In my recent book touring travels down under, I was struck repeatedly by the sense in which New Zealand and Australia seem for a North American at once remote yet accessible, exotic yet familiar. They are in, but not of the Global South.

In my recent book touring travels down under, I was struck repeatedly by the sense in which New Zealand and Australia seem for a North American at once remote yet accessible, exotic yet familiar.

In a world where public diplomacy is critical, Canada needs to brand itself in order to stand out... Over the last three decades, the globalization and the communications revolutions have created the most striking transformation of society since the Industrial Revolution.

Actor Lee Jun-ki has been picked to promote Korea at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. He received a letter of appointment from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency at its headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday. Lee will attend various promotional events at the expo to be held from May to October in the Chinese city.

The campaign, created by DDB, is timed to capitalize on the return of consumer confidence but also coincides with a longer term Building Brand Australia Program to market Australia as a place to visit, live, work and do business.

Whilst most soccer pundits point to the 2006 World Cup held in Germany as an example of leveraging the world's biggest sporting event for rebranding the hosting nation, possibly the most relevant testimony to the nation branding power of the global showpiece emanates from the 2002 co-hosts, the Republic of Korea.