Maxim Behar: Eurovision Is a Chance for Bulgaria to Build a Stronger Brand
“Maxim Behar: Bulgaria Needs a Clear Strategy for Its Brand” Maxim Behar, founder and CEO of M3 Communications Group, Inc., commented on how Bulgaria can use its hosting of Eurovision 2027 to strengthen its international positioning. According to him, the country needs a new logo, a clear slogan and a long-term communication strategy that presents Bulgaria not only as a tourism destination, but also as a business and investment destination.
Host: We are back in the studio, and in our next conversation we are turning to Bulgaria and its positioning as a brand. We will talk about what kind of publicity Eurovision brings to our country and what large-scale events of this kind mean.
Maxim Behar, founder and CEO of M3 Communications Group, is here with me in the studio. Hello and welcome.
Maxim Behar: Good afternoon.
Host: Let us begin with what the strategy should be, purely from a communication perspective and in terms of positioning Bulgaria as a brand, when we are talking about an event on the scale of Eurovision and our hosting it next year.
Maxim Behar: From what I have seen in the first two, three or four weeks in terms of the approach taken by the government and various public organisations, I have started to worry that Eurovision, or the attention that will be generated around Bulgaria, will become yet another missed opportunity.
First, we make one mistake, namely that we always connect an event like this, whether it is Eurovision, Giro d’Italia or some international meeting, with tourism.
Tourism, tourism, tourism. Let them see the beaches, let them see the hotels, let them see the cocktails and whatever else.
But Bulgaria needs to be positioned as a country for doing business.
I am sorry to say it, but Bulgarian beaches are wonderful, they are beautiful, but in terms of positioning they cannot be better than the beaches of Spain, Italy or many other countries. Not to mention my beloved Seychelles.
The Bulgarian mountains, wonderful as they are, I love hiking in them and admiring them, cannot be positioned better than the Swiss, Austrian, Spanish or Portuguese mountains.
That is why Bulgaria must make maximum use of the fact that Eurovision will take place here.
It is wonderful news that it will be in Burgas, because the people who come, the television reports, social media, TikTok, Instagram, all of them will show the Black Sea coast, the hotels and the beaches.
The truth, however, is that we are constantly waiting for something to happen. For Eurovision to come. For some international meeting to come. For someone to arrive and start posting vlogs on TikTok. And over the past roughly 20 years, I say this with great regret, I have not seen Bulgaria conduct a proactive, successful, effective and results-oriented campaign to promote Bulgaria.
Not Eurovision. Not the sea. Not the hotels.
Bulgaria.
First of all, the people, we have young, ambitious, intelligent, motivated and capable Europeans. There can be no two opinions about that.
Second, the opportunities for doing business are still there. I would say that over the past year we have started to lose some of them.
Last week I had a conversation with some French friends of mine. I asked them what was happening with their business and they told me: “Oh, we have already forgotten Bulgaria.”
I asked why.
They replied: “Very high prices, very strong pressure for higher salaries without corresponding performance or results, and far fewer opportunities for doing business.” I do not believe that this is entirely the case. There may be a first, second, third, fifth or tenth project that does not happen, but there may be another thousand that do.
The most important thing is for Bulgaria to have a new, recognisable logo. That dear little, folded and shrivelled rose that appears at tourism exhibitions, presentations and forums needs to be replaced immediately.
Second, Bulgaria must finally, perhaps for the first time in its history, have a slogan.
Whether it is my favourite “Bulgaria, Dream Area,” which I came up with more than 20 years ago, or something else, does not matter.
For example, in 2004 I came up with “Easy to Find” when my company was working on an advertising campaign around the signing of Bulgaria’s EU accession treaty. At that time, Bulgaria did not have so many air connections and links with the rest of the world.
We can forget those proposals as well.
But there need to be people who say: “Let us come up with a logo for Bulgaria. Let us come up with a slogan.”
So that our country can become recognisable. What does a product do?
Let us take an ordinary wafer biscuit. You give it a name, you give it a recognisable logo, you give it a slogan so that when you hear it on television, you go and buy that wafer.
I am sorry for the simplistic metaphor with the wafers, but Bulgaria is far more important.
And that is my concern, if I have to make a long story short, we are wasting time.
Host: But what is Bulgaria currently recognised for? And is it recognised at all?
Apart from saying that we need a new logo and that we should move beyond the traditional Bulgarian rose, what would make Bulgaria recognisable?
And how can we stop being so reactive to events of this kind? Bulgaria became a host of the Giro d’Italia, it will host Eurovision next year, but how do we become proactive?
Maxim Behar: You say “traditional Bulgarian rose,” but what we currently have as a logo is not a traditional Bulgarian rose.
It is some kind of invention. Maybe 20 years ago it was good, but not now.
First, I do not know exactly who in Bulgaria can do this.
The Ministry of Tourism? But why only tourism? This is not only about tourism. The Ministry of Economy? But why only the economy? It is not only about business. The Ministry of Culture?
The moment it was announced that there would be some kind of interdepartmental council for organising Eurovision, I said to myself: when I hear the phrase “interdepartmental council,” it becomes clear to me that nothing will get done and responsibility will get lost somewhere.
You know that story about the sergeant. He came in and said: “Someone move this piano.” Nobody moved it. He came in again: “Someone move the piano.” Nothing. Finally, he came in and said: “Ivanov, move the piano.” And Ivanov moved it.
There has to be personal responsibility.
For a long time I have even suggested that there should be a Ministry of Image. Such a ministry does not need more than ten people. It does not need secretaries, cars or huge offices. It needs five or six people who understand this subject and can answer your question: what needs to be done and how can we be proactive?
The need for a logo and a slogan is clear.
But by Eurovision, by May 15, if I am not mistaken about the date, there needs to be a clear strategy, every week, who is doing what, what is being published, what is being sent out.
And again, this is not only about the fact that our good friend Dara and the people around her managed to bring this enormous joy to so many Bulgarians, to have them singing “Bangaranga” and hoping that Bulgaria will finally appear more significantly and visibly on the map of Europe.
The important thing is to say something interesting about Bulgaria every week.
So that when foreigners come here, whether for Eurovision, during the summer or to do business, they can see it.
It could be something interesting related to geography. It could be related to people.
One of my long-standing dreams is to have a large screen at Sofia Airport.
I recently spoke with the airport director about this as well.
While people are waiting for their luggage, the screen could show the faces of Bulgarians who are recognised around the world, but whom many people do not know are Bulgarian. We know Hristo Stoichkov. We know Dimitar Berbatov. Ralitsa Vassileva, Kristalina Georgieva, Sonya Yoncheva, John Atanasoff, who is recognised as one of the pioneers and inventors of what we today call the computer.
If we manage to show Bulgaria through the people we have, through the successful business projects, there are several, and you know them, EnduroSat and many others that are extremely successful, but show them professionally. The way a shoemaker makes shoes professionally.
Let us make a series of videos. Let us invite journalists. Let us tell Bulgaria’s story. We have so many things to talk about. This is a wonderful, fantastic country, in terms of location, people, nature and everything else. And we are sitting here talking about some rose.
I am sorry for being so direct, but over the past 20 years I have not seen anyone understand this and do it. Eurovision in Bulgaria and in Burgas is one of the opportunities. Of course, we should not exaggerate its importance either. We should use it to the maximum. But the most important thing is to know, if this country is a product, and from a marketing and advertising perspective it is a product, how are we going to “sell” it over the next ten years?
I put “sell” in big quotation marks, but that is the term we use. How are we going to dress it? How are we going to package it? What ribbon are we going to put on top? So that Germans, French people and everyone else become even more interested. There has been progress over the past 15 or 20 years, but I believe it has happened despite Bulgarian governments, not because of them.
Host: How do you explain the lack of communication when it comes to business opportunities?
Are we once again talking about the lack of an adequate communication strategy for Bulgaria and its positioning as an overall brand, including as a destination for attracting major investments?
Maxim Behar: Personally, I have no explanation.
If I were somehow involved in government, I never will be, but if I were, I would make this a priority. If I were Prime Minister, every Monday at 10 o’clock I would call the ten largest investors in Bulgaria and ask them:
“Good morning. How are you? Do you need anything? Can I help you with anything?”
And once every three months I would invite them to lunch or dinner and say:
“Tell me what you think about the investment environment in Bulgaria.”
I would not want to be the one giving the assessments.
I believe Bulgaria is one of the few countries in Europe where there are major opportunities for doing business, because there are many niches and many very good people who can work in companies that want to invest.
But this needs to be promoted. This story needs to be told and people in Europe need to know it. We are operating in a very competitive market. When a large company wants to open a factory or office and is choosing between Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, perhaps Serbia, we need to have strong arguments. The euro in Bulgaria, by the way, is a huge advantage.
A fantastic advantage. Bulgaria has completed the entire cycle of integration with the European Union, the euro, Schengen and everything else.
Whatever France, Germany, Austria and other countries can list as a European advantage, Bulgaria can also say: “Yes, we have it too.” But here we also have niches for doing business.
We have a fantastic location that serves as a bridge between Asia and Europe.
Many Asian companies can come here to manufacture, and European companies can also manufacture here and export to Asia.
We have enormous advantages. I believe people in big business know them, but we need to promote them and “sell” them. The only explanation I have for the absence of such a policy is the very frequent change of governments. We have had around ten caretaker governments. Someone comes in and thinks about what will happen in three months.
The last thing on their mind is promoting Bulgaria or making it more attractive. Now the government of Prime Minister Rumen Radev has a golden opportunity to think long term. I very much hope Eurovision will be one of the factors, one of the elements.
I hope there are intelligent and knowledgeable people who will sit down and say:
“How do we imagine Bulgaria from an investment perspective in 2035, nine years from now?”
Let us see what needs to happen. That is what we do in our company. What are we doing next year? In three years? In five? In ten? How can this not be done at state level as well? And this strategy should be public. However, I believe that excessively long public discussion of such strategies cripples them. Everyone, whether they understand the subject or not, starts throwing out opinions and insisting on their own view. There need to be experts who forecast results and take responsibility for them.
If those results do not happen, they resign and others who understand the subject come in.
Host: How important is it to move beyond the idea that only Burgas is hosting Eurovision and instead talk about a national strategy that covers Bulgaria’s overall image?
And where are we losing our competitive advantage, including when it comes to foreign investment?
Is it precisely in the lack of proactive communication at state level?
Maxim Behar: It is simply the lack of proactive communication. Bulgaria continues to have the lowest taxes in Europe and that fact seems to be the most carefully guarded secret. Nobody promotes it. It is true that there are other burdens. It is true that we have high social security contributions. It is true that there are various other hidden taxes and payments.
But ultimately, there is a 10% income tax. Everyone pays it, me, you, the people working at this television station. There is nothing like that in much of Europe. When you tell a French person this, they blink for 15 minutes because they cannot believe it, because there the rates are 40-45% and above. We have a 10% corporate tax, a 5% dividend tax, and there are countries with lower rates, for example, Slovakia is at 0%.
But if all of this is promoted together with the opportunities for doing business, together with successful young Bulgarians and successful business projects, including international companies that have successful projects in Bulgaria, the picture becomes completely different.
Yes, some investor has left. Well, they left. That is life. Someone’s business may not go well. The reason may have nothing to do with Bulgaria. But the good examples have to be shown, shown and shown. I will go back to the first question. Of course, this is not only about Burgas. Bulgaria is hosting Eurovision. When the contest was in Basel, was Basel the host or was Switzerland the host? When it was in Liverpool, was only Liverpool the host or was the United Kingdom the host?
Many years ago it was also in Brighton. I remember many British people asking at the time: “Why isn’t it in London? Why on earth is it in some Brighton?”
But after all these years, what I remember is precisely that it was in Brighton. The Eurovision final will be in Bulgaria. Burgas will be the host city. The venue in Burgas and the hotels around the city have a golden, even a diamond, opportunity, a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be promoted in the best possible way. There could not be better news than that. Everyone knows Sofia.
We suffer a lot from the fact that Bulgaria does not have good branding abroad.
We go somewhere, people ask where we are from, we say “Bulgaria,” and then we start explaining where it is.
But a few months ago I was at a space training programme at a NASA facility in Huntsville, Alabama.
On the first day, while we were getting to know one another and being shown around the facility, we were walking down a corridor. One of the engineers heard my accent and asked me: “Where are you from?”
I said: “Bulgaria.”
In Alabama, I expected to start explaining, north of Greece and so on. He suddenly stopped, everyone in our American group stopped as well, and he said:
“Bulgaria? You have fantastic students in mathematics. You win Olympiads. You have such good engineers. Amazing things are happening in your country.”
I grew 15 centimetres taller. These things are already known. Of course, this engineer sees things through his own engineering perspective and follows these topics. But these facts, these moments and these stories need to be told. And I am not referring only to the government.
I am also referring to the two million Bulgarians living abroad, because they are our best ambassadors. They work at Microsoft. They work at CERN in Geneva, where there is a huge transparent room with “Bulgarian Team” written on it. It is almost at the entrance when you walk into CERN.
These Bulgarians abroad are extremely important. But the fact remains that there needs to be some kind of body in Bulgaria. That is why I talk about a Ministry of Branding, a Ministry of Image, a Ministry of Communications, call it whatever you want.
Someone who says: “Let us create a good product and promote Bulgaria successfully.”
Do you know how positively this would affect business, our self-confidence, the two million Bulgarians living abroad, and Bloomberg TV Bulgaria as a television channel?
I dream of having people in government who are a little more open-minded and for whom this is a genuine priority.
Host: And as we come to the end of our conversation, what exactly should the communication strategy be?
When we talk about branding, we increasingly talk about personalisation as well.
In other words, Bulgaria should be recognisable, whether through a specific product, historical figures, or our contemporaries and their achievements, including our students competing in Olympiads.
Maxim Behar: It is quite a complex mix. People should be included, of course, because they are recognisable. Let us take Grigor Dimitrov. Everyone watches him, although for some reason many people in the UK think Grigor Dimitrov is Russian.
There is nothing wrong with that,the surname Dimitrov is also widespread among Russians. The same sometimes happens with Berbatov because of his first name Dimitar. But that is not a problem.
These are our people, Bulgarians, successful individuals, and we need to tell their stories. We also need to tell the story of our history. I am not a great supporter of concentrating everything only on our local heroes such as Levski, Botev, Vazov and the others we are so proud of, writers, poets, revolutionaries. For foreigners, this is sometimes more like local folklore. But if someone is interested in them or in history, wonderful. There are people who are interested in nature.
There are many people who are interested in archaeology, because archaeology is an eternal subject, there is no new and old there.
All of these elements need to be placed into one mix. And in the end, this mix needs to be condensed into one sentence called a slogan for Bulgaria.
Years ago, Malaysia, a country that was not particularly famous for tourism, experienced a real boom thanks to a massive CNN campaign with the slogan “Malaysia, Truly Asia.”
In fact, it was precisely “Malaysia, Truly Asia” that inspired me at the time to come up with “Bulgaria, Dream Area.”
We organised seven international conferences in a row with my partner, former Nevada Governor Bob Miller. But in 2026, there could be something much better. The important thing is for someone to say: “We are announcing a competition.”
We do not have money? Fine.
We do not need to pay an enormous amount to whoever comes up with the best slogan. We announce a competition and see the proposals. We announce a competition for a logo. We have a budget of €50,000, €100,000, €5, whatever we have.
But let there be a competition and let us see what proposals come in. In short, we need to be proactive. Not wait for Eurovision to arrive. Not wait for someone to get on a bicycle and start riding along Bulgaria’s streets and roads.
But to say: “We have a wonderful country full of fantastic people. Let us see how we can make it much better known around the world.”
This will bring not only investment. It will bring self-confidence. It will also bring a different way of life in Bulgaria.
Host: God willing. Thank you very much for this conversation.
Maxim Behar: Thank you as well.
Host: My guest here in the studio was Maxim Behar, founder and CEO of M3 Communications Group.
You can watch the whole interview here: https://www.maximbehar.com/en/video/447/maxim-behar-eurovision-is-a-chance-for-bulgaria-to-build-a-stronger-brand