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Yesterday, Old Spice launched Mano a Mano en el Bano– a hunk-off between the delicious “Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” and Fabio (“The Man Who Got Hit In The Face by A Pigeon”); they are competing for the official Old Spice Guy Title and the Internet masses can vote for their favorite.  Isaiah will probably win, even though, he was in a Tyler Perry movie recently.  This is the third part in their marketing miracle (you’ll remember the original ads and then the 186 real time responses to fans, bloggers and celebrities).

So, what can the tourism world learn from this campaign?  The first is the power of a brand character or mascot.  These have been used successfully in marketing for a long time (think: Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Most Interesting Man in the World, etc). What I like about them is their staying power and the ability to re-invent.  But we don’t see them a lot in tourism.

Ocean City for a while had a hot life guard called Rodney who would rescue people from boredom.  Switzerland currently has Sebi and Paul, but they don’t even talk.   It’s perhaps risky for a tourism board (a government body) to select something so subjective to represent a whole country.  And real people, unlike cartoony Mr. Clean or the Michelin Man, get old and maybe become something other than actors.  But I still think, destinations could try them out for a while.  Here are some suggestions for unbiased people I’d love to see represent the following countries.

• Iceland could use that cute Dancing British Girl Who LOVES Iceland (pictured below)
• Argentina: Soccer is a big deal in Diego Maradona’s homeland, and its something that transcends the provinces.  The Voice from the Stadium from the Nike Commercial could be a fun tourism mascot.
• Namibia: Their impressive conservation work is their most powerful competitive advantage – a voice of conservation would appeal to most travelers and Namibians.
• Canada: David Suzuki (he’ll show you how to travel sustainably!)
• Connecticut: Should obviously use homegrown talent Dancing Matt!

Any other ideas?

Part 2: Interaction in Social Media – Coming up Next

It is obviously really important that tourists feel welcome when they come to a new country.  This could be everything from the attitude of border guards to simple “Welcome” signs around town. How about a GIANT welcome sign that you could see from the Moon?

That’s what Croatia did as an attempt to attract adventure tourists.  From April to June, four guys traced the word “welcome” over 2,500 km of Croatia (using only non-motorized transportation such as kayaks, bikes and their own feet, they crossed over 8 national parks! 11 mountain tops! Six rivers!) By tracking their course by GPS the whole way, the word “Welcome,” appears on Google Earth.

The team used two channels to promote the journey : Facebook (+8k likes) and their own site: www.welcome.hr, with a photo gallery and day by day blog.  An impressive list of partners from T-mobile an ORYX rent a Car (a funny partner for a non-motorized journey) supported the trip.

The journey has now ended.  I only learnt about this campaign because it appeared in a “Google Alert,” that I have set up on “Adventure Tourism,” – otherwise, it did not appear in any of my social feeds or on any of the blogs I read.

It’s a novel way to use Google Earth.  And in fact, I think tourism destinations should take advantage of Google Maps and Google Earth way more than they currently do – because it is somewhere people turn to almost immediately when planning a trip.

But their micro-site is difficult to navigate and I’m not certain their PR push was strong enough to have reached relevant markets outside of Croatia or those already interested in Croatia.

As seems to be the case with online campaigns (except for those done in Australia), this is a cool initiative, but one that probably hasn’t raised the profile of Croatia in a way that made the investment worth it, nor will it greatly increase arrivals to Croatia.