Negative reactions were not limited to locals. The noisy coterie of Matryoshkas featured in the ads, a nuisance and a bother to staff at tourism and catering companies, also irritated people in Russia – the very ones the clips were supposed to attract.
As explained by Enterprise Estonia, they intentionally took a somewhat untraditional approach, targeting the younger audience – the new generation of Russians perhaps better addressed by a less conservative solution, as opposed to the traditional destination country clip. Even so, no matter the language, culture and tradition – there still exists the quite universal understanding as perceived by anyone: ridiculing and rejecting the foreigner is difficult indeed to be interpreted as warm welcome. Be the target group as open-minded as ever.
Thus – we’ve got no clips. What we have, however, is an ads bill close to €28,000.
True: as claimed by Enterprise Estonia itself, even the short-lived exposure of clips proved a success in Russia – allegedly, Facebook fans at VisitEstonia.com have tripled; the campaign game participated by nearly 230,000 people. But, as always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Any positive impact of the campaign would only be shown in amounts of tourists setting feet on Estonian soil. The negative impact, however, is immediate and prompt over social media.
