entered by Nordic Council of Ministers

‘Nordic Talks’ is part of the joint branding initiatives initiated by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Also called The Nordics, it is an intergovernmental co-operation between eight Nordic countries (Aaland, Denmark, Fare Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). As eight relatively small entities, they carry little influence in the international arena when standing alone, and so needed a unified place branding concept to generate greater awareness and impact. Consequently, they are helping the Nordic region to reach its vision of becoming the world’s most sustainable and integrated region by 2030.

When you look at them from the outside, you might think they look similar, but they’re pretty different in terms of size, nature, export markets and finally, nation branding. Still, they have a few crucial things in common. The team chose to enhance that Nordic commonality – their core values of openness, trust, innovation, compassion, and sustainability – in order to add value to the individual countries’ place branding rather than cannibalizing it. Besides joining forces, they’re flipping traditional place branding upside down and showing the Nordics in the world – not to the world.