Rajasthan Tourism Logo and Ad Campaign

In 2016, the Rajasthan government hired the global advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather to develop a new identity system and ad campaign that truly represent the essence of the state and attract more tourists. The objective of this multi-crore media campaign was to double tourism in the state from 1.5 million to 3 million visitors by the year 2020.

Ogilvy and Mather designed the Rajasthan tourism logo using camels and birds forming a Rajasthani man with the iconic handlebar moustache. The logo was simple, unique, and appropriate with beautiful typographic treatment that strongly captures the essence of Rajasthan.

They also created an ad campaign, “Jane kya dikh jae” (you never know what you might discover), with a catchy anthem “Maati Baandhe Painjanee” (The land enchants you). The new identity and ad campaign was very successful and went viral within few days of its launch.

However, in 2019, the new government decided to rebrand and made sweeping changes to the logo by conducting a statewide logo design competition. There is no information available about any consulting agency that advised the government to change the previous identity. Unfortunately, the new Rajasthan tourism logo turned out to be a disaster. It is in the form of a complex emblem that is difficult to use in smaller sizes and barely visible on social media posts. Moreover, the color treatment is uninviting, as the use of red is associated with danger, anger, passion, sacrifice, and blood, which is inappropriate for promoting tourism. Overall, the new logo is generic, institutional, uninviting, inappropriate, overly complex, and functionally limited.

While it is appreciable that the government involved the public and local talent in the creation of the new identity, as a design practitioner, I see it as a failure. Redeveloping the state's identity and ad campaign should have been handled by experts, especially when the previous one was so successful. The general public's involvement is better suited for non-permanent tasks such as blog post writing, poster making, and event-based assignments. Rajasthan is not the only state to involve the public in designing the state's identity; almost all state tourism logos are the result of competitions organized by the government. The reason for talking about Rajasthan specifically is, crores of public money spent by the previous government on the identity have now gone in vain.

If you are looking for a logo design that avoids such flaws and ensures clarity, appropriateness, and impact at all sizes, our design studio specializes in creating logos that are simple, unique, appropriate, functional, memorable and timeless. Contact us to discuss how we can help your brand achieve a strong and consistent visual presence.