Call for Papers:

Brands in the Age of the Hyperdigital
Journal of Digital Media and Interaction
https://proa.ua.pt/index.php/jdmi/call_2025_3

Deadline for submissions: September 10, 2025

The Journal of Digital Media and Interaction invites submissions for a special issue exploring “Brands in the Age of the Hyperdigital.” As digital technologies evolve at unprecedented speed and scale, brands face both revolutionary opportunities and existential challenges. This special issue aims to examine how the hyperdigital landscape — characterised by immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, data abundance, and increasingly blurred boundaries between physical and digital realms — is transforming brand creation, management, perception, and interaction.

We welcome literature reviews, empirical studies, case analyses/studies, and critical perspectives that illuminate the complex relationship between brands and emerging digital technologies. This special issue seeks to bring together diverse disciplinary perspectives including (but not limited to) media and communication studies, marketing, design, computer science, sociology, psychology, and cultural studies.

POSSIBLE TOPICS (including but not limited to):

Brand Strategy and Technology

• Brand Personalisation and Hypercustomisation: Methodologies and implications of individualised brand experiences
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in Branding: Applications, frameworks, and impacts on brand strategy
• Data Analytics and Big Data: Leveraging vast datasets for brand insights and decision-making
• Blockchain and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs): Applications for brand ownership, authenticity verification, and community building
• Brand’s Digital Adoption: Organisational transformations and implementation challenges

Brand Communication and Interaction

• Smart Campaigns: Algorithmic optimisation and autonomous marketing systems
• Automated Brand Messages: AI-generated content and conversational brand interfaces
• “New” Branding Semiotics: Evolving visual, verbal, and interactive brand languages
• Brand Digital Experiences: Design approaches for immersive and cross-platform engagement

Brand Relationships and Identity

• New Generations: Changing relationships between Gen Z/Alpha and brands in hyperdigital contexts
• Identity Issues Through New Media: How digital environments reshape brand and consumer identities
• User Adoption and Trust: Factors affecting consumer acceptance of hyperdigital brand innovations
• Authorship and Co-creation: Collaborative brand building with consumers, communities, and algorithms

Ethical and Social Dimensions

• Privacy and Security: Balancing personalisation with consumer data protection
• Ethics and Compliance: Frameworks for responsible hyperdigital branding practices
• Misinformation and Boycott: Anti-branding movements, commercial “wars,” and brand reputation management
• Social and New Responsibilities: Brand roles in wellbeing, healthcare, happiness, and EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion)

Future Perspectives

• Brands’ Futures: Speculative approaches to brand evolution in digital contexts
• Branding in Education: Applications, implications, and innovations in educational contexts

For submission guidelines please check https://proa.ua.pt/index.php/jdmi/author

IMPORTANT DATES

• Articles submission deadline: 10 September 2025
• Decisions and review feedback to authors: 9 October 2025
• Revised manuscripts due: 4 November 2025
• Publication date: 12 December 2025

CONTACT INFORMATION

For inquiries related to this special issue, please contact the guest editors at lelis@ua.pt, dennis.olsen@uwl.ac.uk, and f.olivares@ua.es.