about
having a vision of what you want to create and achieving it in a
relatively short time.
’I didn’t think it would achieve outside recognition,’ he remarks to his
hands. If you want eye contact and intensity from Pride, say
’Wales’.
’The brand I promote is my country and that is very rewarding. It is not
a hard job, it is a pleasure,’ he says.
The problem with marketing destinations is that they are amorphous by
their very nature. Most campaigns start out trying to be all things to
all men and end up with confused images and vague statements, or pretty
pictures and vague statements. ’Having seen a lot of mediocre campaigns
from all over the world we realised that we had to become as focused as
any brand and market-led rather than destination-led,’ Pride
recalls.
’The problem with previous campaigns was that we had gone to agencies
and said here is the problem, solve it for us. So we had strategies
coming at us left, right and centre. We chose the best - and the next
time there was a pitch it would be the same,’ says Pride, who has been
director of marketing for two and a half years.
The 1991 campaign ’Now there’s Wales for you’ was typical of lacklustre
destination advertising and stereotypical to the point of being
patronising.
’It was very passive, it didn’t involve consumers,’ he comments.
Its replacement, ’The land of inspiration’, sought to update perceptions
by contrasting contemporary Welsh figures with traditional
surroundings.
’That campaign generated lots of comment and was seen to be very clever
but it was still too passive, too generic and it didn’t make the link
with holidays,’ he says.
But now, under Pride’s aegis, the WTB has developed a model for
destination marketing that it hopes can be applied to anywhere.
Explaining this model involves drawing diagrams and much enthusiasm on
Pride’s part. Put simply, it defines a destination’s unique attributes
and seeks to communicate them in a rational and involving way to
specific consumer groups.
Pride decided that Wales was the perfect antidote to modern life.
’Whatever stress means to you, the solution is here,’ he says. Under the
banner of ’Two hours and a million miles away’ the campaign targets
groups such as empty nesters, families with young children, young
professionals, retired people and sports enthusiasts.
While above the line it offers them specific benefits - like the chance
to rediscover relationships with your children for harried parents -
below the line it is more product specific.
The 39-year-old, who has yet to be tempted from his native Wales, is
obviously pleased with the results so far. It is an exciting time to be
doing the job, he says, with devolution and the possibility of greater
European Union funding in the offing, the current popularity of Welsh
music and hosting the Rugby World Cup this year.
It is ironic that the person responsible for the ’You must be there’
Rugby World Cup campaign is a football fan. ’It is heresy for a
Welshman, I usually say that I had an accident as a child,’ jokes the
Cardiff City fan.
Pride counts himself privileged to ’have been put in a position to
develop the whole image of Wales’, but it makes it difficult to see what
his next move could be.
’How would you go from being able to change the identity of a nation to
selling widgets?’ he muses. ’If you had told me ten years ago that I
would be in this position, I would have been very happy.’
BIOGRAPHY
1984-1985 - National accounts manager, Golley Slater Telephone
Marketing
1985-1989 - Travel trade officer, Wales Tourist Board
1989-1992 - Travel trade manager, Wales Tourist Board
1992-present - Head of overseas and travel trade marketing, Wales
Tourist Board.
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