All nations compete for a place on the map*

Magnet #876 - Portugal

I love this magnet my friend brought this back for me from her vacation to the Continent. It's supercute, and oddly makes red ok next to Carolina blue.

I've magnetblogged on the rooster of Portugal before - you know, back when I thought it was a chicken. I've never been to Portugal but perhaps, one day I'll include it as a sidetrip when I finally get to Spain to see all of Gaudi's work.

I did, however, go to the Visit Portugal site, and found some really great stuff to do there. Also, they launched a branding campaign for Portugal, to help bolster their tourism numbers and improve general awareness.

According to their brand brochure (which probably had more background info than visitors really need - except for us who love this kind of stuff), Portugal has always had low awareness, and has always been viewed as "Southern Europe." Which seems to be a bad thing in their eyes.

So, with BBDO Portugal's help, they reframed the conversation, explaining that their great differentiator to the rest of the continent is that they are actually Europe's West Coast - and way cooler than folks realize.

I dunno what their budget was, but it had to be big, because they hired Nick Knight, a fancy-schmancy, contemp photographer, to execute the imagery of the campaign that makes the Portugal look and feel "contemporary, cosmopolitan and entrepreneurial." All in all, it's a pretty cool campaign, with all their celebrities and fantastic photography. So mission accomplished, I think.

But, I still gotta ask, if Portugal's the West Coast, then what's Europe's East Coast?


*From their brochure - an interesting thought, since by the very virtue of a map, every nation has a place.