Crisis management of the COVID-19 pandemic: the impact on Nation Brands
What impact is the COVID-19 pandemic having on how the global public perceives Nation Brands – and more importantly, how is this changing people’s willingness to travel, invest, or work in countries around the world?
Delve into exclusive new research carried out by leading place branding strategists, Bloom Consulting, and its big data sister company, D2 Analytics - and discover ideas for reputational management of your Nation Brand, not only during this crisis, but also for your longer-term strategy.
- How enduring the impact of this current crisis is likely to be on global perceptions of Nation Brand identities
- Why the ways in which countries are managing the crisis appears to be having the greatest impact on talent attraction
- How the R-0, the number which symbolizes viral infection rates, can be applied to Nation Brands as a B-0 or Brand-Nought - the perfect ratio of positive perceptions required to balance negative perceptions and restore or ensure reputation
- How you can apply these learnings to your own strategies
Jose Torres, CEO at Bloom Consulting, Rebecca Smith, Director of the New Zealand Story, and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, share what have been the learnings on the power of a robust, values-based Nation Brand during this pandemic. And how can a nation branding strategy adapt to manage reputation during a crisis?
Loading feed
Confirm cancellation
An error occurred trying to play the stream. Please reload the page and try again.
Close
Bloom Consulting CEO
Since 2003 Mr. Torres has been advising Countries in the field of Nation Branding and City Branding, working directly with heads of state, directors of National Tourism Organizations and Investment Promotion Agencies.
His clients include Countries, Regions and Cities such as Australia, Costa Rica, Israel, Jamaica, Poland, Sweden, Stockholm and many others spread across all five continents.
Mr. Torres collaborates directly with the World Economic Forum in the matters of Nation Branding and is a guest speaker in some of the most prestigious universities in USA and Europe, such as HARVARD, the London Business School, Stockholm School of Economics and many others, being interviewed by The Economist, BBC, Guardian and CNN.
Since 2011 his company performs a global research project called the Bloom Consulting Country Brand Ranking and most recently the Digital Country Index and the Digital City Index
Rebecca is a business veteran with over 20 years experience in marketing across diverse sectors such as Diary, Banking, Telecomms, IT, Manufacturing and Tourism.
Rebecca has led business growth, competitive repositioning, brand development and was a pioneer in digital and direct marketing in New Zealand. Having worked across sales, marketing, operations and manufacturing she brings a wealth of knowledge, real-life experiences and a practical perspective to her leadership of New Zealand's country reputation programme, the New Zealand Story.
The New Zealand Story was established in 2013 to expand the reputation of New Zealand beyond natural beauty. Rebecca's team enable the success of businesses by providing them with the skills, tools and knowledge to each share a compelling story that sets them apart on the world stage. In addition, Rebecca works with Govt. agencies to craft and harmonise messages about New Zealand through diplomatic, trade, and public channels.
Rebecca is passionate about enabling a sustainable and prosperous future for New Zealand and the world.
Niall Gibbons is Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland. He oversees the marketing of the island of Ireland across the world, leading a team of over 160 staff in 21 markets, whose work is underpinned by sustainable destination marketing principles. Over 11 million overseas visitors in 2019 contributed over €5.8BN to the island’s economies and supported 325,000 jobs.
He led Tourism Ireland’s expansion into new markets such as China and the Middle East and oversaw the organisation’s emergence as a leader in digital marketing and social media. He developed ground-breaking partnerships with LucasFilm and HBO which allowed Tourism Ireland to leverage the global success of Star Wars and Game of Thrones to showcase the island of Ireland overseas, in a new way. He led the development of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative, which has brought tourism to the heart of St Patrick’s Day celebrations across the world. The World Economic Forum has ranked Ireland 3rd in the world out of 136 countries for ‘effectiveness of marketing and branding to attract tourists’.
Niall is a business graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. He sits on the Irish Government’s Export Trade Council, is a member of Culture Ireland’s Expert Advisory Committee and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality in Ireland.
Clare’s interest in the complex area of place branding was sparked whilst working on a series of Nation Branding Masterclass events, led by Simon Anholt, one of the first thought-leaders to speak about and promote the concept of place branding. Having listened to Simon address audiences in Accra, Delhi, Dubai, London and Singapore on how policy, governance, and symbolic actions need to combine with branding and marketing to create a competitive identity and drive economic growth, she continued to follow the growth in this sector. As Global Conference Director for The International Herald Tribune, now the New York Times, Clare also saw growth in advertising and storytelling around tourism and investment promotion strategy. Clare launched the first City Nation Place Global conference in London in 2015: CityNationPlace.com has been steadily building followers and in 2017, she launched the first City Nation Place Americas conference, in 2018 City Nation Place Asia Pacific took place in Singapore, and 2019 has seen the first City Nation Place UK, specifically for towns, cities and regions across the UK, and the launch of the first City Nation Place LatAm & Caribbean event. Clare manages the small team at City Nation Place alongside providing event consultancy and management for a number of clients in the publishing and trade association sector, including running the World Media Awards for the World Media Group and event consultancy for the UK Association for Online Publishers.