The solution
In 2011 the Philippines drew 3.9 million tourists against Thailand's nearly 20 million, despite comparable beaches and far smaller budgets. Eight agencies pitched for the account; the Department of Tourism picked BBDO Guerrero. Chairman David Guerrero coined the line after a snorkeling trip: whatever the activity, it is more fun in the Philippines.
The clever part was the grammar. 'It's more fun in the Philippines' is an unfinished comparison, so the campaign invited the internet to finish it — and the internet did, flooding Facebook and Twitter with homemade versions. Even the satire helped: images of Manila's traffic jams stamped with the slogan spread the format to people a tourism ad would never reach. The government didn't fight the parodies; the template absorbed them.
Launched on 6 January 2012, the campaign coincided with arrivals rising 9% that year to 4.27 million and climbing to a record 7.1 million by 2018. It ran for eleven years — revived with a fresh look by BBDO Guerrero in 2019 — until the DOT replaced it with 'Love the Philippines' in June 2023, an unusually long life for a tourism slogan in the region.
What it achieved
Write the slogan as a template the public completes
Why it worked
The fill-in-the-blank structure made every user a copywriter, multiplying content at zero cost.
Tolerating satire kept the meme alive; most governments would have shut it down and killed the reach.
It competed on voice and participation, not on outspending Thailand and Malaysia.
A single flexible line worked across every activity, island and medium.
What can be applied
In a social-media era, the strongest tourism slogan is not a claim but a template: design it so the audience finishes the sentence, and even parody works for you.
Aftermath
The slogan anchored Philippine tourism marketing for over a decade and became the region's textbook case of crowdsourced destination branding; its 2023 replacement 'Love the Philippines' was measured against it and widely criticized by comparison.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE