"Moving Ahead Together" In Nation Branding And Public Diplomacy?

Places, in particular nations, are increasingly aware of their international image and keen to manage it proactively. As a result, the fields of nation branding and public diplomacy have started to converge not only in the theoretical debate (e.g. Melissen 2005; Szondi 2008) but also in reality. "Germany and China-Moving Ahead Together" (DuC, on-going since 2007) is the biggest and most successful event series that Germany has ever organised abroad, and it is a great example for how contemporary public diplomacy and nation branding activities can go hand in hand through the adoption of a binational co-branding approach.Yet, there is an astonishing lack of appropriate theoretical tools and frameworks available to capture and evaluate the cooperation between places and the spill-over effects on their images. Most research to date on place branding is conceptualised from a static managerial perspective, such as "how can nation X brand or position itself better through measures this and such", which limits its scope and creates theoretical dilemmas for the vertical or horizontal integration of place brands.In response, this study adopts a relationship-based approach and draws from co-branding literature, a relevant body of knowledge that has been neglected in place branding discourse so far. Through a mix of organisational ethnographic study, interviews and document research, this paper analyses the aims and success factors of the Sino-German co-branding platform and integrates its findings with the framework devised by Helmig et al. (2008) for commercial co-branding.The findings suggest that the adoption of a co-branding approach for the strategic promotion of a nation's brand image abroad offers unique strategic and operational benefits. Key success factors for the co-branding between places have been identified as: partnership/co-ownership, thematic concentration on future challenges, inclusive stakeholder approach, innovative formats and contents, sustainability and long-term commitment, as well as co-brand awareness and character. This study also discusses the managerial implications and difficulties of a binational co-brand and calls for further research on the sociological effects of a cooperative identity in co-branded place alliances...