PERSONAL BRANDING AS A MARKETING COMMUNICATION TOOL IN CREATIVE INDUSTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article examines personal branding as a tool of marketing communication in creative industries. Drawing on a quantitative survey of 384 representatives of the creative sector in the Krasnoyarsk Region, the study analyzes practices of forming and promoting personal brands. The findings reveal that 79% of respondents recognize personal branding as an essential element of their career trajectory, with 42,6% deliberately working on developing their personal brand. Social media remains the dominant promotion tool (27,8%), which aligns with the logic of the attention economy. More than one-third of respondents report tangible outcomes, including project invitations, networking opportunities, and professional recommendations. The study identifies a gap between awareness of the importance of personal branding and systematic efforts to develop it, attributable to a shortage of structured educational resources. The research findings may be used by marketers and creative industry practitioners to develop communication strategies in the creative sector. Acknowledgements. The author expresses sincere gratitude to Alexey S. Novikov, founder of Technologies of Social Research LLC (Krasnoyarsk), for his substantial contribution to organizing the research and processing the survey results.