The campaign entitled “Expectations vs. Reality” is intended to change the image of Lithuania in the West as a former soviet country. It will be on 8 April.
“Since we are a small country, we need to be brave to grab the attention,” said the head of Go Vilnius, Dovilė Aleksandravičienė, who presented the new campaign targeting German and British markets.
“We see that in the UK, Vilnius is a familiar name to 43%, less than half of the Britons living in the UK. (&) In Germany, (the percentage) is a bit higher, 62%, but the awareness could and should be higher,” she added.
Recent data suggest the awareness of the city has been increasing for the past three years, according to the head of Go Vilnius. The capital city of Lithuania has become more known in Germany after the NATO summit last year.
Aleksandravičienė also cited studies showing that the arrival of tourists to Lithuania is hindered by stereotypes, as many people still consider Lithuania to be an undeveloped country of the former Soviet region.
“We see that even 60% of the Brits (&) say they would like to come back here or would recommend coming here to others. Half of the Germans are of the same opinion. We see that a stereotype is a barrier to going to Vilnius. Once we reject this stereotype, they think completely differently,” she said.
Antonio Bechtle, the campaign’s identity designer from BM Boutique, also said a pressing need to change the Western misconception of Eastern Europe arose after Russia invaded Ukraine. It soon became clear that the Westerners knew nothing of life in the East, which called for action, according to Bechtle.
The campaign will feature a video ironically depicting stereotypical images of “Soviet” Vilnius shown to German and British internet users, as well as on various billboards in underground stations and airports, and replaced by the views from today’s city of Vilnius.
In 2019 and 2020, Go Vilnius ran campaigns entitled “Vilnius – the G Spot of Europe” and “Vilnius – amazing wherever you think it is.”
Go Vilnius, official development agency of Vilnius City, provides visitors, investors, relocating talent, entrepreneurs and businesses with everything they need to know about the capital city of Lithuania.