The "Türkiye Nation Branding Forum," organised by the Presidency's Directorate of Communications in İstanbul, continues with panels on its second day.
Timuçin Güler, Promotion General Manager of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, who made a presentation at the session titled "Nation Branding in the World: Experience Sharing" as part of the Forum held at Maslak TIM Show Centre, said that the private sector and the public should cooperate in order to promote the country.
Noting that the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency collaborates with the private sector, Güler stated that marketing and promotion are extremely delicate duties that should be undertaken professionally by experts.
Noting that there are many channels that can be used, Güler referred to the media as an example and said, "As Türkiye, we make promotions on televisions in more than 30 countries. We carry out our promotions on national and global news channels. We are exerting these efforts for the brand's development and stability. Advertisements continue throughout the year. If you are unable to achieve success and maintain a stable promotion, then you begin to diminish the effect of the promotion and the image of the brand."
Güler noted that the "goturkiye.com" website has more than 155 million visitors. Noting that the platform provided services in 10 languages, Güler said that the "Go Türkiye" account was active on social media and had a large number of followers.
"NGOs, international companies are actors of public diplomacy"
Speaking at the panel titled "Public Diplomacy and Nation-Branding Strategies", Oğuz Güner, Head of the Public Diplomacy Department of the Directorate of Communications, said that public diplomacy is also a sub-discipline that aims to increase the prestige of countries.
Stating that public diplomacy and nation branding both were elements of soft power, Güner said:
"The government is the primary implementing actor, as seen by studying the history of public diplomacy. NGOs, multinational corporations, and citizen diplomats have all been active in public diplomacy during the past 60 years. When categorising efforts in these processes, we place it in the nation branding cluster if it is something other than the political message you will convey to society, the international public, or your target audience."
Noting that public diplomacy and nation branding is an area of activity carried out by high-level public institutions in many states, Güner said, "There is a highly collective public diplomacy ecosystem in Türkiye. This ecosystem is interpreted through projects carried out by powerful actors in various fields of activity. TİKA is one of them. They do fantastic work in the geography known as lands dear to our heart. We have institutions such as the Maarif Foundation, the Yunus Emre Institute, Turkish Red Crescent and AFAD."
"Public diplomacy is directed toward a specific audience"
Dr Kılıç Buğra Kanat, Associate Professor at Penn State University, stated that public diplomacy was born and developed in the United States.
Noting that nation branding is a newer concept, Kanat stated that there is a constant "chicken and egg" situation regarding public diplomacy and nation branding. Kanat said, "When the Cold War ended, the discourse shifted to soft power. What exactly is soft power? It is to persuade countries to do things they cannot be forced to do by establishing certain attraction centres and gaining their trust without them realising it."
Stating that public diplomacy is directed toward a specific audience, Kanat said, "This audience typically consists of the country's elite, including journalists, influential opinion leaders, and NGO representatives. You don't practise public diplomacy in a country just to improve your image; you have more micro goals and expect governments to change their policies as a result of the pressure opinion leaders put on their own governments after you change their minds with those micro goals."
The forum will continue with panels.