Ukraine is a country with a high level of corruption, suffering from military aggression; It’s cold and its cities are blanketed with snow; It’s an attractive country, but it still remains obscure, and unknown to many.
This is all foreigners seem to know about Ukraine – that’s what I realized it after visiting Ukrainian Week in London.
And now I see that the representatives of large and small Ukrainian businesses still do not realize how important communication is for their development. Despite all our problems and the lack of positive information about Ukraine in the global information space, the world still knows a little about us. Some investors even know that we have a market, land resources, workforce, and a convenient geographical position.
This year’s Kyiv International Economic Forum, which took place in mid-October, showed that international investors are interested not just in investing in any business in Ukraine for profit. They are also ready to set up companies, create jobs, invest, and develop the country.
Naturally, they are interested in cooperation, but they have a vague idea of our markets and potential: a former republic of the Soviet Union, some kind of conflict with Russia, something appears to be produced here… But they do not have even the slightest idea of what kind of business is developing here, what is the potential of our country, how we are changing. Leading international media outlets pay our achievements little attention.
What has to be done? We need to establish systemic external communications with the world to publicize our achievements. The information space itself is filled with only breaking news – news that brings little positivity into our lives.
But constructive information about the country and its economy needs to be promoted with the support of the state and with the active participation of business. Our companies are constantly working, succeeding, and creating the most incredible things, but we cannot expect the foreign media to come here, investigate and report on our achievements if they are completely unaware of them in the first place.
Well, dear owners and CEOs of Ukrainian large and small businesses, if you are ambitious and want to be recognized internationally, you have a lot to do, and you should have started yesterday. You will not exist for the world until you learn to promote yourself according to certain long established rules and practices.
What are the rules? Respected worldwide media companies such as The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, BBC, and CNN , have special units (commercial and marketing) or studios that create so-called branded content. In our understanding, branded content is an article or a video created and placed, exercising advertising rights. However, our understanding of promotional content does not correspond to the concept of branded content used internationally. Branded content should be the same as editorial – unique and of high-quality.
For example, if The Economist or Financial Times has a sponsored article about a company, country or industry, the editorial team must adhere to a certain editorial policy that protects the medium’s reputation and independence, as well as providing high-quality content.
This is the policy of every respectable publication. For instance, the commercial team of The Economist fully controls all branded content. It doesn’t just edit the text but creates it together with the sponsor. Publishing an article for money is simply out of the question!
Publications independently conduct a full study, during which various issues are discussed with the customer. The results of this study cannot be monitored by the customer. Yes, they are shown the preliminary results (a draft of the material) and asked to comment. If The Economist team’s conclusions contradict the sponsor’s point of view, the material will only be published if both parties can reach a compromise. In other words, if you want your business to be covered by The Economist you must be prepared to work in cooperation with them to produce branded content that might not correspond to your original marketing plan. And finally, you have to pay for it.
Here in Ukraine, business is used to the fact that the Ukrainian advertisers post what they are paid for, misrepresenting it as editorial content. All this paid journalism is perceived with a slight disparaging understanding. There is a budget, it must be spent, and the mass media have to make a living. But this does not work in the outside world. The world of business is becoming more and more transparent. Rules must be seen to be followed.
I am delighted that there are already some exciting examples of cooperation between Ukrainian companies and world’s media. For example, an article released by The Economist under the brand name of the company Nuclear Power Systems of Ukraine conveys a clear message: Ukraine can become a new growth point for Europe thanks to a strong raw material base and high-potential nuclear energy industry. Another example is the breakthrough material on reforms in Ukraine released by The Financial Times last September.
These steps are crucial, but they are lost in the information flow. They would be much more effective if they were not just in sporadic bursts, but produced systematically. However, these actions on the part of the state are already beginning tentatively, for instance the international marketing campaign Ukraine now launched by the government this year, and the airing of videos on investment in Ukraine by CNN last year.
However, we must realize that we are not so interesting to the world now. We have to work and remedy the situation without asking the kind of rhetorical questions that I so often hear from our insulted businessmen, “We’re so wonderful! Why aren’t they writing about us?”
If we want international media attention we need to become transparent, open, and more ready to finance communications. Being correct is about corporate culture, responsibility, working with employees, and taking care of the environment… in other words sustainable development. This not simply a nice-looking phrase in a standard list of empty corporate values – it’s a way of life.
Olga Diakova is the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation in Eastern Europe
