Re-branding the Brand Malta campaign

A think-tank at the Malta Tourism Authority will be meeting from this morning in an attempt to tweak the Brand Malta internal promotional campaign, which was given a lukewarm reaction at best.

The MTA's international brand consultant, Christian Sinding, says the branding team has no problem in readjusting the tone to make it more accessible and steer away from technicalities and concepts people might not understand.

In a focus on the much-debated Brand Malta, out in The Times tomorrow, Mr Sinding takes the criticism in his stride and says the local campaign can be fine-tuned.

"We might have used language that wasn't accessible to everybody. In hindsight, it might have been a better idea to talk about the core values," Mr Sinding says.

Yet, in the MTA's defence, he says that the Malta campaign - built on hospitality, diversity and heritage - is one of five interlinking communication platforms and results will only be visible after three to four years.

Among other ideas, Mr Sinding says he is toying with the idea of creating a tourism mascot, in line with the successful environmental Xummiemu campaign in the 1990s.

The branding campaign comes at a massive cost - Mr Sinding says it needs between Lm8 million and Lm10 million a year to be successful.

He also reveals the huge value associated with the Maltese Cross, the logo associated with Brand Malta. One of the main branding companies in the world recently estimated that the monetary value of creating a logo as recognisable as the Maltese Cross is worth between $500 million and $1 billion.

"It's such a valuable commodity and people don't realise that," he says.