January 2010 marks the start of a major transition period in terms of communication strategy for Korea. While the “Korea, Sparkling” campaign is about to end, the future of this brand is being discussed among various committees, including the Presidential Council on Nation Branding.

Since its launch in 2007, Korea Sparkling’s main goal was to increase the number of foreign visitors to South Korea, with the support of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).

What was the original strategy behind the campaign? And after 2 years, what are the main results?

“Korea, Sparkling” aimed at demonstrating the dynamism, the energy and the passion of all things Korean. “Sparkling” was supposed to reflect the first impressions and feelings of first time visitors when discovering the country. The campaign aimed at developing Korea as a tourism destination, not only limited to business opportunities, by creating a strong emotional attachment to the brand.

Even though objectives were clearly set, the results of the campaign were controversial, even though 2009 saw a record high of more than 7 million tourists in Korea, some experts felt that the the nation’s identity was misrepresented. Some also expressed the only thing the “Korea, Sparkling” brand reflected was the sound of a soft drink or soda.

The beginning of this year is therefore a crucial time to seize the new nation branding challenges; past controversies and their negative impacts will have to be taken into account in order to improve the effectiveness of future strategies.

However, in this transition period, multiple campaigns are being independently launched and will impact the Korea brand for the next few years. Among them, the “2010-2012 Visit Korea Year” campaign which has a very ambitious goal to increase the number of visitors to 30 million and tourist revenue to $30 billion (from the current $9 billion) by 2020.

Although these event campaigns may contribute to the increase of visitors in Korea in the short-term, in reality they may add complexity to the process of building a single coordinating body for the nation branding.