Couple of stories hit me in the past two days as striking and in a lot of ways connected. First it was this happening described here by Bg anon:
As promised Ceca fulfilled her long stated desire to hold a concert at Usce close by the rivers Danube and Sava. A reported 100,000 people attended – standing room was 500 dinars and seats priced at 3,500.The only other event I can think of that took place there was an early Milosevic gathering in November 1988 where the crowd was also clearly hypnotised by the conductor.
If you want to read more about Ceca and the concert try this article by Jasmina Tesanovic here on boingboing.
Then an other thing showed up in the news:
The Ministry is looking for an advisor to help create a strategy for giving Serbia a new brand. The problem is that as far as Serbia is concerned, in the eyes of a majority of the international community, it is still most commonly associated with war and political instability.The goal of the ministry’s advisor would be to find a way to break away from the negative connotations and place Serbia’s brand into international political, investment, cultural and tourism circles.
Now, i am aware that a lot of people around the world have a poor and bad image of Serbia in their minds, and that’s understandable, both we and the propaganda in the foreign press are to blame for this. Some may even think of Ceca when they think of Serbia and that would also be our fault to let something like that make it to be a symbol of a state.
I was thinking about this and it does struck me as odd when some of the first images that come to my mind when i think of Serbia are similar to what foreigners think. So is there a good brand that we could promote as part of the Serbian image? What are the things you think of when you think of Serbia, Belgrade, Balkans in general?
I expect some sort of discussion to develop in the comments so i will not smarati anymore here. Question is quite simple and you can also comment anonymously if you want:)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I see two big problems:
the first one is about the absolute western unknowledge about Balkans. This is true not only for the western citizens, but also, and it’s worst, for the governments and for the EU leadership.
Our media (I live in Italy) don’t talk about Balkans, except during the civil war, the crysis in kosovo and Milosevic.
After those things happened Balkans disappeared from tv screens and newspaper (sometimes they talk just about mladic…).
According to this situation is difficult for us – “balkanlovers” to make the others understood that Serbia, BiH, and the other countries are wonderfull place, full of wonderfull people.
The second problem is the “political body” working in the Balkans: low low low level, but – I repeat – we don’t help them. For example if I – Europe – can only threat Serbia “Give me Mladic or you’ll never join EU and your citinzens will continue being humiliated at my embassies just to obtain a visa…” then how can I hope that in Serbia the democrats could win against the nationalists???
But we haven’t to give up!!!
Sorry for my horrible english, but italian school prefer to teach latin and old greek…….
pozdravi svim! beppe
Good to hear that someone is finally thinking of taking the image problem on!
In reference to “Breaking the Rules” a cleverly carried out self humouring/deprecating advertising campaign could work but it has to be part of something bigger, with proper foundations for it to kick in. – I remember those postcards, “Belgrade by night” under the bombs… that’s passion and humour and such a great spirit! –
Sort of like what was done for the VW Beetle after the war in a context of HUGE modern american cars and the VW history (commissioned by Hitler himself!). Instead of avoiding its perceived misgivings and faults, the advertisers promoted them and turned them around ( see: http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_01/adv382j/ifsg336/vwgallery.htm for the ad campaign) with slogans like “Think small”; “It’s ugly but it gets you there” ; “Live below your means”, it really did become the people’s car because it appealed to the emotional side in people… and it worked like magic!
Similarly, Belgrade, (I don’t know Serbia well) appeals to that emotional side – I don’t know of one single person who did not feel that passion, energy, vibration and craziness in the streets the first time they went there.
But there are practical matters in getting people there: most insurance companies (cars, health, travel) carry small print saying “except Serbia, Eastern Russia, etc.”, there is still no Lonely Planet on the region ( I know there is one for Croatia), no low cost flights, etc.
Promotion is one thing, but the infrastructure to get people there and keep them coming has to be set in place…
By the way, I’m told there’s some good skiing in the winter too… now that brings in income!
So, is one of you going to compile and send all these ideas to the new minister ?
I think one of distinctive features of Serbia for people coming from Western Europe, for example, or from the US, is that it is different. And then, for the quite bad image it has, it’s also better than imagined.
Tesla! 150-ti rodjendan 10-og Jula. Treba to kapitalizovati – super-naucnik je bio nas covek.
Speaking as an amerikanac…
Things I love about Serbia/the Balkans:
Food. Grilled meats, especially cevapcici with a nice side of diced, chilled onions on the side, and a large beer, preferably domestic. The omnipresent Balkan atmosphere of a leisurely afternoon or evening at a cafe (Skadarlija Pivnica, particularly) with local friends.
The big piles of watermelons people bring for sale near apartment buildings. Tomatoes and peppers down at the peasant market. All the women in September sitting around the fire pits roasting the peppers.
Kalemegdan is great, as is Terazije.
The mountains of course are beautiful. I didn’t have enough time to visit them except around Usce/Studenica. The essential part for the average American/Westerner who does not speak Serbian, is infrastructure (better roads and transportation) – so they don’t have work as hard to figure out how, where, and when to hop various rickety rural buses to get anywhere.
(I can, I love the adventure, but I’m very atypical in that regard – a lot of tourists need guides/handholding, but they are also suspicious of getting ripped off by unscrupulous tourist agencies…)
That, and to encourage more local lodging at great prices. Westerners always think they have to stay in a (communist-kitsch or otherwise dubious quality) hotel. The real charm of the Balkans is to be invited into cozy private homes and in the midst of conversation with your host, eat fantastically well on local cuisine with (probably too many) glasses of sljivovica.
Speaking of Studenica, the monasteries. I almost signed up for a domestic, Serbian-language tour of them. I should have, but didn’t, and I regret it. But my girlfriend and I hopped on the train on a whim and got lucky to be able to find lodging in Studenica monastery (albeit in separate rooms
. Nothing like stargazing in the quiet of a rural monastery, and hiking straight up the mountainside the next day, waving to the local farmers/shepherds.
The fortress at Novi Sad was also quite interesting. As was the old small town atmosphere in Sremski Karlovac.
Some of the best advice I ever got was from an American historian/NGO employee in Bucharest. He told me to “get lost.”
In this case, he meant, get off the beaten path (or main city boulevards). That to me is where the real charm of the region is. I wish I’d had more time to go visit Kopaonik and a dozen other places.
Anyway. Advertise the adventure, if your target audience is young adults. The eco-tourism idea is a good one, but the government also needs to build up the infrastructure to get the tourist volume up. Even the domestic business community complains about the unmaintained state of railways and ports, you know?
Enough rambling for now! Now I’m really wishing I were able to come visit again this summer!
Thanks, I will place a link to your page as well!
Well, what kind of brand you want depends on what you want to sell…
Since brands are really most important when selling to private consumers (corporations aren’t as easily ‘fooled’ by brands) I think Serbia should focus on selling itself as:
* fun-loving
* original / authentic
* passionate
I can think of a number of different personalities / ways through which to promote this image:
* Otpor
* Emir Kusturica
* Balkan folklore art
* Gypsy music (think Guca festival)
Now, if you’re after promoting Serbia as a place to do business, then promote Serbia/Belgrade as a hub for those wishing to do business in the Balkans. Why? (1) the Balkans are the last frontier in Eastern Europe and (2) the current hub, Vienna, isn’t really that central
If you want to talk about branding in order to attract more business (and jobs and money) I think you Serbia might be best off promoting it’s highly educated population. I think this is an often over-looked asset that Serbia has. During my short 9 months of living here I have discovered that many of the young people that could not get jobs for so long turned to more education to keep their brains stimulated (and I’ve been told that in the former Yugoslavia education was touted as the way to get ahead). I think whoever gets this position should compile data on the number of highly educated people that Serbia has available to work. I think if businesses knew there was highly-trained labor available they might be more likely to consider Serbia for their offices. I think this branding campaign should definitely take on more than just tourism – they should think about how to brand Serbia as business-friendly too.