The Inside Story of Bhutan's New National Brand Identity

If I were to ask you one fact about Bhutan, I can already guess what you might say. You probably can't even name the country's capital city (it's Thimpu!), but you likely already identify the country as the happiest nation on Earth, a place that has long measured its citizens' Gross National Happiness. Now the country has undertaken a new national rebranding campaign aimed at promoting the country's commitment to sustainable travel (evidenced by the higher fees they will be charging travelers to visit).

Fast Company calls the campaign "aspirational at best, naive at worst," but for me I'm always captivated by nation branding efforts. The idea that you can define an entire nation to the world in a cohesive way and the sheer ambition of trying to do it strikes me as the ultimate branding challenge. If I ever went back to working on brand marketing campaigns, this is the first category I would pick to work on. The second would be luggage, of course.