engleski

Branding the host city: analyzing the social media exposure of Zagreb generated by Vip Snow Queen Trophy

Sports events have become an important part of tourist destination branding. Considering that cities can be seen as brands, they strive to establish and strengthen them. In their efforts they use various branding techniques, including the organization of sports events. Sports events should attract domestic and international visitors, and generate media exposure for the city. It is also believed that media coverage increase awareness of the host city as a desirable destination. In that sense, sports events can be seen as the brand ambassadors. In the previous literature on brand ambassadors, brand ambassadors are usually persons who are hired by an organization to represent a brand in a positive light and by doing so they help to increase brand awareness and sales. But for the purpose of this research, well known skiing competition Vip Snow Queen Trophy will be considered as brand ambassador of the city of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The research determines the nature and extent of social media exposure generated for Zagreb by hosting the Vip Snow Queen Trophy. The coverage of the competition on social media was content analyzed for any verbal mentions of Zagreb or its associated images like Medvednica or Sljeme. For different types of social media platforms were examined like Wikipedia, the most prominent example of wikis, Facebook as an example of one of the most popular social networks, Twitter as an example of micro blogging site, and the YouTube, second most visited website in the world. The research shows that the Vip Snow Queen Trophy is the important ambassador of Zagreb branding, and that it is has been mentioned more than hundred times. Also, it is possible to conclude that the cancelation of Vip Snow Queen Trophy 2016 had a negative impact on city branding, through reduced number of domestic and international tourist arrivals and their consumption.

city branding ; social media ; Vip Snow Queen Trophy ; Zagreb

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