IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/pbapdi/v21y2025i1d10.1057_s41254-024-00357-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Italy is simply extraordinary”: nation branding between tradition and innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Valeria Minini

    (Tsinghua University)

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive world, nation branding has become a crucial way to promote a country, especially after a global health crisis. In 2020, Italy was strongly affected by the Covid-19, and to recover from its negative impact, Italy launched a nation branding campaign to support the Made in Italy. The paper explored Italy’s nation branding campaign in Instagram, from a communicative perspective, to understand its main themes and narrative patterns. The research is based on a quantitative content analysis, to examine the content and values promoted in the campaign, and a thematic analysis to provide the main narratives adopted. The content analysis showed that the main themes were nation branding initiatives, followed by people & culture, and economy. Moreover, the predominant narrations were cultural heritage, culinary culture, land of style, innovation and sustainability, and initiatives for the users. This demonstrated that traditional themes about Italy (heritage & art, gastronomy, and craftsmanship) are still strong; however, some new themes concerning innovative and green themes, and interactive initiatives are also included. The study contributed to the exploration of new methods to promote nation branding through social media and digital community engagement.

Suggested Citation

  • Valeria Minini, 2025. "“Italy is simply extraordinary”: nation branding between tradition and innovation," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 116-129, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:21:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41254-024-00357-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41254-024-00357-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41254-024-00357-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41254-024-00357-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Kobierecka, 2023. "Post-covid China: ‘vaccine diplomacy’ and the new developments of Chinese foreign policy," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 280-293, September.
    2. Maria Laura Ruiu, 2020. "Mismanagement of Covid-19: lessons learned from Italy," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 1007-1020, August.
    3. Paul Jordan, 2014. "Nation Branding: A Tool for Nationalism?," Journal of Baltic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 283-303, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Fernandez-Llatas & Niels Martin & Owen Johnson & Marcos Sepulveda & Emmanuel Helm & Jorge Munoz-Gama, 2022. "Building Process-Oriented Data Science Solutions for Real-World Healthcare," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-5, July.
    2. Kovanic, Martin & Steuer, Max, 2023. "Fighting against COVID-19: With or without politics?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    3. Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez & Eduardo Navarro-Jiménez & Manuel Jimenez & Alberto Hormeño-Holgado & Marina Begoña Martinez-Gonzalez & Juan Camilo Benitez-Agudelo & Natalia Perez-Palencia & Carmen Ce, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in Public Mental Health: An Extensive Narrative Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Putthiwanit, Chutinon, 2016. "An analysis of Joseph Schumpeter's life, concept of innovation, and application for Estonia," MPRA Paper 71126, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Margarida Rodrigues & Mário Franco & Nuno Sousa & Rui Silva, 2021. "Reviewing COVID-19 Literature on Business Management: What It Portends for Future Research?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, May.
    6. Giliberto Capano & Michael Howlett & Darryl S L Jarvis & M Ramesh, 2022. "Long-term policy impacts of the coronavirus: normalization, adaptation, and acceleration in the post-COVID state [Racial, economic, and health inequality and COVID-19 infection in the United States," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 1-12.
    7. Merike Kolga, 2023. "Engaging “Care” Behaviors in Support of Employee and Organizational Wellbeing through Complexity Leadership Theory," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-10, June.
    8. Anna Blue, 2021. "Evaluating Estonian E-residency as a tool of soft power," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(4), pages 359-367, December.
    9. Wignyo Adiyoso, 2022. "Assessing Governments’ Emergency Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak Using a Social Network Analysis (SNA)," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    10. Hannah Moscovitz, 2022. "Projecting the Nation(s) in Multinational Federal Systems: International Education and Nation Branding in Canada/Quebec," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 52(1), pages 82-106.
    11. Harshana Weligampola & Lakshitha Ramanayake & Yasiru Ranasinghe & Gayanthi Ilangarathna & Neranjan Senarath & Bhagya Samarakoon & Roshan Godaliyadda & Vijitha Herath & Parakrama Ekanayake & Janaka Eka, 2023. "Pandemic Simulator: An Agent-Based Framework with Human Behavior Modeling for Pandemic-Impact Assessment to Build Sustainable Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-26, July.
    12. Bianca-Florentina Cheregi, 2018. "Nation Branding in Transition Countries: A Multimodal Analysis of Romania and Moldova Tourism Campaigns," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 4(4), pages 81-106.
    13. Robert Krzysztofik & Iwona Kantor-Pietraga & Tomasz Spórna, 2021. "Multidimensional Conditions of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Epidemic in the Trans-Industrial Region. An Example of the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    14. John Hogan & Michael Howlett & Mary Murphy, 2022. "Re-thinking the coronavirus pandemic as a policy punctuation: COVID-19 as a path-clearing policy accelerator [Punctuating the equilibrium: An application of policy theory to COVID-19]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 40-52.
    15. Madeline Boughton, 2023. "This is Ireland: commemoration as a catalyst for a new nation brand," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 535-550, December.
    16. Aymen A. Mohib & Conor Carroll, 2024. "Nation branding as a tool to attract foreign direct investments: a case study of Qatar," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 363-377, September.
    17. Hannah Baker & Shauna Concannon & Matthias Meller & Katie Cohen & Alice Millington & Samuel Ward & Emily So, 2022. "COVID-19 and science advice on the ‘Grand Stage’: the metadata and linguistic choices in a scientific advisory groups’ meeting minutes," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:21:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41254-024-00357-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.