In a world dominated by the forces of marketing and advertising, even countries and cities are considered global brands today. The phenomenon of nation branding, whereby governments manage their country's global image, has emerged as a popular and effective commercial practice in recent decades. In fact, nation-branding experts have found that the benefits of a strong national brand are both reputational as well as tangible, as they can increase tourism and foreign investment.
.
Richard Pattinson, Senior Vice President, BBC Storyworks, BBC Worldwide, highlighted these themes in a workshop titled Power of Brand Image and the Economy of Nation Branding, which was facilitated by BBC Worldwide for Sharjah's leading government figures at the sixth edition of the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2017) at Expo Centre Sharjah.
Pattinson kicked off the session by presenting three case studies that highlight best practices in nation branding. The first example was a video created for DiscoverAmerica.com, an organisation that is encouraging tourism in the United States. The video clip highlights the virtues of various cities in the US through recordings of their residents. The underlying message is that one can only discover America by experiencing it.
The second example was a BBC initiative called BBC Britain , which sought to showcase London ahead of the 2012 Olympics. As part of this project, BBC commissioned 150 new stories and launched a new content platform with thought-provoking narratives that captured the nation's essence. The platform offered a simple and interactive way of exploring the country one story at a time. According to Pattinson, who cited that 73% of users said that the platform changed their perception of the country, the case study also illustrates the power of sporting events in creating a national brand.
The third example was from Germany, which hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2006, as a case study of positive nationalism. Pattinson explained that the World Cup was one of the first instances in which Germans felt comfortable with overt displays of nationalism. Recalling his experience in
Germany prior to the event, he said: We even drove up to a house that was painted in the German flag colours.
Be Authentic, Be Consistent
In the final section of the workshop, Pattinson conducted an interactive exercise where the audience was asked to share their perception of three different countries Singapore, South Africa and Canada and evaluate their brand images. Participants were given various parameters, including safety, scenery, tolerance and history, and asked to select two positive and two negative indicators for each of the countries.
The results sparked a provocative discussion on the different challenges that governments encounter when managing their global perception. Singapore, for instance, ranked positively for innovation, but negatively for culture. Discussing how the Singaporean government has worked hard to create cultural spaces in the city, Pattinson attributed these efforts as a driving force to enhancing tourism. He said: In the last decade, tourism has increased from 9 million to 16 million.
The exercise gave the audience an opportunity to think about the core messages that constitute a country's brand campaign. Commenting on how governments can overcome negative perceptions, Pattinson said: You do need to be authentic. If you've got a problem, you need to talk about how you're tackling it.
Using the example of London, which has a long-standing problem of traffic, he said: The city has done a lot of things to counter that, but ultimately, it needs to invest in public transport and restrict car access in the centre of the city, which it is now doing.
He added: You can only tell audiences things to negate a perception without having substance behind it for a short while. Singapore needed to invest in culture. It can't just be a plaster that you stick on.
Speaking about how governments should disseminate their brand messages he said: It's really important that the culture of a brand message is set from the top. Emphasising the importance of consistency, he said: Only when you're sick to death of saying something do you know that it's gotten through to your audience.
Pattinson also agreed with a comment from one of the participants about transforming weaknesses into opportunities. Speaking about the UK, he said: Our government is obviously battling an enormous issue with Brexit and is trying to turn a perceived weakness into an opportunity. The idea that there are opportunities to be found in weaknesses is absolutely true.
Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the sixth edition of the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2017) was held from March 22 to 23 at Expo Centre Sharjah. Themed Societal Participation Comprehensive Development', IGCF 2017 examines how the world's nations can leverage effective government communication to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that have become the top priority of government programmes, international institutions, media organisations and civil society.
Offering a transparent platform to examine current issues and formulate recommendations to help governments optimise the impact of their communication, IGCF 2017 convened more than 2,500 local and international personalities from the ranks of government officials, experts, thought leaders, and government communication professionals.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
In a world dominated by the forces of marketing and advertising, even countries and cities are considered global brands today. The phenomenon of nation branding, whereby governments manage their country's global image, has emerged as a popular and effective commercial practice in recent decades. In fact, nation-branding experts have found that the benefits of a strong national brand are both reputational as well as tangible, as they can increase tourism and foreign investment. 
