DoT goes back to basics with new TV campaign

| 02/02/2016 | 22 Comments

CNS Business(CNS Business): As many Americans sweep snow off their driveways, the Department of Tourism has launched a new television advertising campaign in the United States that goes back to promoting the basics of Cayman’s beautiful beaches and water. The brand image of ‘Caymankind’ has evolved in the new promotion, which the DoT hopes will help 2016 continue the uninterrupted year on year increases that the destination has enjoyed since 2010.

DoT Director Rosa Harris said her department has spent the last 18 months looking closely at how the Cayman Islands is positioned in the markets where the destination is promoted and based on industry feedback, some changes have been made to the Caymankind concept and logo. Harris explained that the new marketing strategy has put the ‘i’ in Caymankind to involve the traveller more in the concept of the brand. As a result, the ‘i’ itself has become a small figure.

In an effort to maintain the growth in overnight visitor numbers, the new television advertising campaign began last week with a series of short advertisements, narrated by local actress Rita Estevanovich, which promotes the simple beauty of Cayman, its scenery and people. They make it clear that visitors can choose to spend their time here doing as much or as little as they want.

Harris said that, given the recent blizzards in the US, the advertising campaign should strike a chord.

As the year goes on, she explained, the campaign ads will include more local culture, attractions and activities, as well as Cayman’s culinary reputation. But the campaign starts with the basics and Cayman’s most important selling point: its beautiful natural environment.

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Category: Stay-over tourism, Tourism

Comments (22)

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  1. anonymous says:

    Compare this to Madeleine Frazier video on YouTube, Grand Cayman 2015. DoT should learn from this girl how to market the Cayman Islands

  2. Anonymous says:

    Please tel me these don’t actually go out on the tv?

  3. Anonymous says:

    What a disgrace! The second ad shows someone picking up a stingray and encouraging someone else to touch it. That is not Caymankind, it is abuse. How dare the DoT, and hence the Government, condone it.

    • Anonymous says:

      The Department of the Environment must surely require the idiotic DoT to pull that second clip.

    • Anonymous says:

      Mr. Anonymous. Be proud of your comments and opinions. Who are you.

    • Anonymous says:

      Do you have dogs or cats? Then let them roam free like we should do all animals. They originally didn’t live in houses. Get a. Life.

  4. Anonymous says:

    When you only have one over-developed narrow beach and not much else by way of scenery it is a thankless task at DoT. The primary skill requirement is an aptitude for the polishing of turds.

  5. anonymous says:

    “Back to Basics” perfectly summarizes these commercials. Terrible. With the amazing footage that was shown on the Jacques Peretti show, it is hard to believe it is the same place. Eighteen MONTHS for what? Free trips back and forth for the DoT staff to Miami to shop while discussing the commercials? 5 days to film? WHAT? I’d sure like to see a FOI on the expenditures of this marketing drivel. DoT needs MAJOR help, a big overhaul on the staff and a quick voyage into 2016. Marketing strategy is clearly lacking, it is clear that it is a work a day job for the people in their positions, who do the same thing day in and day out and have absolutely no clue. People sitting in tourism need to be passionate. These commercials prove the people at the DoT are lackadaisical, their marketing firms inexperienced and money grabbing and now, tourism numbers falling without so much of a bleat. Get off the fence. Get out and look around at the people promoting YOUR islands. Don’t copy them. Befriend them!!!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Can’t we come up with something easy and effective as the Sandals commercials..These look like they each took about 5 minutes to produce..Not very effective and a waste of money in my opinion. Who are tehy using for marketing and advertising??

  7. Anonymous says:

    Quite clearly a burger and chips cruise free day at stingray city. And so much to do mmmm counting on one hand and still have two fingers left.
    Until DOT pull out all the stops to make these islands different they will lose. Up market and niche that what it needs and first move the port out of GT

  8. Sharkey says:

    Anonymous 11:09 am, I think that what DOT is trying to do is marketing the Cayman Islands Tourism to get people to come to vacation on Cayman Islands, but those video looks like they are unedited and bad , so it would not convince anyone that Cayman Islands is good vacation place . DOT should not be wasting money if they don’t know what to do and how to spend that money effective. Doing advertising on YouTube would not capture the ones with the money, only the ones without.

    • Anonymous says:

      Nobody advertises on YouTube. DoT can put a link to a YouTube video in a Facebook Ad that targets very specific individuals in specific locations, at specific times. Our target market of cashed-up millennials all use Facebook and other social media. Better yet, DoT could hire professional marketing firms like Bahamas does instead of burning through our cash turning the “i” into a stick person and getting <1000 views in a year.

  9. Anonymous says:

    More expensive window dressing from DoT.

    Viewed in the context of promotions by major Caribbean players like Sandals these ads have no impact at all. In reality they’re unmemorable and amateurish. If this really is the result of 18 months work at DoT I wonder what they were doing for other 17?

    The fact is that DoT have lost the UK/European market, are losing Canadian tourists to Cuba and, despite the claims, have not succeeded in matching the growth enjoyed by other destinations in this region. This is at best a Band-Aid move.

    • Anonymous says:

      The ads are okay — but the stupid tag line “…Caymankind” makes me cringe every time. It is too clever by far. I wonder who thought it up? Must have been some clever Noth American — at least I hope no Caymanian had anything to do with it. What kind of feedback did you get on that?

      • Anonymous says:

        Too bad they fired the company that brought legit business to the Cayman Islands and hired a firm that has worked almost a year to come up with this crap! What happened to the great music that was done by local talent ? That was some of the best creative the could produce!

    • Anonymous says:

      DoT can’t market to Europe if the runway is not long enough for direct flights to take off.

  10. Anonymous says:

    I enjoy both these commercials. Make me smile. Keep them coming.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Most of these DoT videos are quite well done and genuinely charming. The most difficult part – the production side has been done well. However, the finished products really aren’t circulating and getting the views they ought to be getting. The most viewed of these was posted to youtube seven years ago and still has <12,850 views, some of these post-production segments <1000 views. It's not that hard to get these over 100,000 or 1mln clicks on youtube if there is a targeted follow-up promotional plan. Hire a marketing firm, or DoT could apply some basic intelligence: monitor winter temperatures in North America and buy strategic Facebook ad space for our serviced target demographics, and post these videos on the worst days of winter. Facebook ad space can pinpoint exactly who we want to visit here. It's cost effective, you'll increase views, and maximize productive ROI for the islands that way. Publishing content blindly to cyberspace without any strategic follow-on publicity campaign is a bit of a half-baked effort. We should really question who has been in charge of this stuff for the last few years and have them re-tasked – they clearly don't get this side of the modern marketing equation. There seems to be far too many of these wasted efforts in DoT history (SpongeBob, ice cream trucks, panama swanky fritter junkets), and many more CIG depts that still fail to grasp how the internet, marketing, and promotion work. Very easy to change these results.

  12. Sharkey says:

    If this is the best promotional advertising ideas that the DOT can come up to promote tourism to the Islands, I don’t see where anyone would want to come to Cayman Islands . This looks like a 1st grader trying to put advertising together, any what a waste of money , this really looks like someone has job but don’t know how to do it.

  13. Anonymous says:

    I suppose “first rate prices for third rate destination” would be too honest.

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