Jeremy HildrethCategory Archives: Branding: places
My take on the Danish mother seeking
If you haven’t seen this (apparently more than a million people have seen it), watch it before reading further. (YouTube pulled the video after a few days, so this link takes you to the Huffington Post’s archive of the video.)
It’s a hoax. ‘Karen’ is an actress named Ditte Arnth Jorgensen. It was perpetrated by Visit [...]
Adventure in Timor 1: Something extraordinary happened here
Note: I wrote this in 2005; it’s only ever seen the light of day in the Saffron-produced ‘how to sell East Timor’ book I wrote and directed for an identity project in this tumultuous country. But I loved Timor. The country has just celebrated 10 years since its people voted for freedom from Indonesia (a [...]
Dispatch from Ghadames, Libya
With Saint-Exupery in a tent in the Sahara.
If you must have a logo
The best country brand logo ever.
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. You might [...]
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 to [...]
Tourist Friendliness 101
One hundred and fifty euros for a Russian visa. Nearly six hours waiting to cross the border at Sovetsk/Tilsit. And 134km from there to the city of Kaliningrad/Königsberg.
Königsberg Cathedral is the jewel of what precious little is left here of German architecture — the site the official tourist brochure says to visit first and foremost.
When [...]
New place branding how-to guidebook released?
I jut got hold of this. I’m not sure if it’s public yet (I can’t find it elsewhere on the web) so if somebody asks me to take it down I will. Otherwise, I’ll leave it here as a resource. I’ll post my own thoughts, perhaps, after I read it.
Download the circulating draft of the [...]
True is not the same as credible (or edible)
I’ve been noticing some ads on CNN this week, the thrust of which is “visit Poland for the amazing food here.”
These ads strike me as odd — and of limited effectiveness — because even if true, they’re not credible.
I have worked with Poland, I have been to Poland, and I live in London with about [...]
Where the place branding unicorns live
Something fell onto my desk today that reminded me again of one of the clichés of place branding that just never goes away: the self-described LAND OF CONTRASTS.
I guess it sounds like it would be an appealing marketing claim.
But it’s not. Period.
In fact, I’ll buy dinner for anybody who convinces me that he or she [...]
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