Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By Beatrice Ciabatti

For the Peru brand to be successful, after the launching of the national brand, step two was to begin an internal ad campaign, (thus a campaign whose target are Peruvians), with the goal of raising awareness of the national brand and for Peruvians to own the concept themselves, and identify with the Peru brand. For this to happen it was essential that the ad campaign reflect the spirit of the people and build agreement and commitment amongst Peruvians before heading to win over world markets.

Peru visits Peru, Nebraska in PromPeru's video. Click here to see version with English subtitles.

Thus, as part of the strategy to position the national brand amongst Peruvians, last week an original advertising campaign was launched by PromPeru. The 15-minute spot shows what happens when a group of talented Peruvians arrive to the small town of Peru in Nebraska and decide to promote our culture and heritage in a very creative and innovative way.

In the video, the country's brand “ambassadors,” as they are called, decide to show the 500 “Peruvians” of Peru, Nebraska the “real” meaning of being Peruvian through food, customs, music and culture.

Just a quick glimpse at the “likes” and comments of the video on Facebook and YouTube, I will dare say that the campaign has reached its goal by emotionally connecting with real Peruvians. I don’t think that there is a Peruvian who is not moved by the story and by recognizing so many different elements of our culture in the video.

The general feeling after watching the video is “I am proud to be Peruvian,” and in this sense the Young & Rubicam agency in charge of developing the ad campaign has nailed it!

In all, PromPeru will invest $1.8 million for the national campaign; this figure includes a campaign across TV, radio and other media in Peru.

This high investment is mainly due to competition of other South American national brands. Brazil launched its brand in the prestigious fair ITB Berlin in 2005, positioning itself as a colorful and modern country and has had excellent results at the level of inbound tourism. Another strong South American brand is Colombia, which made a tremendous effort to change its image of violence and position itself as a country full of passion to differentiate from the rest. Mexico, meanwhile, highlights the natural and cultural diversity. A common element of these strategies is that they are upholding their value thanks to a series of efforts made by the private and the public sector working together.

The Peruvian brand is not an exception and PromPeru is not alone in this endeavor. Several entities will also help with promotion. Our embassies, consulates, public and private sector will join the effort in a national and international level, to promote the use of the brand, to transmit our identity as a nation and above all to make us feel proud of being Peruvians.

The video is a first gigantic step in this sense — we only have to wait and see what comes next.

Beatrice on Peru business • How Bembos in Peru gives McDonald's a headache • Why Peru corner stores continue to beat supermarkets • For Peru exports, specialize in tradition and authenticity Beatrice Ciabatti is marketing director of Ilaria-Peru.

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7 Comments

# Nicolas says :
19 May, 2011 [ 09:39 ]

It was so good that they had to use a Bolivian song to promote it? As always Peruvians doing something Peruvian style with lack of profesionalism or etiquete.

# mericorps says :
23 May, 2011 [ 06:22 ]

nicolas,

There is so much right and so much positive, the ad was a success and even if you paid attention, when they sang the bolivian song, she said it was from our friend and neighbor. 

I wonder what sort of life it must be to have it be second nature to you to push past miles and miles of positive to grab any negativity you can find and embrace it like an old friend, and use that to disparage an entire culture.

I wish you luck with a life like that and I thank God that I was raised differently.

# Emily McCreer says :
23 May, 2011 [ 02:47 ]

It's hard to imagine that there are any Americans or Europeans interested in knowing how Peru's country brand will look like.

# Bob says :
30 May, 2011 [ 10:27 ]

My girlfriend and I just returned from a 6 month journey in South America (we are from the US) and spent a full 3 months in Peru, traveling the country by bus and seeing many of the tourist as well as not so well known places in Peru.  We chanced upon seeing the video on our last day in Peru and it was a warming tribute to witness many of the sites, sounds and tastes of Peru that was illustrated in the video.

I reposted the video on facebook and within 2 hours, it was reposted and liked by a number of our North American friends... Our Machu Picchu pictures and other posts of pictures and updates about our trip captured the imagination of many people that would love to visit Peru...soon!

# El Gringo says :
1 June, 2011 [ 02:34 ]

Nicolas

your comment of "As always Peruvians doing something Peruvian style with lack of profesionalism or etiquete" you are obviously either ignorant, not Peruvian, or very sad, why are you reading this web page at all if you feel like that about the country and the people. As an Englishman I much prefer Peruvian attitude and culture to my own. Please shut up and keep comments like that to yourself. Viva Peru!

# Bruno says :
15 June, 2011 [ 01:24 ]

The idea is fine but it is laid out in a confusing video, if it was professionally done they should have caught the mistake with the music, and Gringo don't defend the undefendable. I found it very Peruvian, very  informal and not a clear message except for the food part, which in turn is just too much, I like lets say ceviche and anticucho but to try and sell this to hicks in Nebraska, lets be real its just grasping at straws. Another thing things like this should have been done 20years ago

# Marissa DeSoto says :
29 June, 2011 [ 12:37 ]

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