While the global community has been busy parading at the Shanghai Expo 2010, for Taiwan, simply taking part in the world’s fair is meaningful. It has been nearly 40 years since the island has been able to join the global showcase, when the Republic of China last participated at the Osaka Expo in 1970 during a period when Taipei still held official diplomatic relations with Tokyo.

While the global community has been busy parading at the Shanghai Expo 2010, for Taiwan, simply taking part in the world’s fair is meaningful. It has been nearly 40 years since the island has been able to join the global showcase, when the Republic of China last participated at the Osaka Expo in 1970 during a period when Taipei still held official diplomatic relations with Tokyo.

On August 5, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's research team in Shanghai released a video montage of different pavilions after dark.

Kicking off a promotional campaign with a plagiarism scandal is not the most orthodox way to attract clients. But in Romania, it may work. On the day Romania’s “explore the Carpathian garden” tourism campaign was launched at the Shanghai World Expo, a blogger revealed that its logo—a green leaf—resembled that of a British clean-transport company.

It might not be necessary for tourism campaigns to be understood or liked by the locals, said Rhonda S. Zaharna, an associate professor at American University's School of Communications. "But the one thing that I found was that great campaigns usually enjoy strong, positive, internal resonance. That's when you know you've hit the nail on the head and you've got that defining campaign."

In addition to the enjoyable festival experience for the students, the organizers have set additional goals – branding Israel as an attractive tourism destination for students, improving Israel’s image among this target group and facilitating multi-cultural encounters for students from Israel and European countries.

Marketing cannot be limited to individuals or enterprises. Pakistan is in dire need of a new image and nation branding can help build it. When Pakistan was conveniently paired with Afghanistan to form the so-called ‘Af-Pak’ region, world over people were made to think that both countries stand in the same line when it comes to infrastructure and economy.

How do you create that elusive quality of 'culture'?... One popular strategy is the international sporting event. It is no secret that the Olympic Games, Formula One Grand Prix and World Cups are viewed by leaders not just as money-spinners, but as opportunities to demonstrate all their country has to offer and to recast national stereotypes for the better.