The world's most curious man contemplates writing, branding and travelling with an insane degree of nuance.

jeremy@jeremyhildreth.com

Monthly Archives: August, 2009

If you must have a logo

The best country brand logo ever.

Dispatch from Kaliningrad 3: The Curonian Spit

Read Part 1. Read Part 2. You’d think you’d know it if you were on a mile-wide strip of sand with water on both sides. But the Curonian Spit is so heavily forested that you cannot see anything but trees when you drive along the main road. The Spit is a geographical anomaly: it’s narrowness [...]

The problem with first impressions

…is that you don’t know what you don’t know, sometimes, when you’re looking at something. Take, for example, this scene in Vilnius (where I am delighted to be living for the summer), which I photographed while jogging today. It is a normal scene, a bit of urban decay, some concrete blight. Very common around here. [...]

Two centuries of branding theory and practice boiled down to two lines

‘Seeming’ versus ‘being’: two centuries of branding theory and practice boiled down to two lines.

The chosen brand

As a nation brand, “Israel” is undeniably strong in some areas — technology, security, agriculture — yet marketing products as Israeli, and daring to pitch their Israeli-ness as a virtue, can be problematic. Many Israeli companies, when competing internationally, are even a little shy about their place of origin. Which is why I was pleased [...]

Dispatch from Kaliningrad 2: Konigsberg transmogrified

Read Part 1. There is a Baltic legend of the city Wanetha, a coastal conurbation which was sunk into the sea in retribution for the sins and errors of its citizens. Anybody familiar with this myth would certainly recall it when listening to the tale of Kaliningrad. Konigsberg, as the city was called until 1946, [...]

New destination

The WhereBrands place branding blog is the new soapbox for my strong opinions and invaluable wisdom about place-related marketing.

You’ve found me!

Not always easy. As an international brand copywriter, Wall Street Journal arts page contributor and near-nomad, the road is my home.

The constant stimulation of an ever-changing confluence of people, place and moment has shown itself to be the ideal salve for my painful curiosity about this astounding phenomenon we call human conscious life.

So I travel.

Meanwhile, I tell my stories and I help others tell theirs, doing my bit make the world safe for good writing and good marketing. I've had an eventful career so far (read the full "about me" stuff here; for better or worse, it's almost all true).

At present, I am creative director of WhereBrands, a company I founded to coach cities, countries and companies on how to make the most of [a] place. WhereBrands' site is devoted wholly to place-related marketing, branding and communications, as is the WhereBrands place branding blog.

The rest of my brilliant insights about marketing, writing and travelling you'll find right here (along with the lousy ones). I encourage you to leave comments, or, if you feel yourself a kindred spirit, drop me a line; I'm always glad to hear from clever, exotic people like you.

Speaking on YouTube

Speaking on YouTube

A string of funny and insightful anecdotes about the way countries regard (or loathe) themselves, and how that affects outsiders' perceptions (clip: 2 mins).

In the news: Branding the hard way

In the news: Branding the hard way

Jeremy tells CNN/Fortune that Estonia getting the Euro is an 'unfakeable' positive signal for the country. "It's something that they've earned from scratch."

In the news: Jeremy’s new book is out

In the news: My new book is out

Brand America (2nd edition): the making, unmaking and remaking of the greatest national image of all time. Co-authored with Simon Anholt.

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