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Ukraine: A Strong Leader Among Post-Soviet Nations

Brand Finance
25 February 2021

Ukraine’s performance in the Brand Finance Nation Brands 2021 study impresses with solid gains across both brand strength and value. In brand strength, the nation has seen a +5.3 point improvement - one of the 10 biggest improvements in the study this year - and climbed 17 ranks over the past year. In brand value, Ukraine has defended its 55th place, following a 15% increase from US$93 billion in 2020 to US$107 billion in 2021, rebounding over the US$100 billion mark post-COVID.

Ukraine Brand Finance Nation Brand 2021 Ranking
Ukraine Brand Finance Nation Brand 2021 Ranking

According to global research conducted for Brand Finance’s Global Soft Power Index, the general public perceives Ukraine as a nation with friendly and trustworthy people, with a strong educational system, and open to international business and trade. Over the course of a year, Ukraine’s Influence has marginally improved, up 0.1 points, ranking 45th globally. A similar trend is observed among most of the Eastern European and post-USSR nations, with Russia being the only exception, dropping 0.1 points in this metric.

Além de uma pontuação de influência aprimorada, o desempenho do país no pilar da educação e ciência também aumentou, com o forte sistema educacional da Ucrânia sendo um dos principais fatores por trás dessa melhoria. Por muitos anos, a Ucrânia é um destino preferido para estudantes internacionais, especialmente de países como Irã, Índia e Marrocos. A nação está bem na metade superior por seu potencial de crescimento futuro, e as recentes reformas legislativas nas áreas de economia e finanças da terra são os principais marcadores de prontidão para realizar esse potencial. Há espaço para melhorias, no entanto, com a nação considerada menos fácil de fazer negócios do que no ano passado. Isso se correlaciona com a visão de segurança e liderança no país, dado o atual ambiente político e global.
From an economic perspective, Ukraine keeps improving its identity as a nation open to international business and trade. The nation ranks well within the top half for its future growth potential, and recent legislative reforms in the areas of land economy and finance are the key markers of readiness to realise this potential. There is space for improvement, however, with the nation perceived as less easy to do business with than last year. This correlates with the view of security and leadership in the country, given the current political and global environment.

No geral, a Ucrânia é uma das nações pós-soviéticas no índice, mas ainda há uma quantidade considerável que precisa ser feita nas áreas de governança e relações internacionais para garantir que a cimentos seja posicionada como líder na região européia do leste. Instituto

Interview with Volodymyr Sheiko

Volodymir Sheiko, Director General, Ukrainian Institute
Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General, Ukrainian Institute

Covid-19 criou desafios sem precedentes para o mundo da cultura. Como você adaptou seu programa para mostrar a cultura ucraniana em um mundo socialmente distanciado? países. Para enfrentar esse desafio, transferimos muitos eventos offline (em filmes, literatura, teatro e música) para formatos online ou híbridos offline-online. Apoiamos a participação on -line de cineastas e produtores ucranianos nos eventos da indústria do Festival de Cannes. Nosso programa de teatro combinou formatos de "teatro em cinema" com performances imersivas ao ar livre. Ao amplificar os projetos digitalmente, bem como o lançamento de formatos somente digital (um curso de MOOC sobre Ucrânia, Explicantes de Vídeos Virais e Projeto VR), alcançamos muito amplos públicos na Ucrânia e no exterior. Mantendo um ambiente de trabalho seguro, produtivo e confiável para a equipe, com as comunicações internas permanecendo uma prioridade.

On top of cancellation or postponement of most projects, the Ukrainian Institute, like other cultural organisations in Ukraine, has also faced increased pressure to deliver its programme within the remainder of the fiscal year, and multiple instances of re-planning in response to changing travel and lockdown restrictions in other countries.

The most evident challenge for us was a lack of personal contact and direct engagement with people in other countries, which is crucial for cultural diplomacy. To address this challenge, we transferred many offline events (in film, literature, theatre and music) into online or hybrid offline-online formats.

For example, our music showcase at Waves Vienna was produced, filmed, edited, and streamed from Kyiv to an international audience of 60,000 people. We supported the online participation of Ukrainian filmmakers and producers at the industry events of the Cannes Film Festival. Our theatre programme combined ‘theatre-in-cinema' formats with outdoor immersive performances. By amplifying projects digitally, as well as launching digital-only formats (a MOOC course about Ukraine, viral video explainers and VR project) we reached much wider audiences both in Ukraine and abroad.

We took care to ensure the safety of our team, digitise paperwork where possible, and improve partnership and risk management processes. Maintaining a safe, productive and reliable working environment for the team, with internal communications remaining a priority.

A cultura ucraniana é bem conhecida na Europa e na América do Norte, mas talvez menos em outras partes do mundo. É mais importante se concentrar no público já familiarizado com você ou na introdução do que a Ucrânia tem a oferecer a novos? Nossa observação inicial é que os fenômenos culturais ucranianos não são muito conhecidos na maioria desses países, e o conhecimento de nossos entrevistados sobre a Ucrânia foi definido pela natureza de sua experiência de trabalho pessoal relacionada à Ucrânia. Acredito que precisamos trabalhar com nicho e público mais largo, incluindo aqueles que não conhecem muito a Ucrânia, aqueles que têm e têm uma atitude positiva, e aqueles que têm uma atitude negativa ou são motivados por estereótipos. Informações. Uma estratégia de cinco anos que nos dá um caminho claro alinhado às prioridades da política externa da Ucrânia. Em apenas dois anos, o Instituto Ucraniano implementou mais de 170 projetos e eventos em 14 países. Em 2019, o Instituto e a Embaixada da Ucrânia em Viena co-organizaram o ano cultural bilateral Áustria-Ucrânia. Por meio de nosso trabalho, o Instituto e seus parceiros aumentaram o perfil público da diplomacia cultural na Ucrânia como um fator de segurança nacional e política externa. Felizmente, isso ajudará a Ucrânia a subir no Índice Global de Potência Soft nos próximos anos.

In the past year, we conducted a series of surveys about perceptions of Ukraine among professional audiences in France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, USA, Turkey and Japan. Our initial observation is that Ukrainian cultural phenomena are not very well-known in most of these countries, and our respondents’ knowledge about Ukraine has been defined by the nature of their personal Ukraine-related work experience.

Ukrainian culture is still far from being general knowledge among the public in Europe and North America, and we still have a lot of work to do to spread this knowledge and to re-appropriate our cultural heritage associated with other countries. I believe we need to work with both niche and wider audiences, including those who do not know Ukraine much, those who do and have a positive attitude, and those who have a negative attitude or are driven by stereotypes.

We must maintain connections with loyal audiences, offer positive narratives to those who perceive Ukraine negatively and introduce neutral audiences to the Ukrainian context by offering them unbiased and diverse information.

Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General, Ukrainian Institute Quote
Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General, Ukrainian Institute discusses how to successfully introduce Ukrainian culture to new audiences

With such a variety of projects and campaigns developed in just a few years since the foundation of the Ukrainian Institute, but also significant tasks ahead of you, what are you most proud of and what is your main goal for the next 5 years?

We have developed a five-year strategy that gives us a clear pathway aligned to the foreign policy priorities of Ukraine. In just two years, the Ukrainian Institute implemented over 170 projects and events in 14 countries. In 2019, the Institute and the Ukrainian Embassy in Vienna co-organised the Bilateral Cultural Year Austria-Ukraine.

In a very short time, we created a new institution from scratch and brought together a highly professional and motivated team of experts. Through our work, the Institute and its partners raised the public profile of cultural diplomacy in Ukraine as a factor of national security and foreign policy.

For the next five years, our goals include expanding the Institute’s activities to new regions and countries, opening at least three international offices, and diversifying our funding and partnership network. Hopefully, this will help Ukraine move up in the Global Soft Power Index in the years to come.

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