And all for absolutely free.
For successful "nation branding", I think one has to eliminate the idea that very idea itself, as if it were possible. This can be done to some extent, but the extent to which it was done was blinded by the same thing that blinds most Koreans when it comes to promoting Korea:
-- excess national pride in the form of bragging, ranking, and comparison
-- campaigns and imagery that appear excessively commercial and/or "slick"
-- too much focus on what KOREANS want foreigners to see, instead of thinking about what FOREIGNERS might want to see
In addition, the "Korea, Sparkling" slogan was simply off the mark. It doesn't instinctively feel like it describes Korea, nor could it -- no matter what marketing/PR mumbo-jumbo you can come up with that use the words "repositioning" or "leveraging" or what-have-you. It's a bad slogan, and I don't need market research or encounter sessions or word-association exercises to back up that claim. The slogan fails the "gut check" and foreigners familiar with Korea knew it sucked from the beginning (see my post here, and my podcast at the official launch here), even as Koreans refused to listen. After all, the sticker price for that slogan was expensive -- they just bought the car, so it can be hard to admit it was a mistake.
So, as a member of the Presidential Commission on Nation Branding, long-time producer of content about Korea, and as a person with a pretty good "gut," let me offer a campaign slogan that would have and can still work better than "Korea, Sparkling." Wait for it...wait for it...
"Korea -- Pulse of Asia."
OK, sounds a bit corny, but here's what it does: it sets up Korea (vis a vis Seoul) as a hip place to be in Asia, emphasizing more abstract elements of the culture, rather than traditional places, practices, and events. It will not rely on brochure-style imagery, but be street-slick and fast-edited. There can be different versions, especially with TV spots, but images of a city with a fast-moving working and commercial life will then change into images of street culture, street food, dance clubs, fashion runway shots, people in upscale lounges and looking good in fashionable clothes, eating kalbi outside and clinking soju and beer glasses, etc.
The imagery does not have to include hanboks, hanok houses, palaces, or cheesy attempts at showing culture "fusion", e.g. breakdancers spinning to drum beats laid over a kayageum.
THAT DOESN'T TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT KOREA, AND MAKES A CONFUSING POINT.
SHOWING ME 'RAIN' IN A COMMERCIAL IS SILLY IF I DON'T ALREADY KNOW WHO HE IS. OR THE KOREAN PRESIDENT HIMSELF.
One has to ask oneself why people with disposable incomes would want to come here. To see palaces or architecture or traditional dances? REALLY? Let's be frank: I think either Japan or China do those better. From my ignorant, uninformed perspective as an outsider, YES, Japanese/Chinese palaces look bigger and are prettier, and I can't tell the difference between a kimono or a hanbok (and even if I can, I don't really care), and Malaysian/Indonesian/Indian dances and rituals are pretty colorful, too.
My point is not to say that Korea's traditional places and dances aren't interesting or valuable -- they ARE. But from an outsider's perspective, they are NOT A UNIQUE ENOUGH DRAW to come to Korea. In that respect, trips to Korea will usually be tacked on as an additional destination on a trip to either Japan or China. That's the way it IS.
But if you show Korea's truly unique and endearing charms -- say, a hustling and bustling city of controlled chaos by day, and a culture of equally controlled-chaotic play at night, I think that is MUCH closer to the mark of WHY many first-timers come to Seoul and love it, often much to our own chagrin. The work hard, play hard lifestyle in all its specific and peculiar manifestations is also why people STAY.
And yeah, it has to do with liquor and attractive women. It also has to do with non-stop nightlife in general, with a food culture that never stops, never surrenders to the logic of culinary restraint; it is singing in public, fast-forged comraderies, the smell of food at 5 in the morning, walking along the Han River -- it's a million specific things that are metonyms for the overall greatness of Korean culture itself.
Maybe it doesn't take a degree in marketing or PR, but someone who actually knows the culture and is a smartypants in another way. Sure, maybe Simon Anholt has done all kinds of nation branding for all sort of clients; but maybe Korea is a tougher nut to crack, a more difficult thing to represent, than other places, too.
Especially with China and Japan looming over it, Korea has its work cut out for it in distinguishing itself from its two much bigger brothers, even as it has to explain its inherent inferiority as a purely tourist destination -- at least in terms of places to go, world-reknowned tourism sites, or a national history with which other people in the world are familar.
Korea has to go a special route, and it ain't "sparkling." Anyone who knows this place KNOWS that in the gut.
Korea may be, if spun right, a fast-running "pulse" or even "Asia on speed." I know the suits would never go for the latter, but something connoting speed, controlled chaos, and basically being a culture in which everything is done BALLS TO THE WALLS or not at all -- that's the way to go.
And you don't have to pay me thousands of dollars for this recommendation.
To the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as the Seoul Metropolitan Government -- you're welcome.
