St. Maarten Redoubles Branding Efforts in New Campaign
Playing on both its distinctive spelling and on market strengths, St. Maarten recently launched a $1 million branding and promotional campaign in North America. According to Frans Richardson, the new tourism commissioner for St. Maarten, the concept behind the branding can be summed up as: “It’s all in our name.”
In a play on the double A’s found in the spelling of the island territory’s Dutch name, the new advertisements feature purposely misspelled positive adjectives -- such as “paassionate,” “maagical” and “naturaal” -- followed immediately by “St. Maarten.”
“This campaign allows us to tap into and highlight all the things that make St. Maarten an ideal vacation destination, through words and phrases that truly represent how a traveler feels while on-island,” Richardson said at a New York event to introduce the campaign, which is set to run through April but may continue until the end of 2010.
The new branding will be found in print and broadcast ads as well as on the new Vacationstmaarten.com website. Video presentations (including 30-second, 60-second and extended spots) have been created for use in commercials, at trade shows, on social networking sites and more.
The campaign highlights those island attributes that that younger, wealthier market finds appealing, such as a vibrant nightlife, shopping and more than 300 restaurants. St. Maarten has long promoted itself as the Caribbean’s “culinary capital.”
The effort, good for bookings until Dec. 31 for travel through April 15, offers discounts of up to 25 percent on nightly rates at select hotels plus a $50 credit per day per room for use as at more than 40 restaurants, casinos, car rentals, shops, spas and attractions. Savings can add up to $1,700 on a one-week vacation, said officials. For more, go to www.visitstmaarten.com.
Meanwhile, French-speaking St. Martin unveiled its starfish logo and “Friendly Island” slogan to U.S. travel trade partners at this year’s French Affairs event in New York, held on Oct. 26.
