TRENDS ON TECHNOLOGY-BASED MEDIA BRANDING IN THE COMMUNICATION DISCIPLINE: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

Literature review

In the marketing and communications literature, branding is defined as a strategic construct that shapes an entity’s identity, image, and public perception. A conceptual analysis of branding shows that it is generally based on the relationships among brand identity, brand image, and brand positioning, serving as the foundation for managing brand value brand (Keller, 2013). In the development of digital marketing studies, branding is also understood as a relationship process formed through communication, consumer experience, and interaction between organizations and audiences in the digital world (Paramita et al., 2021). Various empirical studies show that communication strategies through social media and digital content can improve the relationship between organizations and customers by increasing audience engagement and brand loyalty (Ruangkanjanases et al., 2022). Furthermore, research on brand communities shows that online communities can build brand social capital through trust, cooperation, and knowledge among community members (Dessart et al., 2015). From this perspective, branding is no longer seen solely as a visual identity or symbolic element. Instead, it is seen as a communication process that emerges in the broader digital world through the relationship between organizations, media technologies, and audience communities.

In this communication-oriented branding approach, audience perception is crucial to the effectiveness of branding communications. Audience perception determines how the communicator’s message is understood and evaluated, and it influences audience behaviour. Marketing activities on social media can shape positive perceptions of the message source or organization among the audience. This positive audience perception will increase brand awareness and enhance the organization’s brand, thereby encouraging audience behavioural involvement in the decision-making process (Ruangkanjanases et al., 2022). Several previous studies also show that the use of multimedia elements, such as interactivity, innovation, and emotional nuances, in branding can enhance audience perceptions of the organization’s values and branding, thereby increasing loyalty and brand awareness (Liu & Jin, 2025). Meanwhile, studies on sustainability communication show that the authenticity of the message received strongly influences audience perceptions. When audiences perceive sustainability messages as honest and transparent, trust in the brand increases and can drive behavioural change (Poulis et al., 2026). This previous research illustrates that the quality of the message shapes audience perception, the media used, and the level of trust in the communication, to influence audience attitudes and behaviours toward an organization. In general, these studies indicate that the quality of the message delivered influences audience perception, the type of media used, and the level of trust established during the organizational communication process.

The growing role of audience perception in branding communications aligns with the broader digital transformation, which is changing how organizations interact with their audiences. One form of digital transformation is characterized by the use of artificial intelligence-based technology, generative media, and digital communication systems that make it easier for organizations to implement more dynamic and interactive communication spaces for audiences. Digital transformation in branding emerges through the use of AI technology and systems that enable automated content production, message personalization, and the creation of more interactive, adaptive branding (Balaji et al., 2025). Another opinion states that digital transformation occurs within the context of organizational communication through the integration of AI, which helps decision-making, increases transparency, and enhances stakeholder understanding in the organizational change process (Kashyap et al., 2025). A recent study also highlighted the evolving public discourse on artificial intelligence and the ways digital technologies are perceived in modern communication. Therefore, digital transformation is not only about deploying new technologies, but also about changes in how organizations manage branding messages, build communication narratives, and interact with their audiences within an increasingly complex digital communications ecosystem (Baholli et al., 2024).

As digital transformation continues to evolve, social media has emerged as one of the most important platforms for organizations to implement branding and communication strategies. The concept of social media branding states that social media serves as a strategic channel for organizations to communicate branding elements and build brand equity through digital interactions with audiences (Dubbelink et al., 2021). Research on brand communication in social media shows that branding is not limited to conventional advertising but also encompasses content created by brands, user interactions, and stakeholder participation that spread or interpret brand messages in digital networks (Voorveld, 2019).

These dynamics reinforce the evidence that social media has the potential to be a two-way communication space that allows consumers to access, share, and engage directly and/or indirectly, thereby strengthening the relationship between brands and stakeholders. Empirical evidence also shows that digital content marketing and stakeholder participation in sharing informative content, such as posters or videos, can significantly influence stakeholder behavior and engagement with the brand. Ultimately, this will increase stakeholder loyalty to the brand (AlFraihat et al., 2025). Therefore, digital content marketing and stakeholder participation in sharing informative content, such as posters or videos, can significantly influence stakeholder behavior and engagement with the brand. Ultimately, this will increase stakeholder loyalty to the brand.

As the roles of social media branding and audience participation grow, various studies have used diverse methodologies to investigate the relationships between consumer perceptions and behaviors and branding constructs. Findings from several literature reviews indicate that branding studies in marketing often employ quantitative empirical approaches. For example, a systematic review of articles in the Scopus database indicates that most research on brand identity and brand loyalty uses quantitative methods (Charity Latanza Indahsari et al., 2023). In addition, literature on brand experience shows that most studies focus on empirical measurement and statistical analysis (Khan & Rahman, 2015).

In addition to quantitative approaches, other studies use experimental designs and consumer behavior analysis to examine the influence of digital communication elements on brand evaluations, especially in the context of social media-based digital communication and visual content (Dessart et al., 2015). On the other hand, several studies have also applied qualitative approaches to examine the dynamics of brand communication and the interactions between organizations and audiences in digital ecosystems. For example, qualitative case studies have been used to examine the complex interactions between various stakeholders in the brand communication process, demonstrating that brand meaning is constructed through brand co-creation performances (Brand et al., 2025). This methodological diversity demonstrates that branding studies are developing multidisciplinary and combining perspectives from marketing, communication, and digital technology to understand the dynamics of the relationship between organizations and audiences.

Beyond conceptual and empirical approaches, studies on branding and marketing communications are increasingly adopting bibliometric analysis to identify the structure of knowledge and the development of scientific literature within a research field. This method allows researchers to identify publication patterns, citation networks, and thematic clusters that reflect the dynamics of research development over time (Donthu et al., 2021). Through this method, researchers can identify the contributions of various institutions, countries, and influential authors, while analysing the dominance of research themes in the academic literature. For example, bibliometric analysis has been used to examine the evolution of research on brand identity, brand image, and communication strategies that shape public perception of a brand or place (Lessa et al., 2025). Therefore, bibliometric analysis offers a macro perspective that complements conceptual and empirical research in understanding the evolution of knowledge in branding and digital communication studies. Furthermore, this analysis helps identify dominant research themes and emerging research trends.

Nevertheless, previous research has addressed communication branding, audience perception, and social media branding from various conceptual and empirical perspectives. However, there is a lack of research that systematically maps how these themes develop within the context of branding and digital communication research. Specifically, research capable of mapping the development of scientific discourse on branding is still needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify key research trends, thematic clusters, and future research objectives by analysing the structure and development of branding research using a bibliometric approach.

Research design method

Bibliometric analysis is used in this research design to examine the development of scientific literature and identify patterns, trends, and impacts within a particular field (Passas, 2024). Bibliometrics is a research method that uses quantitative methods and statistical techniques to examine and identify patterns in published scientific literature (Kumar, 2025). This study uses a bibliometric analysis to identify, analyse, and visualize research developments and trends in branding in technology media. Vosviewer, Biblioshiny, and Microsoft Excel are used in this study for trend and comprehensive analyses. The methodological framework in this study uses a descriptive qualitative analysis approach. Relevant bibliometric data are collected by identifying and compiling key information from scientific publications, such as article titles, publication years, author names, and institutional affiliations. This process requires careful, accurate identification to ensure the data used aligns with research needs.

Data collection

This research uses a Scopus database, known as one of the largest and most comprehensive scientific literature databases, which provides publications from various scientific disciplines (Safas & Khan, 2026). Scopus is often used in bibliometric research because it provides comprehensive metadata and allows filtering for relevant journals, making data search easier (Li et al., 2026). In addition, research uses bibliometrics to determine the direction of research development, such as mapping publication trends and analysing citation networks (Boshnjaku et al., 2026). The data search was conducted in March 2026 using keywords related to branding and media technology: “branding,” “advertisement,” “promotion,” “media technology,” “social media,” and “communication.” In addition, the publication period was limited to 2015–2025 to identify the latest research developments in media technology-based branding within the communication discipline, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Data collection process.

The initial search results from the Scopus database yielded 48,442 documents. After removing 23,148 duplicate documents, the remaining documents were 25,294. A screening stage was then conducted based on the relevance of the title and abstract to the research topic. At this stage, 474 documents were deemed relevant, while 24,820 were excluded for not aligning with the research focus. The next stage was a feasibility assessment, involving further review of the publication content. From this process, 153 documents met the inclusion criteria and were declared suitable for further analysis. All selected documents were then used as datasets in a bibliometric analysis to identify research trends, theme developments, and patterns of scientific collaboration in media technology-based branding studies within the communication discipline.

Data analysis

The authors determined the publishing trends of technology-based media branding in the communication discipline through a Scopus database search and subsequent bibliometric analysis. The average number of complete citations was subsequently determined from all published works using Microsoft Excel. The h-index and g-index of publications were determined in this study by the researcher using the R.4.4.1 program, a bibliometric instrument. The data displayed in Microsoft Excel were significant, as they represented the rankings of journal publications derived from quartiles. Scopus’ database contains 153 documents, which are further classified into (Q1), (Q2), and (Q3). This data also indicated that the publications were generated by researchers who had published in journals and conferences.

By exporting the data to Microsoft Excel, researchers were able to plot and exhibit the geographical distribution of articles by country on a world map. This conclusion was reached. The g-index and h-index of the publications under investigation were obtained using the R.4.4.1 program or similar tools, such as Biblioshiny’s citation trends. To establish network relationships among keywords, the VOSviewer program generated network graphics. To confirm the research’s focus, a survey of critical thinking-related terms in English language instruction is conducted. The Scopus database is the source of the information for analysis, including data that has been preliminarily processed. The VOS Viewer application provided terms that could be used to understand the research objective.

Main information

The characteristics of the dataset used for the bibliometric analysis are presented in this section. The research data covers publications from 2015 to 2026, totalling 153 documents from 109 sources, including academic books and journals. In recent years, the annual growth rate has reached 10.5%, indicating increasing academic attention to the analysed topic. Each document averages 8,556 citations, indicating the visibility and scientific influence of the analysed publications. The average age of the analysed documents is 2.73 years, indicating that most of the literature used is relatively recent and reflects recent research advances. Overall, the documents contain 1,477 references, demonstrating the breadth of the reference base in this field of study, as seen in Table 1.

In terms of document content, this study identified 919 Additional Keywords and 619 Author Keywords, indicating various conceptual themes and research methodologies used in the relevant literature. Furthermore, these keyword variations indicate the development of research topics and focuses within the field under study. Regarding author characteristics, 605 authors contributed to all documents analysed. A single author wrote a total of 20 documents, but most publications were created through collaboration between authors. This is reflected in an average of 4.03 authors per document, suggesting that research in this field tends to be collaborative.

Furthermore, the global collaboration rate of 24.84% indicates that researchers from various countries are involved in developing the literature on the subject discussed. Based on document type, the majority of publications are journal articles (144), while the remaining 9 are conference papers. The dominance of journal articles indicates that this publication type has always been the primary avenue for disseminating research results in this field of study. Overall, this information provides an initial overview of the structure of the literature analysed, publication dynamics, scientific collaborations and research developments in the field under study.

Annual Scientific Production

In the analysed topic, the growth in the number of scientific publications shows a fluctuating pattern, but in recent years there has been a significant increase, as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Annual scientific production.

The graph of the data analysis results shows that publication practices were very low during the early phase of the observation period (2015–2018). In 2015, the number of indexed articles was approximately 2 publications; in 2016, it slowly increased to approximately 3 publications. However, in 2017, growth in publications decreased sharply to nearly zero, indicating that academic interest in this topic remained very minimal in the early phase. Scientific production then gradually reappeared in 2018, with approximately 1 publication. Entering the second period (2019–2021), a gradual growth trend is evident. In 2019, the number of publications increased from around 3 to around 5 in 2020, and continued to increase to 8 in 2021. This phase can be interpreted as an early growth phase, in which academic focus on research topics broadens and scientific contributions increase steadily (Wang et al., 2021).

A sharper increase then occurred in 2022, when the number of publications rose to around 24. This surge indicated that the research topic was beginning to receive widespread attention from the academic world. Although the trend declined in 2023, with only around 14 publications, it increased again in 2024, to around 41 publications, and continued to increase to 46 articles in 2025. Due to this significant growth, the 2022–2025 period is considered a rapid growth phase, as research on this topic experienced rapid development in the scientific literature (Goktas & Dikec, 2026).

However, a drastic decline of approximately 6 publications was observed in 2026. This likely does not represent a substantial decline in research focus, but rather an exception due to data limitations in the current year, when publication and database indexing processes are still ongoing (Adeosun, 2024). The general pattern of annual scientific production indicates that the research topic analysed undergoes several stages of growth, from an initial phase of low productivity to a more stable phase, especially after 2021. The increasing number of publications between 2022 and 2025 indicates that the subject is of increasing interest to academics and is relevant to contemporary scientific discussions.

Source local impact

The position of a publication source is evaluated by measuring the extent to which the publication source contributes to the development of the research topic being studied (Kyosova, 2024). Publication sources are considered crucial if published articles are frequently referenced by other research within the same body of literature. This dynamic can be understood by analysing bibliometric indicators, including the h-index, g-index, m-index, Total Citation (TC), Number of Papers (NP), and the initial year of publication (PY_start) to map the level of publication source productivity and its impact on the academic community (García-Villar & García-Santos, 2021).

Based on the results of bibliometric data processing as seen in Table 2, Sustainability (Switzerland) is the publication source with the most dominant impact on the research topic of Branding Based Media Technology. The h-index of 7 indicates that at least 7 of the author’s scientific articles have been cited at least 7 times. Sustainability (Switzerland) has a combination of scientific article productivity and strong citation impact since the initial year of contribution, namely 2018 (PY_start), with a total of 155 citations (TC) from 11 published articles (NP) in the research dataset. In addition, the g-index of 11 indicates high visibility of scientific article citations. Comprehensively, this is because Sustainability (Switzerland) is a multidisciplinary journal that covers various scientific aspects and has an open-access policy; this condition has the potential to increase citations.

A significant contribution is also seen in the journal PLOS ONE, which ranks second, with an h-index of 5 and a g-index of 7 since its publication in 2021 (PY_start). Despite its relatively recent appearance in the research dataset, articles in PLOS ONE tend to receive high citations, with the m-index rising quickly to 0.833. This high figure emphasizes that, in addition to the publication source’s broad, global scientific reach, PLOS ONE also adheres to strict scientific methodological standards, which have implications for the credibility and quality of published articles.

Bibliometric analysis shows that several journals specifically contribute to the social, communication, and health fields. The presence of Food and Nutrition Bulletin, Journal of Health Communication, and Social Science and Medicine, with balanced h-index combinations, indicates a relatively stable influence in the research ecosystem. While the dataset (NP) contains fewer articles than the two publication sources mentioned above, it still yields a significant total citation count (TC). This indicates that the published scientific articles are conceptually strong. Therefore, further research on communication and health tends to cite articles from these three journals.

On the other hand, social and health perspectives in the educational context are also evident in the journals Communication and Society and BMC Medical Education. Articles published collectively have received little attention from the academic community. The H-index indicates that only two articles have been cited at least twice. The resulting scientific influence is limited to a specific scope, thus limiting its relevance to specific research studies.

Furthermore, contrasting citation strengths are demonstrated by Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience and Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing. Both publication sources are technology-based and have a moderate impact. In Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, the number of published articles (NP) is not large, but it has consistently received citations over a relatively short period (m-index) since 2022 (PY_start). Bibliometric analysis reveals that the articles in these journals are relevant to the needs of the computational intelligence literature. Meanwhile, Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing have a much lower citation rate because it focuses on research on computing technology, cellular networks, and wireless communication systems. The narrow topic limits citation visibility.

The ACM International Conference Proceedings Series shows a lower citation impact, with a total citation (TC) of 1. However, the interpretation of bibliometric indicators in this publication type differs significantly from that in conventional journals. The low h-index is due to the proceedings’ role as a platform for initial research dissemination before further development. The limited number of articles (NP 2) indirectly reduces the opportunity for significant citations. Therefore, citations do not correlate with research quality.

The overall distribution of journals in the dataset reflects the ongoing development of research and varying levels of impact. Some journals serve as primary references in the scientific literature, particularly those related to sustainability, communication, social, and health issues. In contrast, technology-based journals and conference proceedings contribute minimally to the academic community and tend to provide complementary perspectives. This citation pattern demonstrates that branding-based media technology is evolving and involves diverse disciplines, thereby enriching the field’s discourse.

Authors local impact

The names of authors who have influenced the metadata analysis using a bibliometric approach, as seen in Table 3. To determine this influence, the authors primarily measured it using the h-index indicator. The h-index value indicates the number of articles with at least that many citations. The higher an author’s h-index value, the more articles will receive high citations (Hirsch, 2005). Other studies have shown that bibliometric analysis relies heavily on citation data to assess the scientific impact of publications and authors through indicators such as the h-index and other citation metrics (Gerasimov et al., 2024).

At the top of the table, several authors, including Azupogo F, Bliznashka L, Hess SY, Hinnouho GM, Koyratty N, Olney DK, Smith TJ, and Tharaney M, have h-index and g-index values of 2. These values indicate that each author has at least two articles that have been cited at least twice in the research metadata. Furthermore, each author has a publication number of 2, meaning they contributed two articles to the metadata. The total citations recorded for each author is 11, indicating that other studies on the same topic frequently reference their work. The publication start year recorded is 2025, indicating that their contributions are relatively recent within the analyzed publication period.

Furthermore, there are other authors in the table named Abdullah A, Aburto N, Acharya A, Adebayo R, Ado AL, Agostinho SP, Aguilera-Cora E, Agénor M, Alonso F, Aluc A, Amunga DA, and Anaya-Sánchez R, who have h-indices and g-indices of 1. This means they have at least one article that has been cited at least once in the research metadata. So, their contribution to the metadata is less. However, some authors in this group still have a significant impact. Anaya-Sánchez R has 119 citations, indicating that the author’s articles are frequently referenced by other researchers and thus have a strong influence in the field.

Overall, several authors have made significant contributions to the development of research on the topic under analysis. Some authors demonstrate consistent productivity with multiple publications and stable citation counts, while others may maintain a significant impact through high citation counts. This information helps researchers identify key figures or authors who have played a role in establishing and developing the literature in a related research field.

Most globally cited documents

This study attempts to conduct a citation analysis that has a significant influence on the development of research in the field under study, as shown in Table 4. The article with the highest number of citations is research written by Dienlin et al. (2021), “An Agenda for Open Science in Communication,” which was published in the Journal of Communication, with a total of 164 citations and an average of 27.33 citations per year. This article discusses the importance of implementing open science practices in communication research to improve replication, data transparency, and the reliability of research results. This article is an important reference for other researchers developing related studies. Articles with the highest number of citations make a strong contribution to the development of the field of communication, specifically branding and media technology.

Next, the second article with the most citations are the work of Molinillo et al. (2019). The paper, “Smart City Communication via Social Media: Analysing Residents’ and Visitors’ Engagement,” received 119 citations and an average of 17.4 citations per year. It explains that social media plays a crucial role in strengthening a city’s communication and branding strategies. Furthermore, the study by Ingrassia et al. (2022), entitled “Digital Influencers, Food, and Tourism A New Model of Open Innovation for Businesses in the Ho.Re.Ca.” Sector, published in the Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, has 87 citations, with an average of 17.4 per year and a normalized citation value of 7.17. This value indicates that the article has a very high impact compared to the average of other publications in the same field. This article found that content featuring local food can increase the attractiveness of tourist destinations and strengthen branding strategies through social media. Meanwhile, the journal articles by Moss et al. (2016), Tellidis & Kappler (2016), Sala et al. (2021), and others, published in various journals, received 15–76 citations.

Author’s countries

This data provides a detailed analysis of the contributions of branding research conducted with media technologies from various countries. The analysis evaluates the number of published articles, their percentage of the total dataset, and collaborations based on Single Country Publications (SCPs) and Multicounty Publications (MCPs). The percentage of MCPs indicates the number of articles involving international collaborations, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Authors’ countries.

China ranked first with 19 articles, representing 12.41% of the total contribution. The majority of its output was SCP (16 articles), indicating a strong focus on domestic research, but only three involved international collaboration (MCP), representing 15.78% of its output. The United States followed with 19 articles, also representing 12.41%, of which 4 were MCP (21.05%), indicating a greater emphasis on international collaboration than in China. In contrast, Indonesia featured 7 articles (4.57%), all of which were SCP, indicating a lack of international collaboration. The UK and Italy each had only 6 articles (3.91%), while the UK had international collaboration with 66.67% of MCP, whereas Italy had only 2 articles (33.33% of MCP).

However, five articles from Hong Kong (3.26%) accounted for 80% of the MCP, the highest pattern of international collaboration in this study. This was followed by Romania, which contributed five articles (3.26%), of which 40% were MCP. Meanwhile, Canada, India, and Spain each contributed four articles (2.61%), Canada featured 25% of the MCP, while India and Spain were all SCP, indicating no international collaboration in the research in either country. Countries such as Germany, Ireland, Korea, Portugal, and Thailand each contributed three articles, of which all contributed one MCP article (33.33%), except Germany, which had two MCP articles (66.67%). For countries such as Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, Malaysia, and Sweden, which contributed two articles (1.30%), all of which were SCP, except Denmark and Malaysia, which featured one MCP article (50%). Finally, contributions of one article were presented by the countries of Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, Iran, Jordan, Kosovo, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Switzerland, and Ukraine, all of which are SCPs except Kosovo, the Netherlands, and Peru.

Overall, this data provides a snapshot of global research productivity and collaboration. Some are highly dominant, such as the United States, while others are comparable, such as the UK and Hong Kong. Therefore, these findings call for broader global collaboration to conduct international research on branding with critical thinking and media technology. Figure 3 provides an overview of these cross-national collaborations and publication outputs, including the author countries and their contribution ratios.

Keyword analysis

The resulting visual data presents a network map of co-occurring keywords related to research in the communication discipline, specifically branding-based media technology trends. Based on VOSviewer analysis, this network map displays how these terms cluster around key themes and ideas in the research literature, as shown in Figure 4. Each node (dot) represents a keyword, while the node size reflects the frequency of occurrence of that keyword in the literature. The distance between nodes indicates the closeness or the strength of the thematic correlation between concepts. At the centre of the network, prominent central terms such as “communication,” “humans,” and “human” emerge, serving as the main focal point and connecting various related subtopics.

Figure 4. Keyword analysis.

Several key clusters highlight different dimensions and thematic areas. The cluster most relevant to the core of this research is marked in red and focuses on marketing, media, and visual communication. Keywords with large node counts, such as “communication,” “marketing,” “advertising,” “visual communication,” “branding,” and “public relations,” indicate a high level of research interest in integrating visual communication and marketing strategies. This red cluster also explores the relationship between digital and business ecosystem elements, as seen in the emergence of terms like “internet,” “employer branding,” “sustainability,” and “decision making.” This reflects the contemporary trend where media and internet technologies play a significant role in shaping public perception and marketing branding strategies.

Meanwhile, other clusters provide insights into interdisciplinary subfields. The green and blue clusters highlight aspects of human behaviour and health communication, as indicated by keywords such as “health communication,” “health behaviour,” “psychology,” “information processing,” and mapping demographic groups such as “male” and “child.” Furthermore, the yellow cluster at the top contains terms related to methodological evaluation and risk assessment, such as “questionnaire,” “risk assessment,” “self-efficacy,” and the context of the global challenge of “COVID-19.” The emergence of these clusters indicates that media communication studies do not stand alone but rather intersect closely with studies of psychology, information processing, and human health interventions.

Overall, this visualization highlights the interconnectivity of various research themes, depicting the diversity of subjects, participants, and functional approaches within the communication discipline. The relationships between clusters reflect the broad impact of communication technology, encompassing not only commercial branding tactics but also aspects of health literacy and cognitive psychology. This mapping offers comprehensive insights for developing the future research landscape, where a deeper understanding of the integration of interactive media technology, branding, and human behaviour is vital.

Thematic maps

Thematic mapping aims to provide a detailed description of research themes in a particular field, as presented in Figure 5. Thematic mapping is performed by grouping keywords and key phrases using the halved k-means algorithm (Parlina et al., 2020). This analysis identifies the position and development of media technology-based branding based on relevance (centrality) and development (density). The motor themes section shows that clusters such as child emerge as important and growing, suggesting that this cluster makes a significant contribution to media technology-based branding research. The relationship between the diet and preschool child clusters focuses on healthy lifestyles and children’s knowledge of branding. The position of the child plays an important role in shaping loyalty and preference for a brand in the discussion and research methods in this field (Núñez-Gómez et al., 2020).

Figure 5. Thematic maps.

On the other hand, clusters such as adolescence, information processing, and sexual behaviour are also important, even though their developmental levels are balanced. From a branding perspective, these clusters are understood as representing young audiences in the process of receiving and processing messages, as reflected in brand perceptions. A study in Heliyon showed that social media marketing activities influence brand awareness, brand image, and brand loyalty (Malarvizhi et al., 2022). This cluster emphasizes that branding success is determined not only by the message produced but also by how the public understands, interprets, and responds to it.

Meanwhile, clusters such as female, male, and adult are in the basic themes, indicating that these clusters are important but not yet well developed. This suggests that these three clusters play a significant role in children’s knowledge of branding. This cluster emphasizes the importance of integrating children’s education into brand identity and equity, especially in digital media. However, because the level of development is still lacking, this cluster requires more in-depth theoretical development and research to strengthen its influence. Furthermore, the research conducted by Skeer et al. (2022) emphasized that parental involvement in building communication skills can prevent risky behaviour in children, especially in the formation of self-identity in digital media. In the decision-making cluster, education and parenting, which are niche themes, are well-developed but less important. This indicates that decision-making, education, and the role of parents have developed and are connected to branding, but this cluster is less important when linked to the main research.

However, the human, interpersonal, visual, and social media communication clusters are among the declining themes, indicating that these clusters have not yet been integrated into branding research or have received insufficient attention. These clusters have the potential for further development by incorporating analytical reasoning, thus playing a significant role in the research topic. Overall, this thematic map shows that children occupy a central position in this research topic. However, weaknesses in the scope of the themes were identified, and opportunities exist to integrate them more comprehensively. The thematic structure is shown in Figure 5, which provides an overview of the relevance and development of research themes in media technology-based branding.

Limitation

Although this study provides a systematic mapping, it has several limitations. First, the data analysis was limited to publications indexed in the Scopus database. As a result, relevant research may have been missed. Second, the bibliometric analysis did not comprehensively evaluate the methodological quality or effectiveness of the interventions reported in each study; it was only descriptive and quantitative. Furthermore, the research period of 2015–2025 does not fully represent the development of media technology-based branding research in communication. Due to the aforementioned limitations, further in-depth research can be conducted by combining a bibliometric approach with a systematic review or meta-analysis to obtain in-depth information regarding branding using media technology. To obtain a more comprehensive mapping, further research is expected to expand the data sources and analysis period.