Over the last months Jay Wang from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in Los Angeles, CA has done a formidable work covering the pavillions of some of the most important countries and the world and has also interviewed some of the executives in charge of them.

Earlier this week we looked at how countries have taken different tactics in their nation branding efforts at the Shanghai’s World Expo. But, how do these approaches render in real life?

“The frequent confusion between South and North Korea and global coverage on the North often undermine efforts to enhance our brand awareness,” Lee Bae-yong, chair of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding (PCNB), told an international forum in Seoul.

It's not an exaggeration to say that all eyes will be fixed on Seoul in November with Korea hosting the G20 Summit. Ahead of the global meeting the Presidential Council on Nation Branding organized a conference on how the summit will affect Korea's national brand.

Despite no-expenses-spared efforts to boost its soft power, such as the Shanghai Expo and plans to open a Xinhua news agency office atop a skyscraper in New York’s Times Square, China’s image has taken a beating in recent months...

Prior to the successful rescue of the miners, what readily comes to mind if Chile is mentioned is General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, one of the most brutal dictators Latin America had ever seen akin to Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada and President Alberto Stroessner of Uganda and Paraguay respectively. These leaders were brand eroders for their nation brands.

In July last year, President Hu Jintao said public diplomacy would be a key focus of China's foreign affairs policy; his administration elevated the new form of diplomacy to a national strategic level. Soon after that, the country launched a "Made in China" advertising campaign in several international media outlets to boost the image of Chinese-made products.