Seminar on turning local brands into soft power resources
WVR - Cultural diplomacy opens new doors, helping localities develop their brands, transform into soft power, create additional momentum to attract tourism, investment, and international cooperation, bringing many values to the people.
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| Overview of the seminar “Promoting Local Values on the Digital Media Ecosystem”. (Source: Organizing Committee) |
In the context of diplomacy increasingly intertwined with socio-economic, cultural, tourism, and trade development goals, building local brands is becoming an important part of the strategy to promote images and expand foreign relations.
This is a crucial aspect of development-serving diplomacy, where cultural, historical, and human values are transformed into resources to build local images, attracting tourists, investors, and international partners.
At the scientific seminar “Promoting Local Values on the Digital Media Ecosystem” recently organized by the Diplomatic Academy in collaboration with the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Nghe An, experts focused on discussing how to build local images in a rapidly changing media environment.
From the practical experience of Nghe An province, many opinions suggested that promotional activities need to shift from introducing existing advantages to building a distinctive story, creating a unique imprint, and gradually transforming local values into competitive advantages, thereby enhancing soft power and expanding connectivity with the outside world.
From promoting potential to creating attraction
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| Ms. Tran Thi My Hanh, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Nghe An, emphasized the important role of building local brands. (Source: Organizing Committee) |
Tran Thi My Hanh, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Nghe An, stated that in the digital transformation process, media increasingly plays a crucial role in building images, promoting economic, cultural, and social development, and enhancing the competitiveness of localities.
Nghe An possesses many advantages to build its own image, from being the homeland of President Ho Chi Minh to the folk songs Vi, Giam, Cua Lo beach, Pu Mat National Park, the unique cultural space of the Western ethnic groups, along with a system of heritage, OCOP products, and industrial, trade, and service potentials.
However, possessing many values does not necessarily equate to forming a strong brand, as the challenge is how to connect individual values into a distinctive, recognizable story suitable for each audience group.
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| Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Oanh speaking at the seminar. (Source: Organizing Committee) |
At the seminar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Oanh, Head of the International Relations Department, Academy of Journalism and Communication, suggested that in investment promotion activities, Nghe An's “Five Readiness” message initially created a clear transmission of planning, infrastructure, premises, human resources, and administrative reform.
The notable point of this approach is shifting the focus from promoting potential to clarifying the locality's readiness, thereby providing practical information that investors are concerned about when considering and making decisions.
According to this expert, this approach can be expanded to the fields of tourism and cultural diplomacy, as each audience group has different information needs.
For instance, investors are interested in what advantages and conditions Nghe An offers for project implementation; international tourists need to know about destinations, experiences, and the unique values of the locality; while international partners may be interested in potential cooperation in culture, education, and related fields.
Therefore, although the approach needs to be adjusted for each audience group, the messages conveyed must ensure consistency, thereby contributing to forming a clear and unified image of Nghe An.
Cultural diplomacy begins with local stories
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| Director Tran Thi My Hanh and Dr. Nguyen Dong Anh co-chaired the seminar. (Source: Organizing Committee) |
Dr. Nguyen Dong Anh, Acting Head of the Department of Communication and Cultural Diplomacy, Diplomatic Academy, suggested that promoting local values in the digital environment should not stop at providing abundant information on media platforms but should focus on selecting the right values, building suitable stories, and targeting the right audience groups.
According to Dr. Nguyen Dong Anh, this approach should also be placed within cultural diplomacy activities, as a Vi, Giam folk song, a heritage, or a festival can become the starting point for connections with international audiences, thereby contributing to bringing Nghe An's image closer to the outside world.
When introduced consistently, selectively, and appropriately to each audience group, distinctive cultural values can become an important part of the process of building images and enhancing the attractiveness of Nghe An.
Accordingly, development-serving diplomacy can be implemented from local values, as cultural interest expands into tourism experiences, cooperation opportunities, product choices, and investment connections.
Therefore, Nghe An's goal should be to create imprints from distinctive values, thereby opening additional channels to connect with the public, partners, and external markets.
Digital space expands local soft power
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| Dr. Ta Bich Loan, former Head of the Entertainment Program Production Department, Vietnam Television, speaking at the seminar. (Source: Organizing Committee) |
The rapid development of digital platforms is changing how the public accesses and forms perceptions of a locality. Accordingly, destination images can be searched through Google, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, travel review platforms, and AI-driven tools.
According to Dr. Ta Bich Loan, former Head of the Entertainment Program Production Department, Vietnam Television, and lecturer at the Department of Communication and Cultural Diplomacy, Diplomatic Academy, Nghe An can leverage AI and data to build multilingual content, while identifying the needs and interests of each audience group.
Instead of providing scattered information, the locality can build a centralized data repository on heritage, destinations, images, videos, local products, investment projects, and cultural stories, thereby creating a unified source of materials for communication, promotion, and providing information suitable for each audience group.
Besides the role of management agencies, building local images also requires the participation of residents, businesses, media, artists, guides, students, and content creators.
If conveyed appropriately, stories told by the community itself can help make Nghe An's image more relatable and authentic, while expanding channels to bring information about the locality to the public.
In that case, the measure of promotional effectiveness should not only be gauged by views or the amount of content posted, but more importantly, by the ability to turn public interest into concrete actions, from choosing Nghe An as a destination, exploring products, showing interest in investment opportunities to establishing cooperative connections.
This is also the basis for Nghe An to link cultural values with tourism, trade, investment, and foreign relations. When identified, selected, and conveyed consistently, existing values can contribute to forming Nghe An's unique imprint domestically and internationally.Thus, bringing Nghe An's image to the world is not only about enhancing recognition but also about building goodwill, strengthening trust with the international public, thereby expanding opportunities for the locality to become a destination for tourism, investment, cooperation, and connection.
From Nghe An's story, it can be seen that building a local brand is not just a challenge for each province or city, but one of the factors contributing to creating soft power and national branding.
When each locality knows how to exploit, connect, and transform distinctive values into competitive advantages, Vietnam will form a diverse, rich, and attractive local brand ecosystem.
With steps in connecting culture with diplomacy and economic development, Nghe An can become a typical case to continue refining methods, thereby expanding the ability to promote local values and contribute to spreading Vietnam's identity and image to the international public.
Some images from the event:
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