Tourism plays a crucial role in driving economic growth and regional development for countries worldwide as well as spurring economic growth in counties within regions. This thesis delves into the unexplored potential of two Swedish counties, Halland and Kalmar, as tourist destinations. Focusing on their degree of digitalization and digitization, we conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis to understand the current state of tourism and identify opportunities for sustainable growth within digitalization. All hotels in both of the counties were studied and compared to see how present they were online on third party booking sites.  The thesis has used secondary data from official tourism statistics sites simultaneously as well as combining them with gathered data from all of the different hotels own websites as well as third party sites used for booking. By examining the two key factors of presence online and package deals we evaluate potential room for improvement for the respective county.  Our findings show that there are several similarities between Halland and Kalmar when it comes to the degree of digitalization and how the regions offer package deals on a broad spectrum. There seems however to be room for improvement for both counties when analyzed to what the literature states. Hotels in Halland have a larger presence online than the hotels in Kalmar, when looking at how many guest nights per hotel the county has, Hallad comes out on top by a large margin. We argue that because of the larger online presence of hotels in Halland they achieve to attract more tourists than Kalmar, despite having fewer hotels in total.  To increase growth in the hospitality industry this thesis proposes a few actionable recommendations for both counties. Implementing more package deals and diversifying the contents of these package deals and focusing more on the digital marketing platforms that are readily available for every business in the hospitality business.  This thesis contributes to a deeper insight into how business owners should act to increase their odds of success as well as how policymakers might help business in their region to develop further. This thesis also gives stakeholders a way of measuring the online presence of hotels and by extension then a way of comparing presence online.

This study evaluates whether generative AI tools built on the language model GPT-3 can streamline the processes of digital marketing agencies. The method used for gathering qualitative data was two sets of semi-structured individual interviews with different digital marketing agencies. The agencies were interviewed regarding frequent processes, AI usage, and attitudes toward the technology. Two ChatGPT experiments were conducted to get the interviewees’ insights on its use and the results. The data was categorized with the help of qualitative content analysis. Previous research and journals were additionally used to discuss the potential and consequences of AI, GPT in general, and GPT-3. Information about the different tools that use GPT-3 was collected through websites, articles, and blogs. The study’s data shows that tools using GPT-3 can streamline repetitive or time-consuming processes within ideation, content production, data analysis, personalized customer interactions, and increase productivity within digital marketing agencies. The tools’ tendencies to produce discriminating, faulty, generic, or uncreative information nevertheless create the need for constant human monitoring, source criticism, post-processing, and complementing with creative inputs. Researchers recommend the method of post-processing generative AI results. Digital marketing agencies have already begun implementing this method. Agencies’ attitudes toward the technology’s future within the industry are generally positive. The technology might, according to the interviewed agencies, become a threat to digital marketing professions in the future. This threat may occur if AI develops the creative ability to produce material that evokes emotions in the same way humans currently can. The agencies also believe that the technological change within the industry will come with new copyright laws, regulations, and pricing structures emphasizing creativity and competence.

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Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur regleringar av insamling av kunddata påverkar B2C-företagens digitala marknadsföring, vilka konsekvenser som uppstår, samt hur denna förändring hanterats.  Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ metod. För insamling av empiriskt material har semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts där en intervjuguide skapades som är baserat på den teoretiska referensramen. Med en tematisk analys fick vi fram tre olika teman.  Resultat och slutsats: Studien visar att B2C-företag initialt påverkades negativt med mindre lönsamhet. Studien visar också hur företagen lyckats hantera förändringarna genom att exempelvis jobba med fler sociala plattformar och anpassa marknadsföringen utefter plattformens förutsättningar. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studiens teoretiska bidrag är ett resultat som kan överföras till B2C-företag både i Sverige och utanför. Det praktiska bidraget är hur verksamheter kan anpassa sina strategier och vilken typ av åtgärder som kan implementeras för att lösa problem av liknande natur.  Förslag till vidare forskning: På grund av att denna studie inriktar sig på B2C-företag rekommenderar vi forskning kring B2B-företagför att tillgodogöra mer kunskap om ämnet. / Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate how data regulations affect B2C companies’ digital marketing, the consequences, and how this change was handled. Method: The study is based on a qualitative method. The gathering of empirical material was conducted with semi-structured interviews with the assistance of an interview guide based on the theoretical framework. With a thematic analysis we identified three different themes. Result and Conclusions: The study shows that B2C companies were initially negatively impacted with less profitability. The study also shows how companies managed to handle the changes by working with more social media platforms and adapt the marketing according to the platform’s conditions.  Contribution of the thesis: The study’s theoretical contributions are a result that can be transferred to B2C companies both in Sweden and abroad. The practical contribution is how companies can adapt their strategies. Suggestions for future research: Since this study focuses on B2C companies, we suggest more research on the effects for B2B companies to assimilate more knowledge

This project practise methods used in the interaction design discipline to develop a concept related to the Swedish Guinness World Records Magazine. This project is a challenge to accommodate both the users’ and client’s needs. We focus on interaction and the experience, which is acquired through the use itself, and how to connect it to a theme from a client. The aim of this project is to create a meeting place for children where they can interact with technology. They will be able to have an influence on the material displayed on a digital platform. The digital platform will be situated in a very public space and we have investigated how this will affect its effective use. Questions raised in this paper are: what kind of technology children use and how to attract children with public feedback.

This thesis explores the impact of the usage of text-generative artificial intelligence (AI) in digital marketing on user satisfaction. Recently, concerns regarding job displacement and human expertise arose due to the efficiency and improved workflow provided by AI-powered tools. This study addresses these concerns by evaluating whether ChatGPT 3.5 is able to generate website texts with minimal human supervision while maintaining user satisfaction. Our investigation employs a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative research, utilising controlled experiments with 14 participants aged between 20 and 31 to compare AI-generated texts with human-written texts. The controlled experiment included two identically looking prototypes, one containing human-written texts and the other containing texts generated by ChatGPT 3.5. Both prototypes had three different pages: Home, Joining and About. Additionally, two types of surveys were created, a Satisfactory Survey for each prototype and a Final Survey. The Satisfactory Survey contained Likert scales from one (1) to five (5) which enabled participants to rank the texts together with open-ended questions. The Final Survey included questions about demographics and an overall prototype preference. Having tested texts on the three different pages in each prototype on satisfaction, informativeness and appeal, the biggest difference was found in the satisfaction of the individual pages. While participants preferred human-written texts on the Home and the About page, they favoured AI-generated texts on the Joining page. Findings suggest that ChatGPT 3.5 can, with minimal human supervision, produce texts of nearly equally good satisfaction from a user perspective compared to texts written by humans. The study underscores the importance of human oversight and expertise in optimising AI-generated outputs and contributes to the ongoing discourse on integrating AI into marketing practices.

Yes / Service small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are typically SMEs that operate in the service industry. In emerging economies, service SMEs can benefit from integrating technology and marketing activities to compete globally and drive growth. Further, service SMEs can compete with larger businesses with technology-driven marketing. Technology can differentiate an SME and create a unique value proposition, attracting customers and setting it apart. Social media advertising and email campaigns are often more cost-effective than traditional marketing channels such as print and television. The authors included a total of 32 articles published between the years 2013 and 2023 for in-depth analysis to address the issue under investigation. Findings indicated several effective digital marketing strategies to integrate technology and marketing activities among service SMEs in emerging economies, such as personalized marketing options, direct customer engagement, 24/7 availability options, and brand-building capabilities.

As live shopping has become more popular in recent years, as seen in China, this concept has slowly spread to Europe and also the Scandinavian countries. However, the purchasing behaviour of consumers varies, which modifies the circumstances and methods in which businesses might apply this concept to achieve results. This qualitative study explores how  Swedish fashion retailers should use live shopping to influence females buying behaviour. The method used for data collection has been through an industry interview with a marketing specialist and consumer interviews. The conclusion is that live shopping can be a powerful tool if implemented with strategic considerations that tailor the preferences and experiences of Swedish female consumers. Companies need to invest in leveraging social media effectively, and focus on detailed, high-quality content. Promotions should balance immediate appeal with long-term value, and live shopping should aim to inspire and inform consumers, fitting seamlessly into their thoughtful purchasing process. By addressing these factors, Swedish retailers in the fashion industry can influence female purchasing behaviour through live shopping.

Yes / As complex data becomes the norm, greater understanding of machine learning (ML) applications is needed for content marketers. Unstructured data, scattered across platforms in multiple forms, impedes performance and user experience. Automated classification offers a solution to this. We compare three state-of-the-art ML techniques for multilabel classification - Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbor, and Neural Network - to automatically tag and classify online news articles. Neural Network performs the best, yielding an F1 Score of 70% and provides satisfactory cross-platform applicability on the same organisation's YouTube content. The developed model can automatically label 99.6% of the unlabelled website and 96.1% of the unlabelled YouTube content. Thus, we contribute to marketing literature via comparative evaluation of ML models for multilabel content classification, and cross-channel validation for a different type of content. Results suggest that organisations may optimise ML to auto-tag content across various platforms, opening avenues for aggregated analyses of content performance.

Yes / The use of the internet and social media have changed consumer behavior and the ways in which companies conduct their business. Social and digital marketing offers significant opportunities to organizations through lower costs, improved brand awareness and increased sales. However, significant challenges exist from negative electronic word-of-mouth as well as intrusive and irritating online brand presence. This article brings together the collective insight from several leading experts on issues relating to digital and social media marketing. The experts’ perspectives offer a detailed narrative on key aspects of this important topic as well as perspectives on more specific issues including artificial intelligence, augmented reality marketing, digital content management, mobile marketing and advertising, B2B marketing, electronic word of mouth and ethical issues therein. This research offers a significant and timely contribution to both researchers and practitioners in the form of challenges and opportunities where we highlight the limitations within the current research, outline the research gaps and develop the questions and propositions that can help advance knowledge within the domain of digital and social marketing.