You won’t see soldiers or camels, not even Masada or the Church of the Nativity. American advertising students executed a marketing project on a Middle Eastern country about which they knew almost nothing—and only saw beauty, advanced technology, and good cuisine.
After spending years racking their brains to improve Israel’s image abroad, the county’s diplomats decided to consult the next generation of American advertising and marketing professionals.
To carry out the task, the consul-general in Boston, Nadav Tamir, and the consul for media and public affairs in New York, David Saranga, recently turned to the Faculty of Global Marketing Communication and Advertising at Boston’s Emerson College.
Working within the context of their final MBA projects, students were asked to submit their suggestions for a marketing campaign for the State of Israel.
In the class selected to participate in this project, many students’ prior conceptions of Israel were based on information gleaned from television and internet news sources. But after months of research, they came to their own conclusions.
“The prime target audience towards whom Israel should focus its efforts is the gay tourism industry,” the students wrote. “Tel Aviv could certainly rank as one of the most gay-friendly cities, like Barcelona or Copenhagen.
"In addition, we suggest targeting the audience defined as quality-of-life tourists who want good food and spa treatments. In the course of our research, we discovered that Israel ranks as the world’s third-largest sushi market per capita—a “record” that ought to be stressed.
The advantage of this group of students is that it is firmly ensconced in American culture but has friends from around the world, from countries like Great Britain, China, Turkey, India, and even Pakistan.
“These students told us unequivocally, ‘Don’t concentrate all your public relations efforts on politics; show us the young and sophisticated side of Israel,’” said Consul Saranga. “Some of the ideas that emerged from this class will be implemented already in the near future in Israel’s public relations campaigns.”
Consul Tamir added, “This group reflects the tastes, styles, and trends to which Israel needs to turn.”
Emerson College located in Boston and is the only liberal-arts American college or university that is dedicated to communication and the arts.
The school is currently ranked as one of the 16 most noteworthy colleges on the East Coast of the United States and its Global Marketing Program is considered among the best in the country.
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