According to the finance ministers of both France and Germany, the recession is over with two quarters of growth reported for both countries. The United Kingdom is another story but that's not my story today. My story today is about Kosovo, and Poland, and Turkey, and Georgia, and Macedonia, and Romania, and Equitorial Guinea - because those are the countries buying up all the media time on CNN and BBC here in Germany to tout their foreign investment programs to corporations all over Europe. Those are the people who want your money.Make sure to pause the music in the podcast before playing the video.
Wait, who? Let's do that again: Kosovo, Poland, Turkey, Georgia, Macedonia, Romania and Equitorial Guinea. Yep those are the big media spenders around here. Not China, Japan or America because they don't care at all about foreign direct investment. But these people above do and are making a real play for investment dollars with high levels of university graduates, tax incentives and workforces that are more than willing to work for just a fraction of what most conventional Europeans would consider reasonable.
Kosovo is particularly interesting. Take a look at the spot above. Rather than trot out it's economic statistics as does Turkey in their campaign, Kosovo goes for the heartstrings of it's own citizens by showing it's youth building their idea of the future, and attractively so I might say. For the record, Kosovo is one of the youngest countries in the world and has an average age of just 25.9 years old. This spot was produced by Saatchi & Saatchi and is really quite nice. Good song too.
While in Paris earlier this year I had a conversation with someone who was telling me that the French were protesting one Dijon Mustard company for moving it's manufacturing out of France and over to Poland for cheaper labour, but apparently mustard companies aren't bound by the same rules as winemakers in France. You couldn't move Champagne production out of Champagne, France and still call it Champagne, but you can move Dijon mustard making out of Dijon, France and still call it Dijon.
And so the world is changing. Again. Or still. I'm curious to know if any of the above named countries are running the same commercials in America? If you're in the States and have seen any advertising for these countries, please leave a comment here. With the US still technically in a recession I suspect that this is a European focused effort only.
