Here is the proof that PIGS can Fly

Almost no country has made it out of the whole post 2008 economic fiasco without scratches. Record high unemployment rates, fallen governments and general social unrest have been the trademarks of most economies in the past decade. And as if that alone wasn’t bad enough, some of them had their country image additionally hurt by the media imposing on them detrimental nicknames. We’ve all heard of PIGS, haven’t we? Turns out, it is time to forget this unflattering expression once and for all.

Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain haven’t exactly excelled in the economic sense for a while now. The subsequent metaphor of a dirty farm animal has been following them around from the 90’s already, but it wasn’t until the European debt crisis in the late 2000s that it became popularized in the world media and used in just about every article connected to these countries, at this point joined by Italy as well. Politicians, journalists and financial organisations from within and outside of those countries have tried to reduce or eliminate the term altogether, but due to its practicality and catchy wording no one was able to stop the organic process of its widespread use.

The Pigs Project A photographic project developed by the Hungarian photographer Carlos Spottorno, clearly illustrates the negative image such metaphor may have caused in Investor’s minds

It could be argued that this has affected the country brand in a major way. The connotations of the acronym are definitely not great and do not inspire trust.

The investment in economies, that were already significantly injured, has most likely been additionally hampered because of the image that was imposed on these countries. While most of the world was dealing with economic problems, it was their names that would come to mind when somebody mentioned the economic crisis.

But it appears that country brands of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain have sufficient goodwill to persevere through times of trouble. The Digital Country Index 2016 (a project developed by Bloom Consulting and Digital Demand — D2©) has shown that these countries are in fact well-loved in the digital world, all of them being among the most searched for countries for positive reasons. Every single country in the group ranks within the top 30 in the overall ranking and within the top 50 in every particular dimension.

While the interest in them mostly stems from the Tourism aspect, they are also important references in the worlds of Exports and Talent. Portugal, for instance, has achieved very good results in “Workforce”, being 7th most searched Country for this category, surpassing UK for 7%, whereas Italy for instance attracted as much as 152% more searches for “Made In Effect” than Germany.

Ireland won its magical 7th place in the “FDI” category, Spain can brag about the 2nd place for “Invest In” Brandtag and Greece, being the 2nd most searched for country in the “Strategic Location” & “Market Access” category, was in this respect 95% more popular than its eternal antagonist, Germany. This means tourists, investors, businesses, potential expats and random aficionados alike are very interested in this group of countries.

As the exhibited interest in the countries online most often leads to actual positive effects, economically speaking or in other ways, we would dare to bet the future is looking bright for the former P …