Three MMTC researchers win the 2024 Emerald Literati Award for Outstanding Paper

Congratulations to Songming Feng, Adele Berndt, and Mart Ots who have been honored with the 2024 Emerald Literati Award for Outstanding Paper for their article titled "Residents and the Place Branding Process: Socio-Spatial Construction of a Locked-Down City’s Brand Identity" published in the Journal of Place Management and Development. External link, opens in new window. This paper has also been the most downloaded in the journal for the last 12 months

The study builds on Kavaratzis and Hatch’s (2013) identity-based place branding model and explores how residents of Wuhan used social media, specifically Douyin, to shape the city’s brand identity during the COVID-19 lockdown. Analyzing 187 short videos, the researchers identified how place brand identity is formed through four key processes: expressing, impressing, mirroring, and reflecting, with both social and spatial dimensions playing a crucial role.

Their work highlights the role of residents in the participatory process of place branding and demonstrates how city identities can be transformed during a crisis. This paper breaks new ground by incorporating social media analysis, offering valuable insights into modern place branding strategies.