As you all are well aware of, South Korea is embarked in a nation branding project that should enhance its image in a few years time. The country feels a little like the ugly duckling that wants everyone to know it’s really a swan, and it’s investing millions of dollars to upgrade its image so…
Some weeks ago we reported about the Branding Bulgaria conference, where one of the main speakers was the reknown Simon Anholt. Now it’s the turn for neighbouring Turkey to ask the British expert for his opinion. An article by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet follows. Successive Turkish governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to…
As we reported last Wednesday, a Branding Bulgaria conference was held in Sofia on March 1. The day before, Simon Anholt, one of the participants at the conference, had given a half-day Masterclass to a number of government ministers and business leaders. After his participation in the conference, Mr. Anholt was interviewed by several Bulgarian…
Bulgaria is one of those countries that emerged to the world after the fall of the Iron Curtain, but that hasn’t made itself an identifiable image yet. The country is now thinking about what’s Bulgaria image now, how it has changed since 1989 and how the country can prompt it to go to the desired…
Sweden has neither an Eiffel tower nor a Colisseum, neither a Parthenon or the Big Ben. It hasn’t got a kebab, a paella or a spaghetti. It hasn’t got either the fjords that Norway has, nor the 1,000 islands that Greece enjoys nor the 1,000 lakes Finland is famous for. But, does that mean that…
In early July 2010, nation brands expert Simon Anholt was invited to the city of Visby, on the Swedish island of Gotland. He was invited by the Council for the Promotion of Sweden, which includes Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Enterprise, Energy and Communications, the Visit Sweden office, the Swedish Trade Council,…
Last Saturday we reported on the release of the ‘Mission for Finland’ nation branding report. This 365 pages document compiles two years of hard work (the Finnish country-branding delegation was created in September 2008) by a taskforce chaired by former Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila and appointed to draft a nation branding strategy for Finland. The…
As we reported in September this year, the Brand Africa forum was celebrated in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a summit with nation branding experts and country brand managers from a number of African nations. The forum’s objective was to explore ways so that Africa as a continent and African countries can improve their image and…
Several video clips have been posted on the Internet about the recent Brand Africa forum, and we’ve compiled them all on this video marathon. The first one is made of some cuts from speeches by Dambisa Moyo, Miller Matola and Simon Anholt, and the second one is the nation branding panel’s highlights, while the third…
A new edition of the popular Nation Brands Index has just been released today. According to the Nation Brands Index 2010’s earliest known details, the United States continues to have the world’s most valuable country brand, a place it obtained in in 2009 after Obama’s election. There are minor changes in this year’s edition of…
Most of us have heard of Simon Anholt – the brilliantly caustic, conventions-defier and outspoken nation branding (or as he prefers, ‘policy advisor’) expert. Mr. Anholt was in Johannesburg for the Brand Africa Forum held in on 16 September 2010, and he was interviewed by South Africa’s Talk Radio 702’s Jenny Crwys-Williams about the importance…
Something’s going on in Africa. Just a few days after a summit was held in Accra to explore a country brand identity for Ghana, another large-scale nation branding event took place in the continent, this time in Johannesburg, South Africa. Over 300 representants from the African media, business and political leadership, together with nation branding…
