10451: Bermuda Short On Big Idea.

New York Times Advertising Columnist Stuart Elliott reported on the new Bermuda Tourism campaign from Fuseideas in Boston. After all the drama and alleged illegal activities surrounding the account and former AOR GlobalHue, this latest campaign seems criminal in its absolute lameness.

Bermuda’s New Pitch Is Short: ‘So Much More’

By Stuart Elliott

A popular vacation destination is trying again to encourage tourists to expect the unexpected, as well as all that visitors have traditionally traveled there for.

The goal is explicit in the theme of a campaign on behalf of the Bermuda Department of Tourism: “So much more.” The campaign, now under way, plays up cultural and culinary attractions and diversions like scuba diving and golf along with mainstays like the pink sand beaches and Bermuda’s proximity to the East Coast.

The campaign is the first work for the Bermuda tourism department from a new creative agency, Fuseideas in Boston, which was selected after a review that concluded in March. Fuseideas has also worked on travel campaigns for Florida, Maine and Massachusetts.

The budget for the Bermuda campaign is $4.8 million through early next year. The campaign is wide-ranging, including television and radio commercials; print, outdoor and online ads; the official tourism department Web site, gotobermuda.com; promotions; direct marketing like e-mail and newsletters; brochures; public relations; and social media like Facebook and Twitter.

The “So much more” theme replaces ads that urged potential visitors to Bermuda to “Feel the love.” Before that, Bermuda used ad themes that included “Let yourself go.”

There is a “fundamental difference” between “Feel the love” and “So much more,” says William Griffith, director for tourism at the Bermuda Department of Tourism in Hamilton, Bermuda.

The previous theme “is a statement,” Mr. Griffith says. “ ‘So much more’ evolves out of everything that is Bermuda and encompasses all that is unique to Bermuda.”

“‘So much more’ came from the Bermudians themselves,” he adds, and points tourists to “adventure, culture, history, restaurants and food.”

The theme also underlines initiatives by tourism officials to make Bermuda “more of a 12-month destination,” Mr. Griffith says, and continue efforts to differentiate Bermuda from the Caribbean.

(Yes, although Bermuda is “not the Caribbean,” Mr. Griffith notes, being “much farther north,” it still needs to remind Americans exactly where it is — and is not.)

The campaign is part of a national tourism master plan that Bermuda recently adopted, Mr. Griffith says, with a strategy of “leveraging the top strengths of the island” to help market it.

Read the full story here.