Ministry of Hotels and Tourism: Inle Lake Living Brand

Inle Lake is one of Myanmar's most important destinations, and the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism had newly appointed a Destination Management Organisation to steward it. The DMO had no brand, no communications plan and a broad set of stakeholders to satisfy, from ministry officials to the communities on the lake.

The brief was to create the brand and the communications plan from scratch, taking the logo and identity from research to idea to approval with more than 15 senior government and DMO officials, and to do it in a way that supported repeat visits and positive coverage rather than a one-off launch.

Ruder Finn Era, then ERA Communications, applied its Living Brand approach: rather than forcing an identity onto the lake, the team researched, explored, questioned and analysed to learn what Inle's brand already was. Interviews and research with media, travellers, government, NGOs and other stakeholders revealed how different groups felt about the lake and what they valued in it.

That understanding shaped both the logo, refined through many versions to approval, and the branding and marketing communications plan for the DMO's use. The plan set out online and offline communications designed to encourage repeat travel and sustain good coverage and attitudes towards the destination.