Decisions and choices are made every day based on perceptions. The media – both traditional and social – contribute powerfully to creating perceptions of things, events, brands, and places that we do not know well or which are not close to us.

The media remain the main source of information for people around the world. News portals and social media provide us with everyday information about what is happening elsewhere in the world. What we see and read in the news is regarded as "important" since it is the information on which we build our understanding of current events throughout the world. So, we can even say that the media – traditional through storytelling and social through algorithms – decide what is important and what is not. In current times of uncertainty, this information becomes a critical component of the society's functioning.

On 24th February 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic disappeared and the world, especially Europe, shifted its focus to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Overnight, Europeans stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Not only do we now know exactly where the country is located, but we also know what its people are like – their customs, language, what they eat and wear. The media have been giving us a perfect X-ray of the country.

As per media psychology, the effect of mass media on the actions, manner, and contemplations of individuals and audiences is called mass media influence. This influence can be negative or positive. It is important to how your nation is viewed abroad.

According to the 2023 ranking, Ukraine and Russia rank second only to the United States and the United Kingdom on “affairs I follow closely” and both see score movements across other attributes, hinting to a strong relationship between the share of media and Soft Power. While Russia goes up on Familiarity (10th to 8th) and Overall Influence (7th to 4th), the country’s Reputation plummets (23rd to 105th) and drops in ranks on all attributes apart from “affairs I follow closely”.

On the other hand, Ukraine sees impressive gains in Familiarity (47th to 15th) and Influence (45th to 19th) pointing to its success in leveraging media and Soft Power to bolster hard power, but only registers a moderate gain in Reputation (70th to 68th). While it achieves mixed performance on different nation brand attributes, the impact of the key messaging of Ukraine’s wartime communications is visible in the attributes with biggest improvements: “internationally admired leaders”, “respects law and human rights”, “tolerant and inclusive”, “leader in technology and innovation”, and naturally “affairs I follow closely”.

Familiarity is a proven driver of brand health and growth. In his seminal empirical analysis: How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp emphasised the need for brands to be visible and easily recalled: “A brand’s mental availability refers to the probability that a buyer will notice, recognise and/or think of a brand in buying situations. It depends on the quality and quantity of memory structures related to the brand”. This conclusion applies equally to place brands.

The Global Soft Power Index provides an overall score of a nation’s Soft Power, thanks to measuring both its Reputation and Influence, with a wide range of nation brands attributes driving performance in both these KPIs. The third KPI – Familiarity – enables stakeholders to form their perceptions in the first place.

Developing Soft Power requires of nations to be visible, familiar, and relevant – be a part of people’s lives. Familiarity and Influence are clearly correlated: If you ‘know a country well’, you are more likely to perceive it as influential in your life.

Over time we have found some repeating patterns in terms of Familiarity and how this impacts the nation brands in the ranking:

+Size matters: Even a well-regarded small nation – e.g. Singapore – ranks relatively low for Familiarity. As with commercial brands, lack of ‘physical and mental availability’ handicaps smaller nation brands. In that context, overperformers are Switzerland, Israel, and New Zealand. Underperformers include Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nigeria – big, non-European nations.

+Tourism appears to boost Familiarity, helping countries such as Egypt, Greece, and Thailand.

+Geographic variation – nation brand Familiarity is more variable geographically than Reputation or perceived nation brand attributes. A country like Algeria is very familiar to its neighbours, but its Reputation is relatively poor in all countries.

Global Soft Power Index 2023

Explore the findings of the world's most comprehensive research study on perceptions of nation brands, presented in a downloadable report and an interactive dashboard.

Football brands are not just entertainment brands. They are also local brands or country brands. And as such, they are part of an industry that contributes greatly to the countries' GDP and sense of meaning.

The link between the city brand and the club brand is highly relevant and a powerful marketing tool. Both have the capacity to attract tourism, to give international visibility, and to impact one on the other. According to Brand Finance’s latest Soft Power study, the perception of entertainment or sports in a country or city weighs on the mind of the citizen and in their overall perception of that country or city. The perceptions of a country's qualities contribute to a nation’s Soft Power Index, which reflects the ability of the place to influence the behaviours of stakeholders in a positive way – this can be in terms of investment, trade, qualified employees and greater tourism. In short, better political and economic outcomes.

‘Entertainment and sports’ is one of the 10 pillars that make up the Soft Power index of a country. Brand Finance, thanks to the study carried out worldwide on more than 100,000 respondents, can identify which parameters influence the perception of a place brand. This data is of special relevance in football, whose brands arise from the town where they were born.

Nowadays, football teams have many more tools to develop their brands like the style of play, the communication style or the sponsors they take on. But in a certain way, the city brand is core and constant in this compendium of elements and that can be used as a brand tool of the clubs.

Looking at two of the most valuable football brands, we see two great historical ambassadors of the Spain brand and the city brand. Both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have been a bright window into Spanish culture for millions of followers around the world. The former began its international journey in the 1920s. The latter, even earlier, won its first international title in the "Pyrenees Cup" before 1913. Both clubs have not only carried the Spanish brand wherever they played, but also they put on the map the cities that saw them born.

The relationship between the city brand and the Football team brand is clear, but not all teams take advantage of this component of their brands, nor do all cities take advantage of the brands of their Football teams.

Having clear synergies, common attributes could be identified, those that contribute most to the brand and are used almost as a natural sponsorship. The analysis would therefore lead us to 3 points:

• The ability of the football club to take advantage of the correct attributes of its city brand, as is the example of Betis FC
• The ability of the football club to take advantage of the Spain brand in its internationalization plan, identifying how Spain is perceived in the target market and thus taking advantage of shared brand attributes to reach more fans
• The ability of a city brand to promote its football teams: how could the city of Malaga, for example, which is gaining so much strength in its city brand, be able to provide with its city brand a greater following of the Malaga Football Club, that could get the team greater sponsorships with which to make transfers and reach the first division

In short, to be a valuable football brand, it will be necessary to identify well which attributes of the brand must be activated and whoever shares those attributes can thus be identified, being, the city brand, a tool available to everyone to be able to succeed.

La Marca Ciudad Como Elemento de la Marca del Club de Fútbol.

Las marcas de fútbol no son sólo marcas de entretenimiento. También son marcas locales o marca país. Y como tales, forman parte de una industria de gran aporte a los PIB de los países, tanto de manera directa como indirecta.

El vínculo entre la marca ciudad y la marca del club es de gran relevancia y una potente herramienta de marketing. Ambas tienen capacidad de atraer turismo, de dar visibilidad internacional, y de impactar la una en la otra. Según el último estudio de Brand Finance de Soft Power, la percepción de las cualidades de un país, contribuyen a su índice de Soft power el cual refleja la capacidad de un lugar de influir en el comportamiento de sus stakeholders de manera positiva, ya sea en términos de inversión, comercio, atracción de talento o mejora del turismo. En resumen, mejores resultados políticos y económicos.

El entretenimiento y el deporte forma parte de uno de los 10 pilares que forman el índice de poder blando de un país. Brand Finance, gracias al estudio que hace a nivel mundial a más de 100.000 encuestados, puede identificar qué parámetros son los que influyen en la percepción de una marca lugar. Este dato es de especial relevancia en el fútbol, cuyas marcas surgen en su mayoría, de la localidad que los vio nacer.

Hoy en día los equipos de fútbol tienen muchas más herramientas para materializar sus marcas a través del tipo de juego, su comunicación, sus sponsors. Pero en cierta manera, la marca ciudad es un elemento básico y constante que puede ser mejor aprovechada por las marcas de los clubs.

Echando la vista atrás, viendo nuestro top 2 de las marcas más valiosas de fútbol, vemos a dos grandes embajadores históricos de la marca España y de la marca ciudad. Tanto el Real Madrid como el FC Barcelona han sido la ventana de conocimiento de cultura y manera de vivir de nuestro país en recónditos rincones del planeta. El primero ya empezó su periplo internacional en los años 20. El segundo, incluso antes, ganando su primer título internacional en la “Copa de los Pirineos” antes de 1913.

Ambos clubes han llevado no solo la marca España allá donde jugaban, sino que ponían en el mapa a las ciudades que los vieron nacer.

La relación entre marca ciudad y la marca del equipo de futbol entonces es clara, pero no todos los equipos aprovechan este componente de sus marcas ni todas las ciudades aprovechan las marcas de sus equipos de futbol. Habiendo sinergias claras, podrían identificarse los atributos comunes, los que aportan más a la marca y usarlo casi como un patrocinio natural. El análisis nos llevaría por tanto a 3 puntos:

• La capacidad del club de fútbol para aprovechar los atributos correctos de su marca, como es el ejemplo del Betis.
• La capacidad del club de fútbol para aprovechar la marca España en su plan de internacionalización, identificando cómo se percibe España en el mercado destino y así aprovechar los atributos de marca compartidos con el fin de llegar a más fans.
• La capacidad de una marca ciudad para impulsar a sus equipos de fútbol, como podría hacer la ciudad de Málaga que tanta fuerza está cobrando su marca ciudad, para aportar con su marca ciudad mayor seguimiento al Málaga Club de fútbol, que le proporcione mayores patrocinios con los que hacer fichajes y llegar a primera división.

En definitiva, para ser una marca de fútbol valiosa habrá que identificar bien qué atributos de la marca se deben activar y podrá identificarse así quién comparte esos atributos siendo, la marca ciudad, una herramienta al alcance de todos para poder triunfar.

Brand Finance Football 50 2022

Read our annual report on the most valuable and strongest football brands.

Ranked 22nd in the Global Soft Power Index 2021, with an overall Index score of 47.5 out of 100, Spain has slipped down the Index compared to last year. However, there seem to be two areas where Spain excels and reaps rewards – for being fun and through its loyal Latin American audience.

Spain is a well-known nation, ranking in the top 10 for Familiarity. Familiarity is vital in developing a nation’s positioning in the international arena. The nation is already known and perceived as fun; therefore, we encourage the nation to build upon this attribute to, in turn, boost its soft power standing.

First and foremost, fun should be properly understood in order to create a strategy around it. We are not talking about holidays, but the overarching sense of enjoying life – something that has become enormously relevant in current circumstances. Free time needs to be enjoyable. Spain could squeeze this opportunity, offering enticing packages to companies to establish their headquarters here. Brexit is a huge opportunity to establish Madrid as the centre of EU businesses and as a London substitute.

Finding the right incentives could transform a ‘fun’ nation into one of the biggest business centres in Europe. If the ‘fun’ trait is also paired with the nation’s superior educational system – no doubt Spain will attract students from the world over. The next step would be to ensure that there is a talent retention scheme in place, to persuade these students to stay in the country to work.

Spain has a strong and loyal audience – Latin America. Although many of these nations may not recognise Spain’s influence on them, they do understand that Spain is a reputable nation. Products and services that are made in Spain – or even just embellished with the Spain stamp – have an open door into these markets. This influence could be one of the nation’s top business strategies. Spanish companies that successfully leverage and use the Spain accreditation could use this as a building block to not only expand their global reach but also to attract investment into Spain.

The Global Soft Power index is the most accurate tool to understand what the best strategy for Spain should be going forward. Understanding the nation’s strengths and weaknesses from the data provides the opportunity for the nation to make value-based decisions going forward.

Interview with Manuel Villa

What is the Secretary of State of España Global doing to communicate its response to the COVID-19 crisis to its citizens and key stakeholders?

We are working on two related plans. One strategic and one focused on communication. Bilateral meetings with other countries and the launch of the “Sentinel Network” are framed in the strategy, of which the Spanish embassies in the Member States of the EU and the Schengen Area are part, to transfer epidemiological information from Spain to its interlocutors while collecting information on the status of COVID-19 management in these countries. In this plan, we add the participation of the Secretary of State in different international forums and think tanks.

Regarding communication, it has been proactively enhanced in interviews, press conferences, and contacts with the national and foreign press through frequent briefings (the global number of briefings and press conferences of the Minister and Secretaries of State convened by the OID in 2020 has amounted to 56 and the Minister gave 164 interviews to national and international media).

Infographics, specific videos, and messages for social media have been created, and the publication of news on the España Global website has also been encouraged, in addition to reporting on various topics related to the COVID-19 crisis, to convey a positive image of Spain.

How have your plans for 2020 and 2021 changed due to COVID-19? What new interesting projects or campaigns have you carried out under blocking conditions?

The pandemic has influenced the change of formats. Where they were previously face-to-face, they have now become virtual or combined. In general, we have maintained the roadmap of all projects and reputational country campaigns have been promoted, such as 'For me, Spain is' or 'Spain for Sure', of which we are finalising a second phase.

We highlight that, in this time, we have developed an External Action Strategy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which defines and responds to global challenges through international politics, with which our country is expected to gain more weight in global leadership. We are also developing other broad-based strategies, such as the first National Global Order Strategy, a reflection on the image to be projected called 'Diverse Spain' and action plans on the country's reputation. Likewise, we have deployed economic diplomacy relations as a priority line of work and reinforced other areas such as sports or gastronomic diplomacy, among many other lines of work. 

What are your goals for the next decade in terms of developing your nation's soft power capabilities?

The objectives are included in the 2021-2024 External Action Strategy (EAE), which is being debated by the Congressional and Senate Commissions.

The EAE articulates the action that Spain will develop based on a series of values and principles that give coherence to our foreign policy and will allow our country to project the values of democracy, freedom, peace, equality, justice, respect for diversity, and progress that characterise us.

Based on these, action will be taken on four axes: promotion of human rights, democracy, safety, as well as feminist diplomacy and diversity; economic diplomacy, to decisively promote a new global socio-economic model, based on the principles of integration, justice, and equity; climate diplomacy, for the defence of a more sustainable planet, habitable and green; and multilateral diplomacy, to improve global governance and promote greater regional integration and renewed and reinforced multilateralism. Likewise, for the defence and projection of the image of Spain, a Country Reputation Action Plan will be carried out.

Brand Finance Global Soft Power Index 2021

Download the full report to learn how your country performed in the ranking.