Master Thesis Personal Sports Branding in the Digital Age: The Case of Zlatan Ibrahimovic Department of Informatics & Media Master Program in Social Science, specialization in Digital Media and Society 2015 Student: Ekaterina Samoylina Supervisor: Ylva Ekström 1 Abstract The rise of digital media has caused transformations and new phenomena in different fields. In the digital age such branches as personal sports branding and nation branding has acquired new opportunities for development. The research focuses on representation of the personal sports brand of Zlatan Ibrahimovic on digital media platforms and its connection to the nation brand of Sweden. Previous research deals with existing studies on personal branding, personal sports branding in digital media, and nation branding. Theoretical framework includes appropriate concepts and perspectives that guide the analysis such as the TOPSTAR model, theory on types and specialization of personal brands, advertising, cultural branding and the nation brand of Sweden. The study combines different research techniques: quantitative content analysis and semiotics. The data is gathered from official accounts of Zlatan Ibrahimovic on social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the mobile application Zlatan Unplugged. Furthermore, the data for analysis is also received from YouTube videos concerning two campaigns: the Volvo XC70 commercial and “805 million names” awareness campaign by World Food Program. The results of the research outline main characteristics of the personal sport brand, show differences in representation of the brand depending on digital media platform and identify the leading attributes of the personal sports brand. The investigation uncovers a connection between the personal sports brand of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the nation brand of Sweden and shows how the personal sports brand functions on the cultural level. The thesis might be interesting for both researchers and practitioners in the spheres of media and communication studies, personal sports branding and nation branding. Keywords: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, personal sport branding, nation branding, nation brand of Sweden, personal brand online, cultural branding, digital age, social media 2 Preface Acknowledgments I am grateful to my supervisor Ylva Ekström who guided me during the research process and gave me advice. I would like to express my gratitude to Dino Mujkanovic who inspired me to choose this subject for the research and gave me important feedbacks on my investigation. Some of my friends and classmates have aided me and given their time to me. Mina, thank you a lot of for all our fruitful discussions on methodology that helped me a lot. I would also like to thank Kirill for his valuable comments, wise recommendations and your sense of humor. Marie, thank you for your attention and support on the first steps of the research, when everything started from my proposal. Of course, I am very grateful to my mother who has always encouraged me in all my beginnings and has always had strong belief in my abilities. I appreciate all the help I got from Peter. Thank you so much for spending hours on proofreading. You could make my English more comprehensible, give me useful feedback and notice all the tiny, but very important details in my writings. Moreover, thank you for the moral support that I needed these months. 3 Table of content 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Subject of the research study ................................................................................................ 8 1.2. Research questions ............................................................................................................... 9 1.3 Thesis disposition .................................................................................................................. 9 2. Background .............................................................................................................................. 11 2.1 Information society, new economy and realities ................................................................ 11 2.2 Persona of Zlatan Ibrahimovic ............................................................................................ 12 2.3 The nation brand of Sweden in digital media ..................................................................... 13 2.4 The Swedish nation and mentality ...................................................................................... 15 2.5 Volvo XC70 commercial and “805 million names” awareness campaign ......................... 16 3. Previous research .................................................................................................................... 18 3.1 Sport, media and society ..................................................................................................... 18 3.2 The role of personal branding ............................................................................................. 19 3.3 Personal sports branding ..................................................................................................... 19 3.4 The role of digital media in sports branding ....................................................................... 20 3.5 Nation branding ................................................................................................................... 21 3.6 Finding a gap ....................................................................................................................... 24 4. Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................ 26 4.1 Personal sports branding: TOPSTAR model ...................................................................... 26 4.2 Personal branding theory .................................................................................................... 28 4.3 Cultural branding ................................................................................................................ 29 4.3.1 Cultural branding and the Swedish nation brand ......................................................... 31 4.4 Advertising and its meaning ............................................................................................... 33 5. Method ..................................................................................................................................... 35 5.1 Mixed methods research ..................................................................................................... 35 5.2 Quantitative content analysis .............................................................................................. 35 5.2.1 Advantages of quantitative content analysis ................................................................ 36 5.3 Semiotic analysis ................................................................................................................. 37 5.3.1 Advantages of semiotics .............................................................................................. 39 5.4 Research design ................................................................................................................... 40 5.4.1 Quantitative content analysis: application ................................................................... 40 5.4.2 Semiotic analysis: application ...................................................................................... 46 5.5 Analytical model ................................................................................................................. 49 5.6 Methodological reflection ................................................................................................... 49 5.7 Validity and reliability ........................................................................................................ 50 6. Findings and analysis of results ............................................................................................. 52 6.1 Quantitative content analysis: findings ............................................................................... 52 6.1.1 Category 1 ”Team”, key word ”PSG” ......................................................................... 55 6.1.2 Category 3 “Success”, key word “Goal” ..................................................................... 56 6.1.3 Category 5 “Brand collaboration”, key words “Nike” and “Volvo” ........................... 57 6.2 Semiotic analysis: Volvo XC70 .......................................................................................... 58 6.2.1 Video ............................................................................................................................ 58 4 6.2.2 Paradigm “Environment”: Natural ............................................................................... 58 6.2.3 Syntagm #1 Environment (Nature) and Car (Volvo) ................................................... 61 6.2.4 Syntagm # 2 Person (Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and Environment (Social) ......................... 64 6.2.5 Syntagm #3 Environment (Natural), Person (Zlatan Ibrahimovic), Car (Volvo) ........ 67 6.2.6 Syntagm #5 Person (Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and Environment (Professional) ................ 71 6.2.7 A modern Viking-like narrative ................................................................................... 72 6.2.8 The concept of speed in the syntagm ..........................................................................