Most Efficacious In Every Case

You know that Christmas is on its way when the dicky bows and tiaras are dragged out of the wardrobe for annual awards ceremonies and the embarrassing thank-you speeches are written and even more embarrassingly delivered. And when Darren Clarke wins Sports Personality, there will be the inevitable, personal-tragedy backstory, delivered by Sue Barker in perfect, sombre-cum-celebratory tones. You don't need to watch, I can write the script for you now.

Spain has its own awards, among them the Prince of Asturias ones, handed out by Crown-Prince Felipe to worthies of the arts, sciences, sports and whatever. Leonard Cohen won the prize for literature this year; Haile Gebrselassie added the sports prize to his marathon and track titles.

Rather less grand are the prizes for "Eficacia en Comunicación Comercial", basically prizes for coming up with good adverts. At the "big night for efficacy" (not exactly a slogan that trips off the tongue), prize winners ranged from Coca-Cola and IKEA to the Archdiocese of Madrid and the town hall of A Coruña. There was not a whole load for Mallorca to celebrate, except for the bronze award in the "regional/local" category that went to Barceló Hotels & Resorts, beaten into third place by the publicity for A Coruña and its cleaning and waste services provider CESPA.

I don't know what it was that elevated the Galician city to such lofty heights in terms of advertising efficacy, but it doesn't matter anyway. Far more interesting is the fact that the award is a tad embarrassing. Workers from CESPA have recently gone to the town hall to denounce the company for a breach of employment conditions. Furthermore, back in July, five of the company's trucks had their tyres slashed. To this you can add the fact that the plant (operated by a different company) that treats waste collected by CESPA was in the midst of an indefinite strike at the time of the truck vandalism. Which all goes to show, I suppose, that efficacy of an advertising campaign is not the same as PR, and CESPA has been accused, in addition to its worker and truck problems, of providing a deficient service.

No such embarrassments existed for Barceló. Members of staff beamed for the cameras in front of the "big night" poster, happy in the knowledge that Barceló had become the first Mallorcan hotel chain to be honoured for its efficaciousness.

What secured the bronze gong for Barceló was a campaign called "SuperSummer Azul". Brainchild of a Mallorcan agency called The Atomic Idea, it borrowed from a TV comedy show "Verano Azul" that aired thirty years ago and featured one of the actors, then an eleven-year-old and now most definitely not. Miguel Ángel Valero has a touch of the Ray Winstones about him but with less Cockney.

Valero's an extraordinary bloke. He turned his back on acting and became a telecommunications engineer and academic, penning the snappily-entitled thesis "model of the provision of interactive services for telemedicine in the home via broadband networks". Most efficacious in every case. He invented telemedicinal compound.

What is significant about the award for Barceló is not so much that it won an award but that it is promoting itself. The campaign was for Spanish television and clearly wouldn't work elsewhere as no one would have a clue as to the association or who Valeró was. But it marks a distinct shift in emphasis in tourism marketing.

Hotels have previously left promotion to others - to tour operators and to travel agencies - but now they are going direct. Iberostar has been doing this, as with its advertising via the BBC website. At the recent ABTA convention, it was made clear that hotels were becoming more active and direct in their promotions.

This is important because the chains with the financial and global clout, such as Barceló and Iberostar, are seeking to make themselves recognisable brands, and what this means is that they wish to attract a loyal customer base that opts for a Barceló or an Iberostar hotel and therefore holiday, regardless of location. As the brand takes over in the minds of the consuming tourist, the specific destination, for example Mallorca, becomes secondary.

It is potentially a most efficacious strategy for the likes of Barceló, but not necessarily for Mallorca, as hotel chains that became global on the back of the island's home market seek customers for their resorts many miles away from Mallorca. So maybe the island should grab for itself the "most efficacious in every case" line. It does, after all, have many a medicinal compound: "drink a drink a drink...".


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.