Wow Philippines (stylized as WOW Philippines) was a tourism marketing campaign used to promote Tourism in the Philippines. The name of the campaign also served as the tagline of the campaign.
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Background
Then Department of Tourism secretary Richard Gordon conceptualized the tagline "Wow Philippines" himself in 2002. The government agency then has limited budget allotted for advertising. The promotional campaign was based on the 24-month Visit Philippines 2003 campaign by the World Tourism Organization which aimed to encourage the Filipino diaspora to visit tourism sites in the Philippines.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) then commissioned advertising firm BBDO Guerrero for the implementation of the campaign. This includes the coming up with promotional materials and the addition of "More than the Usual" as a sub slogan.Also the "Wow" of the campaign slogan is meant to be capitalized which doubles as an acronym. The meaning of the acronym varies depending on the usage of the slogan according to the government agency. The following are some possible meanings given by the DOT are the following:
Impact
From 2007 to 2012, foreign visits in the Philippines increased from about 3 million to 4.27 million. The campaign also generated 2800-4000 jobs.
Reception
In 2003, the Wow Philippines campaign was named as the Best Marketing Effort of a National Tourism Organization in the overall category in 2002 at the Internationale Tourismus Bourse.