Most tourism campaigns follow a familiar formula. Beautiful landscapes, smiling visitors, carefully selected attractions and a reassuring message about why you should visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
VisitOSLO has taken a rather different approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For its 2026 winter campaign, the Norwegian capital has brought back Halfdan, the grumpiest resident in Oslo. This time, he is starring in a Christmas horror musical, complaining about winter and everything that makes his city an interesting place to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is an unusual way to promote a destination. And that is precisely why it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond the humour, the campaign offers an interesting lesson in destination branding: how to build a recognisable identity, develop a successful creative concept and turn a seasonal marketing challenge into an opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halfdan first appeared in VisitOSLO\u2019s 2024 campaign, Is It Even a City?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The premise was simple. A seemingly unimpressed local walked around Oslo, explaining why tourists should probably stay away. The city was too small, too easy to explore and had attractions and restaurants that were far too accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, these complaints revealed exactly the opposite. What Halfdan considered shortcomings were actually some of Oslo’s most appealing qualities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaign generated more than 25 million organic views across platforms, turning an unconventional tourism advertisement into an international success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years later, VisitOSLO decided to bring the character back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new campaign, It’s Totally Even a City<\/em>, was launched in October 2026. This time, Halfdan’s complaints focus on winter, traditionally a less popular period for tourism in Oslo. But rather than simply repeating the original format with snow-covered streets and Christmas decorations, the creative team took a different direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result is a Christmas musical with elements of horror, complete with an increasingly dramatic soundtrack and a protagonist who remains thoroughly unconvinced by his own city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to VisitOSLO, the new film attracted more than five million organic views during its first week online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating a successful campaign is difficult. Creating a successful sequel can be even harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once an idea has become familiar, its original surprise is gone. Repeating the same formula risks turning a distinctive creative concept into a predictable advertising routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VisitOSLO and its creative agency, NewsLab, understood this challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of simply reproducing the original advertisement in a winter setting, they kept the elements that made it recognisable: Halfdan’s personality, the dry humour, the understated tone and the apparent reluctance to promote Oslo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then they changed the format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turning the sequel into a Christmas horror musical gave the audience something unexpected while preserving the campaign’s identity. The character remained the same, but the storytelling evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an important distinction in brand communication. Consistency does not mean repeating the same message indefinitely. It means maintaining a recognisable identity while finding new ways to express it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same principle applies to destination brands. A city does not need to invent a completely new personality every time it launches a campaign. It needs to develop its existing identity without allowing it to become repetitive or stale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also a clear strategic objective behind the creative concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winter, which runs from November to March, is traditionally considered the low season for Oslo. The campaign is designed to challenge the perception that the Norwegian capital is less attractive during the colder months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it does so without relying exclusively on the usual Christmas imagery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film showcases a different side of the city: museums, festive lights, cosy caf\u00e9s, floating fjord saunas, winter swimming, cross-country skiing and sledging in snow-covered forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are not simply a collection of attractions. Together, they communicate a particular kind of winter experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oslo is presented as a city where urban culture and outdoor activities coexist, where visitors can move between museums, restaurants and the surrounding natural environment without having to choose between a city break and a winter escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaign also extends beyond the video. VisitOSLO has published Halfdan’s Winter Guide, using the character’s reluctant recommendations to introduce visitors to places and experiences across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The storytelling therefore becomes a gateway to the actual tourism offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is where a creative campaign becomes more than entertainment: it gives people a reason to explore the destination and helps them understand what they could experience there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most interesting aspects of VisitOSLO’s approach is that it does not try to make the destination universally appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Halfdan is not enthusiastic, welcoming or particularly interested in convincing anyone to visit. He is grumpy, sarcastic and consistently unimpressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet this personality has become one of the campaign’s greatest assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many tourism organisations still communicate through a relatively narrow set of conventions. They present destinations as beautiful, welcoming, authentic, exciting and full of unforgettable experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is nothing inherently wrong with those qualities. The problem is that thousands of destinations use almost exactly the same language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When every city promises the perfect experience, the communication becomes interchangeable. It becomes difficult to understand what makes one destination genuinely different from another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VisitOSLO has found a way to avoid that trap. Rather than describing Oslo through conventional promotional language, it has created a character who communicates the city’s appeal indirectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The humour makes the campaign memorable, but the underlying message remains clear: Oslo has plenty to offer, even when the weather is cold and the days are short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A distinctive brand personality does not have to appeal to everyone. It has to make the destination recognisable to the people it wants to reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most valuable lesson from the campaign is not the use of humour or the choice of a musical format. It is the decision to build on an existing creative identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The original Halfdan campaign created a recognisable character and a distinctive way of talking about Oslo. The sequel demonstrates that this identity can be developed further, adapted to a different season and used to communicate a new marketing objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what makes destination branding a long-term activity rather than a succession of disconnected promotional campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A destination’s identity should provide continuity across different messages, seasons, audiences and communication channels. Individual campaigns can change their tone, format and focus, but they should still contribute to a coherent perception of the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This does not mean that every destination needs a recurring character or a humorous advertising concept. Those are creative choices, not universal solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What matters is having a recognisable identity and knowing how to translate it into communication that people actually remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same principle can be found in other areas of branding, where a consistent identity is not necessarily a static one. It can evolve through different expressions while retaining the elements that make it recognisable. This is also explored in Dynamic Identity Architecture: What LA28 Teaches Us About the Future of Branding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The success of VisitOSLO’s campaign is a reminder that destination marketing does not always need bigger promises, more spectacular imagery or another list of attractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, a more effective approach is to find a distinctive way of telling a story that already belongs to the destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oslo has not suddenly become a different city. Its museums, caf\u00e9s, saunas and winter activities were already there. What has changed is the way they are presented to potential visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The campaign also demonstrates the value of creative continuity. Rather than abandoning a successful idea after one campaign, VisitOSLO has developed it into a recognisable communication platform, adapting the narrative to a new season and a different promotional objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For destinations competing for international attention, that is an important lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being visible is not the same as being recognisable. Generating views is not the same as building a brand. And promoting attractions is not necessarily the same as communicating a destination’s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n VisitOSLO’s grumpiest resident may not be particularly enthusiastic about welcoming tourists. But he has managed to do something that many conventional tourism campaigns struggle to achieve: make people remember the place he supposedly doesn’t want them to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, the most effective way to tell people why they should come is to stop telling them what they are expected to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy the Sequel Doesn’t Feel Like a Repetition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Turning Winter into a Destination Marketing Opportunity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Value of a Recognisable Brand Personality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Destination Branding Is Built Over Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Tourism Destinations Can Learn from VisitOSLO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n