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Denver, August 21 (The Conversation) July 26, 2022 When a preview of Vogue’s October 2022 cover story about Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska was posted on Twitter, the reaction on social media was swift and overwhelming. Polarization.
Some critics say famed photographer Annie Leibovitz’s photos for fashion magazines are a “bad idea” and a glorification war.
Others praised the magazine and Ukraine’s first lady for bringing awareness to the suffering of Ukrainians five months after Russia first invaded its neighbour.
In the cover photo, Zelenska, 44, is wearing a cream shirt, rolled up sleeves, black trousers and flats.
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She sat on the stairs of the Ukrainian parliament, leaning forward with her hands folded between her knees.
Her makeup is simple, and her hair is tossed haphazardly as she looks directly at the camera.
Hours later, Ukrainian women began sharing photos of themselves using the hashtag #sitlikeagirl, posing in the same pose in a show of solidarity.
Vogue’s Zelenska profile, titled “Portrait of Bravery,” by journalist Rachel Donadio fits in with the Ukrainian government’s larger communications strategy to bring the world’s attention to the country’s struggle against Russian aggression.
As part of this effort, Ukraine also launched a national branding campaign in April under the slogan “Brave”. become Ukraine. “
As a communications scholar, I’ve studied how ex-communist countries like Ukraine have used marketing tactics to boost their international reputations over the past two decades—a practice known as country branding.
However, Ukraine was the first country to launch an official state branding campaign during the war.
For the first time, brand communication has become a critical part of a country’s response to a military invasion.
The National Brand and the End of Communism
The idea that nations could be branded emerged in the early 2000s.
This type of work uses advertising, public relations and marketing techniques to enhance the country’s international reputation. Events are often scheduled to coincide with major sporting, cultural or political events – such as the Olympics.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the former communist Eastern European countries were particularly eager to rebrand themselves and acquire a renewed international image.
When Estonian musicians won the Eurovision Song Contest, the international singing competition, in 2001, Estonia became the first post-Soviet country to win the award.
The government then hired an international advertising agency to design a modern national brand for Estonia as it prepares to host Eurovision next year.
However, research shows that national branding efforts in former communist countries are not just for international consumption. They also offer a new way to talk about national identity at home and reimagine national values ​​and goals in marketing terms.
But until 2022, no country is fighting a war with a national brand.
“Brave is our brand”
Executives at Ukrainian advertising agency Banda first pitched the idea of ​​Brave Ukraine to the government shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Based in Kyiv and Los Angeles, the agency was already working in government-sponsored events before the war, marketing Ukraine as a tourism and investment destination.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supported the wartime branding campaign and publicly announced the launch of the campaign in a video address on April 7, 2022. “Brave is our brand,” he said.
“That’s what it means to be us. Be Ukrainian. Be brave.”
Over the next few months, Banda produced a wealth of information in a variety of formats, from billboards, posters and online videos, to social media posts, T-shirts and stickers.
A campaign website offers downloadable logos and photos and asks visitors to share a message of bravery and donate to Ukraine.
Some billboards feature images of brave ordinary Ukrainians and soldiers.
Other billboards feature prominent slogans in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag. They urged viewers to “be brave like Ukraine” and said “be brave forever”.
Within Ukraine, information about the campaign appeared on everything from juice bottles to 500 billboards in 21 cities.
According to AdAge, the campaign is also running in the US, UK, Canada and 17 countries in Europe, including Germany, Spain and Sweden.
This massive communication effort is being undertaken against Ukraine at minimal cost.
Banda is donating its services, while the Ukrainian government only pays for production costs. Media space, including striking billboards in Times Square and other major cities, was donated by several global media companies.
brand as a weapon of war
Banda co-founder Pavel Vrzheshch said the campaign was aimed at boosting the morale of Ukrainians as they continued to fight Russia. But he said the focus on bravery was also about Ukraine’s future.
“The whole world now admires Ukraine’s bravery, and we have to cement this notion and make it always represent Ukraine,” Vrzech said in an interview with the media.
At the heart of this movement is an attempt to turn an intangible value, such as bravery, into an asset that can be translated into real military, economic and moral support.
In other words, it was designed to foster positive public opinion in the West in support of further aid to Ukraine to help fight the war.
This use of brand communication in warfare is unprecedented in at least three ways.
First, Ukraine not only relies on diplomatic channels to seek international support, but also uses mass media and social media networks to speak directly to citizens of other countries. It gives ordinary people around the world the opportunity to show solidarity by donating money or sharing campaign messages and pressuring the government to support Ukraine.
A formal branding campaign also allowed Ukraine to expand the war’s visibility beyond news coverage.
As the conflict continues, it may disappear from the headlines of the international media. But billboards, social media posts, and the strategic use of entertainment publications like Vogue can keep it in front of audiences.
Finally, the best brand messages connect with consumers by inviting them to imagine a better version of themselves.
Famous advertising slogans like Nike’s “Just do it” or Apple’s “Think different” illustrate this philosophy. The same goes for Ukraine’s call for people around the world to “be as brave as Ukraine”.
Measuring the effectiveness of national branding campaigns is notoriously difficult, as brand consultants point out.
The process is costly and time-consuming, and the results are often disputed.
The immediate impact of the Brave movement may not be clear for months to come.
It’s also unclear how long its message will continue to resonate. But it is clear that Ukraine is transforming the national brand into a new propaganda weapon for an era of constant stimulation by consumer culture and media. (conversation)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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