Does SA Tourism’s ‘live again’ campaign herald the death of the South African Nation Brand by omission?
Does SA Tourism’s ‘live again’ campaign herald the death of the Nation Brand by omission?
Dr Kingsley Makhubela & Dr Petrus de Kock
4 March 2022
A nation has many tangible and intangible assets at its disposal which it can leverage to position, promote, and draw attention (eg investment, tourism, skills) to itself in a congested and competitive global marketplace.
Since creation of the International Marketing Council (2002), later to be re-named as Brand South Africa, after hosting the 2010 Fifa football world cup – South Africa invested in, and became an African leader in the space of nation branding. Over the years the organisation was approached by nations such as Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Greece, Argentina, to name but a few, to learn from Brand South Africa as to how it creates, manages, and maintains its nation brand.
Additionally, the South African state invested in an institution with the purpose of managing the reputation, marketing the nation and its capabilities, while creating an integrated compelling brand identity in local and global markets.
As former Brand South Africa Chief Executive Officer, and General Manager for Research, through our own direct experience of collaboration across government, business and civil society, we can argue for the benefits, and impact a coherent nation brand, associated strategy, and efficient implementation of associated initiatives can have.
However, at the recently concluded Meetings Africa convention, South African Tourism unveiled its first major marketing campaign in five years, with the theme: “Live Again”. According to the SA Tourism website the campaign: “The “Live Again” Global Brand advert captures the story of a young traveller’s life-changing journey through South Africa. Feeling numb, she leaves her home country and heads to South Africa. From the moment she arrives, she starts to reawaken as she begins to experience South Africa and its amazing people. It is a showcase of captivatingly beautiful landscapes, dynamic culture and people, vibrant night-life and exquisite cuisine.”
In a pandemic-plagued world the marketing of destinations, especially for leisure travel, has become a proverbial mine field of open and closed borders, and regulatory uncertainty. It is therefore laudable that SA Tourism, in the Live Again advert, tells a compelling story of a person escaping a dreary, grey, and wet London, it shows how, through her experiences in South Africa, she opens up like a flower that comes into full bloom in the sunshine of this land.
While SA Tourism manages to convey the story of ‘live again,’ successfully, as former nation brand practitioners it is quite interesting to note that the nation brand logo, and identity, with its pay-off line “Inspiring New Ways” is completely absent from the story in the advert. SA Tourism and Brand South Africa used to carefully plan how to apply the nation brand identity (especially involving the Inspiring New Ways brand logo and associated rules of application).
Now the question comes to the fore, does the SA Tourism ‘live again’ campaign herald the death of the South African nation brand, by omission? Or, is it a case that the internal instability in both entities, and ongoing uncertainty about their future (will they be merged, or not), has led to these entities taking their eye off the branding ball, to allow such a serious omission?
Have a look at the SA Tourism ‘Live Again’ campaign AV below…