Branding conference to be held in Belgrade

The 7th International Brand Conference “Branding regions and cities – foreign direct investments, export growth and tourism development” is going to be held on 10 June 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia. This year’s edition is particularly interesting to Nation-Branding’s audience since the Fair has a particular focus on place branding. With the program of highest quality…

Country logos

A nice collection of country logos. I wonder if there’s really a need to make it clear, but just in case, please notice: this is a collection of country logos, this is NOT nation branding.

Korea’s urge to look better

As most of you known, South Korea is embarked on an ambitious nation-branding project. While the country is almost leading the way by incorporating many good tactics and strategies, it’s also true that the programe has a darker side – the country’s invention of a custom-made nation brands index, something we discussed here. This index…

Estonia uses Skype to brand itself

Back in 2009, we used Estonia and Skype as an example of how a nation brand can be strengthened through the country’s commercial brands (for a longer disquisition check out our Nation branding and national brands: Making the most of them piece). Now it seems that Estonia is honouring these recommendations as the Estonian promotion…

Interview with a Country Brand Index representative

Last week we reported about BrandingKorea publishing an interesting interview with Xiaoyan Zhao, a representative of the Nation Brands Index. Now it’s turn for Victoria Berry, a representative from FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index, to be interview by Clement Brossard and David Robert. Here are some of the interview’s highlights: About the Country Brand Index’s nature:…

Interview with a Nation Brands Index representative

The BrandingKorea.org website, which is an independent publication that monitors and discusses the strategies, activities and challenges related to the promotion of the Korean destination, has published a worth-reading interview with Xiaoyan Zhao, Senior Vice President and Director of the Nation Brand Index study at GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. In the interview, Mr….

Redrawing Europe’s country map

This is an old story, yet an interesting one. According to the Economist, the European map is outdated and illogical. Here’s how it should look: And here’s the rationale: People who find their neighbours tiresome can move to another neighbourhood, whereas countries can’t. But suppose they could. Rejigging the map of Europe would make life…

Wally Olins’ keynote speech in Poland

Last week we published an interview with Wally Olins on his efforts to brand Poland (a project he worked for the Polish Brand Institute (www.imp.org.pl), as well as a short speech by Mr. Olins at a press room. Now it’s time to watch Wally Olins’ full-length keynote speech in Poland. As always, wonderful speech from…

Wally Olins on Poland’s country brand

No doubt, Wally Olins is one of the world’s most experienced and influential nation branding experts. He has worked with many countries including Portugal and Poland, but with the latter he’s gone through his ups and downs. He paused his nation branding work for Poland because of political reasons, but also because of  cultural misunderstandings,…

Why Costa Rica is a winning brand

Dorie Clark, CEO of Clark Strategic Communications, is a marketing and communications consultant. She’s written a small piece on why Costa Rica is a winning brand from the touristic point of view: I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica — and along the way, discovered that almost everyone I know has either traveled…