The Maltese eight-pointed cross will be more eye-catching in the Malta Tourism Authority’s new advertising campaign that Media Consulta (MC) will be launching next autumn, said MC chief executive officer Harald Zulauf.

Speaking to Maltese journalists who visited MC’s head office in Berlin last week, Mr Zulauf gave an outline of the agency’s plan to put Malta on the map and market the country among Europeans as a quality tourist destination.

The multimedia public relations and advertising agency was recently awarded a EUR21 million three-year contract, by means of which it will attempt to reach more potential visitors through an integrated communications strategy.

Mr Zulauf said MC wants to design an image campaign that sells as quickly as possible. The new advertising campaign will be launched by the end of September or the beginning of October and MC will be focusing on increasing awareness of Malta as a tourist destination.

According to MC’s research, Malta’s main problem in attracting tourists is the lack of basic knowledge about the country among foreigners.

“It is not enough to simply launch an advertising campaign. We need to put the country on the map and reach target groups through an integrated approach. Malta is simply not on the radar for many Europeans, so we want to make it more prominent through a sales-oriented approach,” said Mr Zulauf.

Thirty MC staff members are involved in the Malta project and together with the agency’s PR team in the UK, they will be mainly promoting the Maltese islands on national media engines in European countries, while a small portion of the campaign will have a pan-European focus.

The Maltese Cross will be a key visual in the advertising campaign – it will provide for an umbrella theme that audiences will be able to associate with the Maltese islands.

Mr Zulauf said Malta is extremely fortunate to be linked to the Maltese Cross, which is a very well known symbol around the world.

MC is strongly recommending to make prominent use of the symbol in all communication activities, echoing what is already informally the case throughout the Maltese islands, as well as its appearance on the euro coin.

In particular, MC is proposing that whenever possible, the Maltese Cross would be integrated into the creative advertising concept.

Vince Reardon, MTA’s account director at MC, said the cross should be more prominent and MC’s team will be seeking to possibly relaunch the MTA logo, making the Maltese Cross more prominent, perhaps a bit bigger, because it is the main symbol associated with the country.

The Maltese Cross is a symbol of the country’s rich history, its Christian roots, the character of a people with a unique language in Europe and the various influences that have shaped Maltese culture, said Mr Reardon.

Asked whether the logo behind the whole MTA image would be given a complete makeover, Mr Reardon said the idea was not to scrap all the good work that was done over the past years.

Certain intrinsic characteristics of MTA’s image will certainly not be discarded completely; they will simply be revamped. MC’s creatives are expected to present their first ideas to MTA in the coming weeks and all creative concepts will be pre-tested.

Mr Zulauf spoke about the different parts that will make up MC’s integrated approach and among the strategies that the agency is planning to make use of, he mentioned, among others, regular reporting about the country in the global media and the possibility of promoting about four main agenda-setting events taking place in Malta.

Editorial content is sometimes more credible than advertising, so this is the main reason for MC’s idea to make Malta more prominent in different media.

Referring to Gozo, he said the island will be given special impetus in the advertising campaign. MC plans to include television commercials and online promotional material focused specifically on Gozo, said Mr Zulauf.

“We appreciate the sensibility of the island and we have recognised that its main highlights are rural holidays, diving and wellness,” he said.

More features on Media Consulta and the Malta Tourism Authority campaign will follow