TTAL defends “Beyond Ordinary’ tagline

Louis Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of the Tobago Tourism Agency Limited (TTAL) on Monday defended the slogan, ‘Tobago, Go Beyond Ordinary’ as the result of a careful, studied approach as critics charged plagiarism, comparing it with Anguilla’s ‘It’s Beyond Extraordinary” tagline.

Among critics was Deputy Chairman of the Tobago Forwards, Kevon McKenna, who said in a press release the comparison was ‘beyond embarrassing.”

He pointed to what he described as “glaring similarities in the advertisement for Anguilla, Grenada and Tobago.

“Considering that Destination Tobago was the last brand launch out of the three, allegations of plagiarism are hard to avoid. It is therefore up to the Tobago Tourism Agency and their various proxies, including the office of the Chief Secretary and the Minister of Tourism, past and present, to provide an explanation as to why taxpayers funds were used to mimic the advertising campaigns of two competing destinations.

“Was this an error or a con job? McKenna asked.

But Lewis, a press conference called on Monday at TTAL office on Scarborough, insisted “we are standing firm behind it” (slogan).

He said a United Kingdom firm, Gravity Global, won the bid for branding the destination.

“It is not the same company used (by Anguilla), I am not too sure what company they used but I verified, double checked, triple checked that the company we used did not engage in any other Caribbean island’s brand strategy or marketing activity,” he said.

Lewis said he was unaware of Anguilla’s tagline, though he also noted that in the development of the brand, “we kept a very close eye on what everybody else was doing … all warm weather destinations just to ensure that there was no duplication.

“What I recall very clearly was that at that time, I am talking about between July and up to the time we launched in November, the tagline for Anguilla was ‘tranquillity wrapped in blue,’ very different.

“Our launch which was global, no secret and far reaching was done on November 5, that was when we made it absolutely large and public, and their launch (Anguilla) only happened on December 11.

“It’s like them coming after us so there is like no way in any way that we copied any of their strategies, we are absolutely clear on that. What I think transpired for the similar tagline for Anguilla may just be a coincidental occurrence,” he contended.

“I want to set the record straight up front, that we took a very careful, studied approach to arrive at the branding for Tobago… I understand how easily something like this could have happened… What would I have done if I was in the other shoes, I probably would have redesigned my strategy but I cannot speak on behalf of Anguilla, they’ve done what they’ve done and we are continuing in the forward process,” he said.

He said TTAL does have contact with the agency in Anguilla, meeting several times a year at Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) events and that he will have discussions with them “at the right time.”

Asked about the cost of the rebranding - from Tobago’s log-standing tagline of ‘Clean Green Serene’ to ‘Beyond Ordinary – Lewis said he could not give a figure because the exercise was part of a bigger process – the marketing strategy – which involves a social media component, the development of a website, the brand, placement purchase of keywords and artwork.

McKenna, in his statement, also slammed the similarities in slogans as “especially egregious as to date there has been no turnaround in the tourism economy for Tobago despite multiple millions of dollars being spent, and hundreds of millions more being proposed to be spent on the so-called tourism savior, Sandals.

“Tobagonians expect a statement from the line minister and the relevant agencies disclosing the identity of the brand manager and concept designer, disclosure as to whether they or their associates worked on any of the two similar campaigns, and full disclosure as to the cost to the taxpayer for the agency to ‘develop’ an existing brand concept,” he said.

“Until these matters are addressed, we place no confidence in the Ministry of Tourism, the Secretary for Tourism nor any their various agencies,” McKenna added.