A new report has fleshed out which country wins the title of hottest digital brand, and in good news for down under, Australia performed pretty damn well.
The Digital Country Index from Bloom Consulting has ranked 180 countries on their “digital brand appeal,” or people’s genuine and active interest in the countries based on billions of online searches.
The Index measures nations in five areas: tourism, talent, exports, investment, and national prominence.
Countries that have pulled off a high ranking in any sector have garnered an above-average number of searches online, that include both the country name along with other key words.
China scored the highest in the investment category, meaning there were more searches for things like ‘invest in China’ or ‘Chinese stock market’ than any other country. The US, India, Brazil, and the UK followed close behind.
In the tourism dimension, the big winners were in southern Europe, with Spain, Italy, and France ranking first, second, and fourth respectively, and Australia coming in at number 12.
Breaking this category down, Australia nabbed top spot for outdoor and natural appeal, while Turkey managed to slide surprisingly into number one in the ‘visits’ section of tourism, despite domestic acts of terror and its proximity to Syria’s civil war.
In no surprise, the US scored best for the ‘talent’ dimension, but that was always going to happen given the country exports so much of its entertainment. Australia managed the third spot in this arena, most likely thanks to Guy Sebastian and that guy who performed once for X-Factor.
The US also came first in the national ‘prominence’ dimension, with Aussies right on its tail at number two, ahead of Japan, Germany and the UK.
China might have topped the exports category, but it was the mighty nation of ‘Murica that pulled rank and took out the podium finish as best overall digital brand, followed by Japan, Australia, Germany and Canada, respectively.
