A new campaign by Baltimore Tourism gives residents the opportunity to describe their personal highlights of the city.

Site visitors are encouraged to upload videos of themselves in their favourite places at Visit My Baltimore.

My own perception, rightly or wrongly, is a large city in Maryland with high crime levels and an odd sounding baseball team. (A few years living in Chicago gave me an early love for the game) So quite a limited and imbalanced view then!

Personal experiences like this can help alter perceptions and the amateur video production adds to the authenticity. I think it’s a great idea. Stories create emotion and are easy to remember. People buy on emotion and stories are easier to relate to than copy on a DMO or related site.
For anyone who has used video sharing sites like YouTube the layout and functionality should be familiar.

Users create an account, upload a video and give it a description, category and assign it any number of tags. Below each video are links to some of the places mentioned for further reading.

Below that are thumbs of related videos. Site users can sort the 70 or so videos by rating or category. The one above from Steve is his own irreverent tour of the city with an emphasis on food spots. He also shows us where to park for over an hour for a quarter (or 15p!).

The Tourism Management Institute are holding a series of digital marketing and technology workshops on 20th June at Leeds Metropolitan University. There will also be a number of companies exhibiting their products, including suppliers of DMS, e-marketing tools, CRM systems and web design.

Online book and event brochure over at http://emmm.co.uk/tmi/.

Last Wednesday morning, Italian president Romano Prodi and his minister of culture, Francesco Rutelli, unveiled a new logo and slogan for the country. The slogan reads ‘Italy leaves its mark’ and the presentation coincided with the launch of the Italy portal, www.italia.it.

There are plenty of views expressed on designer’s sites and on the whole they are negative. The attention is hardly surprising given the wide ranging views people will have surrounding how a country is represented by a symbol.

Prodi comments that Italy should have “a graphic symbol which delivers a message”. What message does the symbol portray to you? How important is a logo in determining the success of a country’s brand? Does the green shape remind you of mini golf, the shape of Italy or something else?

I came across the new logo yesterday afternoon and after a second look today I’m perched on the uninspired side of the fence. One of my main criticisms is the use of four fonts, differing weights and mixed cases. It emotes a tired, complicated and inconsistent feel. [Read more →]