Either a very clever or a groan-inducing approach from the Czech Republic, with tourism officials paying homage to Facebook by making Czech RepubLIKE its new slogan.
Despite the word “like” being primarily an English word, such is its increasingly common use in the parlance of modern language on the web that officials are happy to use it in a play on words, switching Czech Republic to Czech RepubLIKE.
The rebranding is due to kick in across its various channels in the coming months after a tender process to a number of design and marketing agencies was completed in June this year.
Early designs of the new logo are already starting to kick about on the web and a promo video was also released a few weeks back.
A Facebook page is already up and running and presumably over time the existing Czech Tourism page will be modified to bring in the new branding.
Interestingly, early reaction is very mixed, with design agencies praising the clean nature of rebranding and how it has already been extended to slogans relating to other elements elsewhere in the marketing (“There is more to LIKE”, “Feels LIKE home”, etc).
But given that the rebranding is quite obviously aimed at appealing to those that understanding the use of “like” in everyday vernacular around the web, some naysayers are not so impressed (although comments on YouTube are hardly a benchmark of robust debate!).
What is clear with the campaign is the importance being placed on appearing modern and at the centre of how so many travellers use the web – and social networks such as Facebook – to research destinations.
Amazed VisitBritain didn’t adopt London Tweety12 for its Olympics campaigns 
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About Kevin May
I LIKE very much LIKE
Nice. however, they appear to have created two independent FB pages and each is attracting likes… :/
1. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Czech-Republike/433900323317321
2. http://www.facebook.com/CzechRepublike
The link you have has the nice URL but the 1st one has all the content and more likes.
@martin – thx for commenting…
as it has yet to be fully launched across its markets, my understanding is that there will be a lot of consolidating of channels, etc, in the coming months.
I agree that CzechTourism needed some fresh air, a modern approach to marketing and less internal bureaucracy. Not too long ago they were still debating about the best slogan to represent the destination, and you can judge by yourself, but I find “The Czech Republic, a Symphony for the Senses” quite dull.
There has been an attempt to connect with the online world for the past two years: new social media profiles, although limited to facebook and youtube. Then, the official website czechtourism.com was restyled, but in my opinion it failed to improve the content attractiveness (long blocks of text, lack of practical info, translation errors…) and usability.
Thus, this corporate rebranding is needed. The question is if this choice is the right one and I am quite sceptical. Here are my arguments:
- The concept is understood as a consequence of facebook’s popularity, which runs the risk of not being sustainable.
- It appeals to people who use social media. What about the non-connected travellers?
- It is not rooted in the identity of the country (The Republic of the Congo could do the same, for instance)
The positive part is that we’re talking about it. And it will make sense if it helps to develop digital culture within CzechTourism. Though, there is still a lot of work to do.