How to waste 1.000.000 Euros on TV spots!

I waited quite some time to publish this post just because I wanted to see if some SEO will be done for this huge ad campaign on Eurosport. I am talking about a recent publicity campaign the Romanian Government contracted on Eurosport. It all started at the end of May this year, during Roland Garros. The Government has contracted some company to create a few TV ads, and then signed a contract with Eurosport to run them more than 1000 times. I don't know the costs of the actual ads, but I do know the costs of running them in prime time on Eurosport accross the entire European Union. 1 Million Euros. That is quite a lot compared to Croatia running almost as much ads as Romania on the same TV channel for half the money.

Spent 1.000.000 on TV ads to raise awareness on your country and slogan!

The most important aspect, totally neglected by the Government, was what to do next when the ads are finished. Seeing over and over again a TV ad with one distinct phrase: "Land of choice", tying that up to beautiful landscapes, architecture and events makes you want to know where is the so called "Land of choice" and how can you get there!

This is where the Government had a huge flaw in their thinking. Their campaign site for Land of choice is not optimized for search engines. In fact, "Land of choice" key phrase doesn't show up on the site once. I am not sure about this, but I think the first backlink with the text "Land of choice" is the one I just posted above in this post.

Conclusion

Basically, Romania spent 1 million Euros for a TV campaign that brought no tourists because they had a hard time identifying where "Land of choice" is, and the main fault for that is the fact that if you search for this key phrase on Google you end up in Croatia! Such a complete waste of money, but hands down for entrepreneurs in Croatia who picked up on the slogan ran on TV and incorporated it into their sites, their offers, their business!

Published on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 2:11 pm in advertising.

About Bogdan Pop

Bogdan Pop is a young Romanian entrepreneur who runs WebRaptor. He is a web developer with awesome design skills, who enjoys writing about everyday's work and usability. He relaxes by taking photos every once in a while and by mixing french electronic music. Connect with him via Twitter.