Russian nation-branding as it is

Last summer the Russian federal tourism agency Rosturizm came up with a logo for Russia's tourist and promotional activities under the federal target programme 'Development of internal and inbound tourism in the Russian Federation 2011-2018'. The logo reads 'My Russia' ("Моя Россия" in Russian) in which 'Russia' is written in upright bold and 'My' is in italics. Besides, the two words represent the colours of the Russian flag: My Russia against a white background.

The logo is meant to convey a certain (by all means positive) message and create an attractive image of Russia as a diverse country with lots to offer for everyone who comes to visit it. Because hey, everyone's got their own 'Russia', don't they? So 'My' is supposed to say 'Your', basically. In other words, the logo is a way to attract more tourists into the country and boost Russia's tourism industry and reputation. 

The need to have one single logo for Russian tourism programmes was long overdue. It was a shame for a country like Russia not to have one in times when nation-branding and international tourism have become an essential part of contemporary international relations, like today's global multinational corporations or the international human rights movement. Many countries have long been aware of the power of nation-branding and have since made good use of promoting themselves in a consistent and professional manner. 

So much for the good intentions and a noble attempt at nation-branding, but not all in the Russian branding and visual communications community agreed that this is the way to effectively promote one's own country abroad. I have already talked about Russian officials' weird love of possessives when it comes to national slogans and mottos ('Hot.Cool.Yours.' as the Sochi 2014 motto and 'This is My Games' earlier in the Sochi promotion campaign), so now obviously they have also decided not to look too far with the 'My Russia' thing. Whereas some say 'My Russia' is universal and thus can be filled with many different meanings to reflect Russia's diversity, others argue that the logo's minimalism and simplicity are merely the result of not knowing what exactly to fill Russia's 'brand' with. Russia is very poor on mechanisms that would help devise a viable, flexible and manageable brand to meet the country's reputation needs. All talk of a positive image and brand is too abstract and general. Ultimately, the core of the problem with the brand 'Russia' is the apparent lack of a solid national idea/identity - Russia does not know what it is and where it is going, hence no clear idea of what it needs to advertise in its brand. The country has been more often looking back into the past, ignoring the present and having a dim idea of its future. To the outside world Russia is most often associated with Soviet times, which is unhealthy (for Russia) because it needs to invoke a vision of itself as a modern and forward-looking nation. More generally, this national ideology predicament has often been cited as the primary cause of Russia's failures at soft power.
To the linguistic pedant that I am it is also not very clear why the designers of the logo translated the accompanying slogan (there is one!) "Открой свою Россию" as 'Reveal your own Russia". My translator gut feeling tells me it would be more accurate to say 'Discover your Russia'.

Overall, this example of nation-branding with the Russia logo raises, however, the more practical question of accountability. While the government officials at Rosturizm can say all they want about how they really like the winner of the logo competition (there was a tender), experts have long lamented the widespread incompetence and lack of transparency when it comes to deciding who takes care of the country's branding and image matters. What Russian officials see as 'the most accessible, interesting, dynamic and most promising' PR logo experts call 'a great waste of public money'. The expert community is seldom consulted and the entire decision-making process in Russia on all things PR & branding seems fundamentally flawed. The bid to design the tourism logo was secured by an obscure design bureau called 'Artishok' who offered their services at the lowest price of all. Russia's Business FM Radio's experts said they did not know anything about the company, although, they added, the price well explains the final product. 

The creation of the 'My Russia' logo and the accompanying promotional goods inevitably leads one to have a look at what actually has been done in the field in other image-conscious countries over the past few years. Take the Netherlands, for example, and the regional marketing campaign for the capital city of Amsterdam called I amsterdam. A dedicated website tells the story of a campaign that started back in 2002/2004. The new single city branding strategy for Amsterdam was meant to give a much-needed image boost to a city that had been suffering considerable reputation losses in the preceding years. Amsterdam had dropped in global city rankings and had been losing the competition for visitors and businesses to other European cities and metropolitan regions.
Now the I amsterdam campaign has been running for a decade and has proven a brilliant feat of city branding. The brand has its own website packed with useful information for tourists and business people. It boasts a long list of partners and has a dedicated I amsterdam City Card loaded with lots of visitor benefits. The motto I amsterdam is designed to indicate the uniqueness of the city as 'an excellent choice for business, education, living and visiting', a centre of excellence for creativity, innovation and commerce. I amsterdam also makes direct reference to the people of the city ('I amsterdam') that are celebrated as its 'lifeblood' and are proud to have Amsterdam as their home. The motto is thus engaging, inclusive and therefore friendly. One excellent feature of the whole branding campaign, in my opinion, is that I amsterdam has gone 'real' and hands-on. The actual phrase 'I amsterdam' can be found in the city's streets as big towering letters, which never fail to attract photo-hungry visitors. The letters have become a symbol of the city, 'a physical icon' that has moved 'into the city's collective imagination'. All in all, the brand 'Amsterdam' shows how much thorough consideration, planning and effort has been put into its marketing: I amsterdam is friendly, accessible, creative, and even tactile!
Even more massive has been Britain's GREAT campaign (This is GREAT Britain - You're invited) seizing tourism and economic opportunities presented by 2012's Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Olympic and Paralympic Games. Although the focus of this marketing campaign was year 2012, it is meant for longer - from 2011 to 2015 - in order to capitalise on the legacy of the Games and bring about long-term tourism, trade and investment benefits. The UK's tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the economy. Called 'one of the most ambitious and far-reaching marketing campaigns ever developed by the UK Government', the GREAT branding strategy has been the joint effort of several governmental departments and agencies: Foreign and Commonwealth Office; UK Trade & Investment; Business, Innovation and Skills; Culture, Media and Sport; the British Council; and national tourism agency VisitBritain.
What makes this campaign really great (pun intended) are its truly global character and purpose. The organisers have managed to recruit lots of partners, businesses and celebrities to their cause. Launch events promoting international tourism to Britain have been held with pomp and splendour featuring Union Jack-branded trains on the New York subway, branded double-deckers and Minis in Europe, and Spice Girls doppelgängers elsewhere. GREAT adverts, a global 'sales assault', have been placed in the world's 'biggest and most lucrative tourism markets' in 9 countries, taking 'the fight for the tourist pound right to [Britain's] competitors' doorsteps'. An interesting offshoot of the campaign is the British brand Mulberry's own contribution to the cause called Brilliant Britain. This 'guide to a truly great nation' is meant to celebrate 'unique characteristics that make Britain great', its many 'charms and eccentricities'. The GREAT campaign also has a facebook page.
As an aside, Britain's latest nation-branding feat could remind one of the 1990s Cool Britannia movement, but it was rather bottom-up than top-down in terms of origin and purpose. It is also funny and somewhat ironic that after all this hard work and amazing effort to promote the country Britain's government are now considering launching a negative marketing campaign to discourage immigration from some countries. So much for the national brand's flexibility!
It would be interesting as well to have a look at countries that are somewhat 'closer' to Russia and therefore more comparable, such as the BRICS. India, for instance, proved quite successful with its Incredible !ndia campaign that took place in the 2000s.
Going back to Russia, its latest attempt at nation-branding ('My Russia') obviously pales in comparison with the examples outlined above. I could hardly find any evidence of close cooperation in public diplomacy between the various Russian ministries and agencies that could potentialy mount a joint full-blown long-term national marketing campaign to promote the country's reputation. There is however a slight hint at some partnership activity going on between the Cultural Ministry's Rosturizm (the national tourism agency) and the Foreign Ministry's Rossotrudnichestvo (the public diplomacy agency). To Russia's credit though, it seems to have finally woken up to the power of social networks when it comes to nation-branding. Russia's official facebook page meant to show 'the real Russia' has been in existence since September 2011 but it still has a long way to go.
The 'disjointedness' of Russia's public diplomacy and nation-branding efforts has recently been confirmed again as the Russian government has hired Goldman Sachs to improve its investment image abroad. This time the body in charge of nation-branding affairs (with a special focus on financial and business image) is the Ministry for Economic Development. One remembers that Russia has not been at all averse to making use of American-based organisations in raising its attractiveness stakes.

But before a positive Russian image abroad ever becomes a reality, we Russians might as well contemplate using snow as our next big nation-branding idea.