Nation Branding at the World Expo

11/2/2010 - The University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy is doing a special study on nation branding at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.  Featured here is the latest in their video blog.  

World Expo, founded in 1851, is a global event where countries showcase their culture and innovation. With a record 192 confirmed official participant countries and 50 international organizations, Expo Shanghai 2010 is expected to attract 70 million Chinese visitors from across the country. In this project, the Center on Public Diplomacy will use the construct of “brand experience” to explore and examine how countries pursue nation branding at Expo Shanghai and how Chinese visitors experience the branded country pavilions.

As part of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's Nation Branding at the Expo Shanghai 2010 project, Jian (Jay) Wang, CPD University Fellow and Associate Professor of strategic communication at USC Annenberg, is leading a research team in Shanghai to document how countries define, communicate and manage their identity and image through national pavilions at the Expo.

Weekly video blogs highlighting select countries and their pavilions will be produced from June through August 2010. Countries are selected based on their geography, roles in global society and relationships with China. Each video will feature a country's pavilion, and will typically include interviews with pavilion directors or officials.  Featured here is the most recent video.  For all video in the series, click here.