«Το brand φτιάχνεται από μέσα προς τα έξω. Πρέπει κάθε Ελληνας να αλλάξει προς την ίδια κατεύθυνση». «Να ανακαλύψεις μέσα στη χώρα σου μια καινούργια χώρα» – έτσι το λέει ο Γ. Ολύμπιος. «Αυτό θα ήταν λυτρωτικό και για μας τους ίδιους. Να δώσουμε επιτέλους μια απάντηση στο “τι σημαίνει Ελληνας σήμερα; Τι τον ενδιαφέρει; Τι θέλει να πετύχει;”». Αν αυτό είναι εφικτό, εξαρτάται από τον καθένα μας ξεχωριστά.

Η Καθημερινή (28.2.2010): Το brand name της Ελλάδας σε κρίση, Από τον Ζορμπά στην αμηχανία και στα… λαμόγια,  Πώς μπορεί να αντιστραφεί το κλίμα

Digital diplomacy is solving foreign policy problems using the internet.

What does that mean?

It’s conventional diplomacy through a different medium. Through the web we can listen, publish, engage and evaluate in new and interesting ways. Crucially, we can also widen our reach and communicate directly with civil society as well as governments and influential individuals.

Why are we doing it?

Because we have to:

• those whose ideals and objectives we oppose are active and highly effective at using the web. If we don’t take up the digital debate, we lose our argument by default
• many of our partners, particularly those outside government, have an established digital presence, engaged audiences and expertise in achieving goals online. If we don’t work with them, we’re missing a huge opportunity
• our shift from one-way web publishing into active digital diplomacy reflects the changing way we all use the web – as a multi-way social medium as well as a source of information. We lose credibility and cannot claim to be an open organisation if we don’t take part.

How do we do digital diplomacy?

The broad steps we follow in any digital diplomacy activity are:

• Listen: find out which blogs, groups and forums are already discussing the issue, gauge their attitudes, figure out our angle and tone
• Publish: creatively push out our messages in news, blogs, videos, pictures, across our global web presence.
• Engage: encourage questions, take part where the debate is happening, form partnerships with relevant organisations and online groups
• Evaluate: explore how far we achieved what we set out to do. what could we do better next time? what did our target audience, colleagues and partners think?

Find out more about how we do digital diplomacy.

We have specific objectives to achieve to improve the effectiveness and take-up of digital diplomacy across the Foreign Office. Read about Digital Diplomacy Group’s objectives.

Digital diplomacy in action

Our case studies illustrate real digital campaigns we have run and give an insight into how we plan, execute and evaluate our work. We’re also frank about what has worked and what could have gone better.

Find out what a real digital diplomat thinks by watching Ambassador John Duncan’s interview with Stephen Hale.

Visit the Digital Diplomacy page of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Nation Brands Index 2009, one of the cornerstones of nation branding and one of the most relevant tools to measure the nature and power of a nation brand, has just been released. The index, which surveys people from across 20 major developed and developing countries about their image of 50 countries, has revealed on this occasion an an unprecedented phenomenon – a dramatic improvement in the rankings of one country, the United States.

Nation-branding.info: Nation Brands Index 2009

O Keith Dinnie, ειδικός σε θέματα Nation Branding (NB), με την ευκαιρία επικείμενης (6-7.7.2009) ομιλίας του στο συνέδριο του Athens Institute for Education and Research με θέμα το Nation Branding της Κύπρου, παραχώρησε συνέντευξη στα μέλη της Ένωσης Ακολούθων Τύπου Νίκο Νενεδάκη και Αθηνά Ρώσσογλου:

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: You are the editor of “Nation Branding – Concepts, Issues, Practice” (2008). What is actually NB, besides a logo and a smart, moto-driven advertising campaign?

Keith Dinnie: Nation Branding does not always require an advertising campaign. The goals of nation branding are extremely diverse and for some of those goals the power of advertising is probably quite limited. For example, when I have conducted research with inward investment agencies, the people working in such organisations do not appear to believe strongly in the power of advertising. Instead, they advocate face-to-face meetings and continual networking with potential investors into their country. On the other hand, the power of advertising is probably much greater in the domain of tourism promotion, where consumer perceptions are perhaps more malleable than those of business investors. Other important techniques of nation branding include diaspora mobilization and public diplomacy, neither of which are advertising-based.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: Sophisticated NB theories have started to emerge only recently. Do you believe that NB could at some point constitute a distinct academic field or discipline?

Keith Dinnie: I hope that NB will soon constitute a distinct academic discipline, but the academic world can sometimes be slow to identify phenomena that do not easily fit into pre-existing disciplines. A challenge in establishing NB as a distinct academic field is to bridge the gap between business on the one hand and international relations on the other. This dichotomy is apparent in the gap that separates Nation Branding from Public Diplomacy (PD). Frequently, NB and PD focus on the same issues but there is very little overlap between the business scholars who write about nation branding and the international relations scholars who write about public diplomacy. NB and PD resemble ships passing in the night.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: Simon Anholt identifies NB with almost all of a country’s important policy areas. Is NB a technique? Or, is it a political concept?

Keith Dinnie: A conceptual problem with NB is that it is so wide-ranging that it defies easy categorisation. In the terms of your question, the answer would be ‘yes’ to both points – yes it is a technique, and yes it is a political concept. It may not appear to be a very sophisticated definition, but one government official working on nation branding in Asia told me that “nation branding is a big elephant”. In some ways that is an apt metaphor.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: Is it possible to influence the way the mass media present and comment on a specific country? Could there be a national strategy to this end?

Keith Dinnie: We need to draw a distinction between ‘influence’ and ‘control’. It is possible for national governments (just like corporations) to exercise a certain degree of influence over the media coverage of their country through the hiring of PR consultancies and the cultivation of positive relationships with media organisations. However, it is not possible for governments to control the mass media, apart from domestically in the case of dictatorships. Governments should worry less about damage limitation and concentrate more on getting a wider range of positive news stories about their country out into the international media.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: NB emphasizes on coordination and a single message. Yet, modern democracies are often based on argument, differences and even distinct national identities. How can this issue be strategically managed by the country itself?

Keith Dinnie: The benefits of coordination are often speculated about but there are few concrete examples of successful coordination for other countries to follow. More research is required into this area. As for a single message, my view is that it is impossible to encapsulate the rich diversity of a whole nation in a single message or slogan. There should be different messages according to which objectives are being pursued and which audiences are being targeted. I believe the trend in the coming years will be away from a monolithic approach and instead towards a more segmented strategy.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: You have recently participated in the Conference ‘Images οf Nations: Strategic Communication, Soft Power and the Media’ by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (January 2009). In the past, you stayed in Greece for quite some time (1989-90). Is Greece changing?  How do landmarks such as  December 2008 Riots or The Museum of Acropolis 2009 affect Brand Greece ?

Keith Dinnie: I think there is a huge difference in perceptions regarding the December 2009 Riots. On the on the one hand, Greek politicians and media are extremely concerned about the negative effects of those riots on foreign perceptions of Greece. But on the other hand, I have not seen any evidence that Greece’s image in terms of foreign perceptions has suffered anything other than very short term damage. When I was at the ‘Images of Nations’ conference in February, one of the other foreign delegates told me that in his opinion, the film ‘Mamma Mia’ has had a much more powerful effect on Greece’s image than the December riots. I think he was right. ‘Mamma Mia’ is an appalling film but it has probably been wonderful for Greece’s image, and will be remembered by most people long after the memories of the December riots have faded.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: Are there any countries, which are considered models vis-à-vis NB policies? Could you give us some concrete examples?

Keith Dinnie: I don’t believe that any country has yet mastered the full range of techniques that constitute nation branding strategy. But two countries that are often presented as examples of best practice are Spain and New Zealand. Both countries appear to have established strong nation brands (but not across the full range of nation branding dimensions), although there is debate about just how much – if any – contribution that conscious nation branding strategy made to the successes enjoyed by those countries.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: More and more diplomats, academics and marketeers, imbued with distinct cultural identities, are actively involved in NB policies. What is the place to be reserved for each category within the overall NB strategic planning?

Keith Dinnie: It would be wrong to propose a standardised template which categorises the roles of different stakeholders within NB strategy. Every country needs to develop its own, unique solutions. While it is true that more people are taking an interest in nation branding, for many people nation branding is still a new and unfamiliar concept. I have been conducting numerous interviews at Embassies in Tokyo, where I currently live, and I often have to explain to my interviewees what nation branding is before I commence the interview. Also, in many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is deeply conservative and actively hostile to the concept of nation branding because the concept of nation branding does not fit with the traditional professional training of career diplomats. It is obviously extremely difficult to develop a coherent and comprehensive nation branding strategy if a country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no interest in it. This situation will probably change as a new generation of more communication-minded diplomats assumes responsibility within their respective Ministries of Foreign Affairs, but that process could take several years.

Forum Διεθνούς Επικοινωνιακής Πολιτικής: Your presentation in the upcoming (6-9 July 2009) Conference of the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ΑΤΙΝΕR) is entitled ‘Cyprus - A Stakeholder Identification Perspective’. Could you briefly elaborate on your approach?

Keith Dinnie: My ATINER paper represents an application of stakeholder identification and prioritisation principles commonly applied in the corporate world but rarely applied in the domain of nation branding. This approach involves stakeholder mapping, that is, an attempt to identify the full range of stakeholders that could contribute to a country’s nation branding strategy. The next step – which is politically sensitive – then involves prioritising those stakeholders in terms of their power, influence, potential contribution and so on. It may be that the term ‘prioritisation’ is inappropriate and that it would be better not to ‘prioritise’ stakeholders, but rather to develop ways in which every stakeholder can make a positive contribution, no matter how large or small, to the overall nation branding effort. In the case of Cyprus, it was interesting to explore possible ways in which Cyprus can extend its nation brand beyond the twin pillars of tourism and shipping towards a more multifaceted nation brand.

Ευχαριστούμε θερμά τη Μαρία Φωλά για την βοήθεια και υποστήριξη.

Κυκλοφόρησε το νέο τεύχος του Public Diplomacy Magazine το οποίο μπορείτε να βρείτε στον ιστότοπο www.publicdiplomacymagazine.com

Το νέο τεύχος που φέρει τον τίτλο «Middle Powers: Who they Are; What they Want», είναι αφιερωμένο στις προκλήσεις και τις ευκαιρίες που έχουν οι λεγόμενες χώρες Μεσαίας Δύναμης στον τομέα της δημόσιας διπλωματίας. Μεταξύ άλλων, αρθρογραφούν οι Eytan Gilboa, Andrew Cooper, Evan Potter και Simon Anholt:  “In today’s increasingly multipolar world, with only one country considered a true superpower, the middle is where most of the nations that influence shifting international agendas exist. This crowded space necessitates particularly innovative public diplomacy if countries are to distinguish themselves, and garner international attention for their niche causes. In short, it is a contested space where the players themselves struggle to determine what roles they want to take on…”

Δείτε, μεταξύ άλλων, τις ενδιαφέρουσες τοποθετήσεις των: Eytan Gilboa: The Public Diplomacy of Middle Powers και Simon Anholt: Nation “Branding”: Propaganda or Statecraft?

Καθώς και τη συνέντευξη του  Suat Kınıklıoğlu, Δ/ντη του Center for Strategic Communication της Τουρκίας: At Post: Suat Kınıklıoğlu

Κατά τη διάρκεια πρόσφατης επίσκεψης της ENAT στις Βρυξέλλες, η Ινώ Αφεντούλη, στέλεχος της Διεθνούς Γραμματείας του ΝΑΤΟ (Διεύθυνση Δημόσιας Διπλωματίας), αρμόδια για τις σχέσεις με την Ελλάδα, τις χώρες του Καυκάσου (Αρμενία, Γεωργία, Αζερμπαϊτζάν) καθώς και το ακαδημαϊκό πρόγραμμα του οργανισμού, παραχώρησε συνέντευξη στα μέλη της Ένωσης Ακολούθων Τύπου, Αθηνά Ρώσσογλου και Χριστίνα Φιορέντζη.

Οι προσπάθειες του ΝΑΤΟ να αντιστραφεί η κακή εικόνα που έχει η κοινή γνώμη για τον οργανισμό, οι προοπτικές της Ελλάδας στον τομέα της Δημόσιας Διπλωματίας και ο ρόλος των Στελεχών Δημόσιας Διπλωματίας, αποτέλεσαν τους κύριους άξονες της συνέντευξης.

Η Ινώ Αφεντούλη τονίζει: “…Για την Ελλάδα, η δημόσια διπλωματία είναι ίσης αν όχι μεγαλύτερης, σημασίας από την κλασική διπλωματία διότι έχουμε να υπερασπιστούμε εικόνα και θέση της χώρας. Αυτά τα στοιχεία η δημόσια διπλωματία μπορεί να τα υπερασπιστεί με έναν πολύ καλό τρόπο. Υπάρχει πολύ μεγάλο πεδίο για συντονισμό και ανάπτυξη μιας μεθοδικής, συστηματικής προβολής της χώρας και των θέσεών της στο εξωτερικό. Κατά την άποψή μου, αυτό θα έπρεπε να αποτελέσει εθνική προτεραιότητα: η ανάπτυξη μιας πολύ σοβαρής στρατηγικής για την προβολή της χώρας μας στο εξωτερικό και για την, αν όχι επιρροή, γνωστοποίηση και καλλιέργεια των απόψεών μας, των θέσεών μας εκεί που πραγματικά λαμβάνονται οι αποφάσεις, δηλαδή σε ΜΚΟ, σε think-tanks, σε οικονομικά κέντρα. Δεν μπορούμε, δηλαδή, να ξεχωρίσουμε και να πούμε ότι θα κάνουμε δημόσια διπλωματία, θα κάνουμε οικονομική διπλωματία, θα κάνουμε πολιτιστική διπλωματία. Θα πρέπει να τα κάνουμε όλα…”

Δείτε το απομαγνητοφωνημένο κείμενο της συνέντευξης.

Nation Branding – Everything about Nation Branding and Country Brands: www.nation-branding.info

Nation-Branding.info is the place to visit for all those interested in nation branding, country brands and how countries can and are actually applying branding practices in a global strategy to improve their image abroad, to increase their notoriety, to attract foreign investment, to boost their exports and to become magnets for both tourists and skilled migrants. At Nation-Branding.info visitors can keep track of recent developments in the emerging nation branding industry, get shortcut access to news and insights from online papers and websites all over the world*, and yes, read the blog entries too. Whether you want to read, comment or share, Nation-Branding.info is the right place for that.