Creative process to develop Romania’s tourism brand, budgeted with Euro 94,600

The creative process for the visual identity of Romania’s tourism brand was budgeted with Euro 94,600 from the total budget of almost Euro 900,000 for Romania’s tourism brand, the representatives of the Romanian Regional Development and Tourism Ministry said, for Mediafax news agency. 

According to them, Romania’s tourism brand was conceived by THR/TNS and is based on a market research that took place in Romania and in other 8 important markets for Romanian tourism, such as Germany, UK, Italy, Russia, Austria, US, France and Hungary. The study included two components, a qualitative and a quantitative one, and included 10,800 telephonic interviews, 90 direct interviews, 2 focus groups, five workshops with the project team and three branding councils.

After Thursday’s scandal regarding the use of a stock photo as an element of the Romanian tourism brand’s logo, Romanian Tourism Ministry announced today, in a press release published on its site, that it will not pay THR-TNS until the situation isn’t clarified in what concerns the “naughty” leaf and other symbols commercialized over internet. “Romanian Regional Development and Tourism Ministry (MDRT) asked today to the association THR Asesores en Turismo, Hoteleria y Recreacion SA/ Taylor Nelson Sofres, its contractual partner in realizing the Romanian tourism brand, to urgently communicate its official position regarding the press published info which refer to one of the three representative brand elements as being very similar, as form and composition, with a logo commercialized over internet”, according to Ministry’s press release.

After MDRT asked publicly explanations from THR/TNS and announced it won’t make any payment until the situation is not clarified, the association that made the brand reacted and said that “Romania’s tourism brand and all its components were created by us and, considering that, they should be considered as being original”. According to THR/TNS, the drawing presented by Romanian press and attributed to Nulens and the brand element from Romania’s tourism brand’s visual identity “have many significant differences of shape, color and orientation”. THR/TNS mentioned, in the same letter, that the association is willing to make available to the ministry all the manuscripts, drawings and sketches realized during the creative process, in order to remove any doubts, and even “to make supplemental graphical works over the isotype”.

The Romania’s brand story started a few years ago, with a bunch of different ideas and a lot of different people assuming the responsibility over the time. From the 13 pitch offers for Romania’s tourist brand, Romanian Ministry selected 3 for the last stage of the pitch: TBWA Bucharest – GfK Romania, Saffron Brand Consultants – Brandient Consult – Acacia Avenue and THR- Taylor Nelson Sofres. Five months later, the winner was announced, the criteria of selection – the lowest price – being fulfilled by THR.