A new image for a new Poland

After years of neglect, Poland is finally being promoted, with one huge campaign underway and new campaigns to begin in 2006.

Since the beginning of October, a six-week image-building campaign promoting Poland as a modern and reliable economic partner and attractive location for investment has been running on BBC World and CNN as well as in Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Altogether 500 thirty-second commercials will run on the two channels, while 10 advertisements will be published in the prestigious publications.

The zł.1.4 million "The Heart of Europe" campaign, funded by the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), is supposed to help Poland shake off the image of a corrupt, backward country associated with bison and horse-drawn carts.

"We would like [Poland] to be perceived as a developing country with a student community of over two million and highly qualified specialists, a country whose biggest assets are people, R&D, services and a capital related center of the CEE region" said PAIiIZ deputy president and Undersecretary of State in the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labor, Marcin Kaszuba.

PAIiIZ also promoted Poland at EXPO 2005 in Aichi, where the Polish stand was visited by over one million participants.

Next year the Polish National Tourist Office (POT) will launch campaigns promoting Poland and encouraging tourists to come to the country. Until now promotional campaigns have been almost non-existent. It was easier to spot billboards and TV commercials inviting tourists to explore Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Hungary rather than invitations to holiday in Poland.

Now all that is going to change, as the budget for 2005 grants POT the zł.48 million for promotional campaigns. "This will allow us to prepare a serious advertising campaign. We have to reach those who do not know Poland," POT media advisor Krzysztof Turowski said.

The new funds are significantly more than the previous zł.30 million, which certainly hasn't helped in promoting Poland. "Hungary, which has a population four times smaller, had a budget four times the size of ours" Turowski complained.

"The campaign with the Polish Plumber may have worked once. It was a huge success, but it was a coincidence, we got a chance to do a cheap and a very effective campaign. Now with the funds that we have received from the new budget we will be able to bounce off from rock bottom. We need to have money to launch smart campaigns, to abolish stereotypes, to be humorous," Turowski underlined.

He disclosed that POT has started working on advertising campaigns which will target Germany, the UK and Poland. Germany is the largest market by far with regard to visitors coming to Poland, so POT plans to launch a billboard campaign in Berlin and other main German cities next summer. "In the summer the football World Cup will be held in Germany and the whole world will be there" Turowski explained. In the UK the campaign will concentrate on London, however, as Turowski adds, if funds allow, Manchester will also be targeted.

"Tourism is a powerful business, worth billions of dollars. Officials understand that it can spark economic growth and in many regions it could be the only way to tackle unemployment," he concludes.

(Source: WBJ)

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