DMO – Destination Marketing or Management Organization?

In the master’ thesis titled From Campfires to Social Media (Karlsson & Noss, 2024) research has been conducted on the effects of different storytelling styles impacting an audiences engagement. For that an own framework has been developed and later a focus group research has been done to evaluate what factors are fostern and what factors are destroying narrative engagement.

Skip to the results.

But how do we make sense?

The main perspective this study is being done is through the Narrative Paradigm, also called homo narrans once introduced by the author Walter R. Fisher in 1984. For thousands of years people sat around campfires to share hunting and survival tactics, knowledge, identity and culture. The new campfires are nowadays Social Media, as proven being easy and fast. For a place it means that we humans interpretate subjectivly and collectivly what a place means to us. Furthermore, spaces get to places through meaning from a narrative and many narratives can exit at the same time about a place. Residents, visitors, artists, tourists and also the DMO itself can all have different narratives about one place. That’s why a place narrative is never being fully in control of a DMO or municpality.

How do people experience Digital Storytelling?

Through the Narrative Transportation Theory (NTT) engagement divided into four different components that can be analysed.

Flow: Is the story easy to follow? Is there confusion about the structure and clarity?

Identification: Shared emotions and shared struggles. Can the viewer actually see themselves in the story? Do they have the same challanges or things in common?

Involvement: A personal relevanec to the story. Shared values and interests in topics such as nature, hiking, belonging and cultural identity.

Absorption: If the viewer looses sense of time and focuses fully on the story. In an online context it is here where the viewer stops scrolling and locks in

In practices the concepts may sometime overlap such as Absorption and Flow, but to reduce complexity it can be said that Absorption is what gets the viewer drawn into the narrative and flow is about staying and following the narrative easily.

UGC vs. Serious produced Content

Probably the most sterile character. The overcooked chicken of people. No salt, no pepper.

During this study it has been found that User Generated Content (UGC), which is content produced by anyone about a certain topic online, can be highly co-destructive of narrative engagement. The same as it can happen for a destination. Moreover, the UGC content in this study was connected to digital trash, with no meaning or added value, showing UGC as sterile and generic with little to no emotional resonance with a lack of authenticity.

On the contranary DMO produced, serious storytelling, has been found to transport the viewer directly into the story. Serious storytelling has the meaning of reaching more than for purely entertainment reasons, it reflects real and, or critical situations and has the purpose of engage emotionally. It further is contained by serious goals, facturals knowledge, intrinsic motivation and reflection, self empowerment, inspiring and a collective memory.

Maybe I felt jealous that the protagonist had found their purpose.

The Buzzword – Authenticity

Often UGC is described as the answer to authentic (place) marketing. Multiple studies show that co-creation can and will add to the value creation but also studies display that co-destructive patterns can emerge, especially shown in this study through UGC. On Social Media UGC can be often seen as algorythm optimzed content which plays often with chliches and superficial elements. Therfore, UGC can be helpful but is not by all means always the answer. It is not automatically better or has more meaning through allegedly authenticity.

What does that mean for you as a destination brand or place making entity?

First and foremost it is still important, just as before, to know your audience. Who is interested in the place you are marketing and for who is the narrative important? This answer becomes crucial since the narrative will be understood by different audiences in a different way. The more you know about your target audience the more you can align cultural perspectives, understanding, identification and familiarity.
Clarity and understanding has to be on point in the narrative, discirpancys between moving images and soundscape can destroy Flow. The narrative has to be understandful and inclusive.
Not all content is engagement, chliches and missing originality often destroy authenticity and is labeled as digital trash.
Relatability and emotional connection are crucial to build audiences engagement. Within serious storytelling emotional relatability has been found to be especially building engagement and engage more deply than purely attention-driven content.