“The logo ‘Lithuania is a brave country’ has been used in tourism marketing for almost a decade. However, its image does not focus on tourism and does not reveal the exclusivity of Lithuania as a tourist destination. The design of a new tourism brand required a new set of tasks – to introduce the heritage of Lithuanian nature and culture, to represent our country and differentiate it from other tourist destinations, invite visitors to Lithuania and promise an unforgettable experience. It is also very important to emphasize that the tourism brand of Lithuania is not the brand of the country and that we want to stay away from all possible speculations on the issue of the image strategy of the whole country”, says Jurgita Kazlauskienė, the Head of the State Department of Tourism.
The focus of the visual representation of the tourism brand of Lithuania is a postage stamp. The logo typeface resembles lively, growing tree branches and is contained within a pastel mint symbol of a postage stamp. Complementary images have been created as well, which, along with the logo, help to deliver a more accurate message – namely, “Meet people”, “Taste Food”, “Stay Active”, “See Nature,” or “Explore Culture”. Based on the style of the logo, a souvenir line and communication marketing tools have also been developed.
The concept of the tourism brand of Lithuania was developed in cooperation with the New! advertising agency. It includes the following items:
the logo (graphic symbol);
the brand book;
English slogan for foreign markets, which complements the newly designed logo and is easily integrated into the communication for the priority markets of inbound tourism;
Lithuanian slogan designed for the promotion of local tourism;
marketing tools in the same style.
As Tomas Ramanauskas, the creative director of the New! advertising agency, presented it: “To get a picky traveller interested in visiting a small Northern European country that doesn’t boast spectacular wonders of nature or architectural miracles and is sentenced with a hard-to-pronounce English name is an incredibly tough task. Not to forget, it still lacks direct flights from major cities and most of the world’s citizens know next to nothing about it. The intense white noise of tourism communication does not spare those who talk like everyone else. We need to stand out and be different.”
“We have a message for the world: real things are beautiful to us. Real is beautiful. When you want to get away from fake smiles, the concrete jungle, industrial madness, plastic architecture or the conveyor belt of tourism, visiting Lithuania is a great decision. Lithuania is the place where real things are valued, even if they are a bit off or imperfect. We are proud of our imperfections. In other words, we see the beauty in them. This is our new tourism statement. Unvarnished, free of cosmetic fixes, sincere, real.”
The development of the tourism brand of Lithuania was based on working group discussions, the results of surveys of foreign tourists and other research evaluating Lithuania as tourism country.
The new tourism brand of Lithuania and slogans have already been introduced alongside their associated marketing communicative tools.
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