A couple of days ago, the Kingdom of Sweden announced it had just woken from a dream in which “dinosaur-sized chickens” attacked a TV broadcast antenna. This was a few hours after the country complained about Google’s Chrome browser, and right around the time it decried the horrendous accent sported by the Swedish nanny in HBO’s series Boardwalk Empire: “One would think that there’s more money in HBO’s dialect coaching budget than letting the poor girl watch the Swedish Chef from the Muppets,” sniffed Sweden.
Now, those in Ottawa responsible for monitoring the country may have missed the pronouncements, since they were not issued through the traditional channels of international diplomacy. Rather, they were sent to more than 13,000 people around the world by Hasan Ramic, a previously unremarkable Swede who last Sunday was given the keys to the kingdom’s Twitter account, @Sweden, to do with as he wished for a week.
He was the second person to take up the task since the launch on Dec. 10 of Curators of Sweden, a new online initiative co-sponsored by Sweden’s tourism authority and the Swedish Institute, which works to position the country in the global economic and cultural marketplace. The project promises: “A new Swede every week!”
It’s a new twist in the practice of “nation branding,” which has floated ever higher on the radars of governments around the world in recent years.
For decades – even before they thought of themselves as brands – nations have sent ambassadors, artists, and academics abroad to be their public face.
But country brands are notoriously tough to control. That obnoxious Aussie who elbowed you at the pub the other day? He bruised his country’s brand and didn’t even know it. Research In Motion’s recent swoon? It’s dragging down Canada’s brand among the world’s tech savvy. Those 35 murders in Veracruz back in September? They also put a bullet in Mexico’s brand. And let’s not get started about Ottawa’s very public withdrawal from Kyoto.
Slowly, though, some countries – like a growing number of companies – are coming to grips with the fact that their brands are a function of every public representation of their citizens (or employees). They’ve realized there isn’t much of a choice in an era when people are instantly connected to others from around the world as soon as they check their social feeds on their phones.
Last month, the Canadian Tourism Commission rolled out a website and an app, Explore Canada Like a Local, that gathers up and rebroadcasts online travel recommendations from regular Canadians. That follows a similar project for Tourism Toronto, which published recommendations pulled in from a variety of social networks, including Twitter and FourSquare.
With its new project, Sweden is taking the ethos several steps further, embracing the potentially terrifying reality of a brand that can’t really be controlled – and then magnifying it.
Curators of Sweden is the brainchild of Volontaire
When a faceless government employee controls the @Sweden Twitter handle, said Mr. Kampmann, “it’s a dead account.
“It becomes just another advertising megaphone. What we’ve done instead is said, all people living in Sweden are in essence ‘Sweden’ so they’re a good representation. So together the total of us give a multifaceted view of what Sweden is all about, and very personal – high and low, funny and stupid, intelligent, stupid, funny, quirky.”
