Comment

Comment by José Balido on December 18, 2010 at 10:37am

Great idea, Alan. Maybe you should move this discussion into the tourism branding group, where more people will see it?

 

How about Miami's own moniker: The Magic City. This isn't a new marketing thing, it was reportedly coined in the early 1900s because Miami mushroomed into being a city without having been a town. Or so they say.

Comment by Alan 'Brand' Williamson on December 18, 2010 at 7:03am

Ed

 

You've got me going on the subject of nicknames - as a possible added-value strategy for destination brand names generally, and those struck down with an alpha-bout of initialitis specifically - where a name change is politically sensitive.

 

To keep the conversation going, here are a couple of my favourite and not-so-favourite destination nicknames:

Favourites:

The Big Apple - New York City

The Big Easy - New Orleans

 

Needs much improvement:

The Big Smoke - London

BeanTown - Boston

 

So Ed and fellow-Tripatinos, what say we compile the best and worst destination nick-names in various categories by continent (Asia/Americas/Europe/Africa/Middle East/Oceania):

- Country

- State/County

- City/Town

 

Comment by Ed Wetschler on December 14, 2010 at 11:31am

Funny, Alan, a few months ago I read a newspaper column lamenting the decline in American athletes' nicknames. They used to have nicknames like Whitey Ford and The Sultan of Swat, The Bambino and Gator (that last one, for a pitcher from Louisiana). Now it's just A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) and K-Rod (the pitcher Rodriguez), not to mention actress nicknames like J-Lo.  Yawn.

Comment by Alan 'Brand' Williamson on December 14, 2010 at 2:55am

Ed, glad you liked the vid.

Sadly, the alpha-contagion has spread to other destinations who think because it's OK for the big brands such as USA, UK and LA, it's OK for them to use initials, forgetting that the big brands have the constant attention of the world's media. No such luck for BVI: British Virgin Islands or PNG: Papua New Guinea

AI: Anonymous-Initialdom

 

Comment by Ed Wetschler on December 13, 2010 at 5:23pm

I got a kick out of this, Alan; thanks for posting it.