CROP OVER ROYALTY: (from left to right) 2012 Sweet Soca Monarch, Party Monarch and People’s Monarch Mikey; Pic-O-De-Crop Monarch, Red Plastic Bag; Junior Monarch (8-12) Jazz ‘Jazz-Z’ Gittens; Chairman of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Monique Taitt; Junior Monarch (13-18) Aisha ‘Mandisa’ Butcher; and Minister of Culture, Stephen Lashley, after the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) Annual Crop Over press conference yesterday at the Hilton hotel.
Major promotion
8/5/2012
BARBADIAN superstar Rihanna will feature in a significant advertising campaign to market this island, expected to be launched next month.
Word of this from Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA), Adrian Elcock, during their annual Crop Over press conference yesterday at the Hilton. The BTA head expressed his excitement at the potential for the campaign.
“She has readily agreed to support her country. I believe there is a full crew here for the advertising campaign which Rihanna will be doing for her country that will be spread across social media and new media. That campaign is expected to be launched in September this year in time for the winter season. For the first time we will be able to launch a fully integrated ad campaign and we are very excited about that,” he said.
Mention was also made of the fact that several entities had expressed an interest in coming to the island to celebrate and cover the Crop Over festival. These include a designer associated with hit US television show Project Runway.
The BTA head praised the level of competition that has been a part of the Crop Over season to date, including the Pic-O-de Crop held on Friday night and Soca Royale, which took place last Sunday.
“Barbados as a brand has truly encapsulated everything which is really special to us. We have tried over the last one and a half years that I have been Chairman of the BTA to continue the good work which the BTA has been doing over the years, but also trying to add another element to our product and service element,” he indicated.
The BTA Head mentioned a brand audit which was done recently in the effort to identify what worked for this island in terms of the tourism product and what could be enhanced. The highlight of the move, he added, was to provide consistent service. He revealed that a significant investment of $250 000 was made in the promotion of the Crop Over festival and that this had gone well to date.
Elcock added that the new push was designed to get Barbadians more involved in the tourism industry in terms of feeling that they were a part of the process. Referring to the National Tourism Host programme, he added that in addition to the push to involve more people in the tourism process, “we need to ensure that we invest in our people and our programmes”.
Praise was also given to the UNESCO inscription: “This is very important because it reinforces the fact that Barbados is an important destination of historical value. We feel that this is an important story which we should include in our marketing of the island.”
The event was part of the BTA’s visiting journalists programme which sees it host 40 media persons from key source markets across the globe for the Crop Over festival. This year, journalists on the programme hail from as far as The Netherlands, with the Caribbean bringing the largest group in for the festival. During their stay, they will participate in several Crop Over events including the Pic-o-de-Crop finals, Bridgetown Market, Cohobblopot and Grand Kadooment.
To give them a more rounded experience while on island, they will also visit the Barbados Museum, go on an Island Safari tour and will participate in a Bridgetown Heritage tour hosted by historian Morris Greenidge. (DB)
