Young Adults' Views on Digital Storytelling Campaigns/OPINIONES DE ADULTOS J
| Autor | Barbosa, Belem |
| Cargo | Marketing |
Introduction
Digital technology has democratized the power to share stories. Although social networking sites (SNS) offer simple ways for brands to communicate with consumers, the number of messages and other stimuli makes it challenging to effectively get the message across. Storytelling is one of the strategies used to increase the efficacy of communication and encourage consumer involvement with brands, particularly in SNS, and thus to overcome information overload and negative attitude towards advertising (Dessart & Pitardi, 2019). As defined by Serrat (2017), storytelling is:
The vivid description of ideas, beliefs, personal experiences, and life-lessons through stories or narratives that evoke powerful emotions and insights. It refers to the use of stories or narratives as a communication tool to value, share, and capitalize on the knowledge of individuals. (p. 839) Stories help to connect and remember. Across centuries, people enjoy telling stories and listening to storytelling (Bassano et aí, 2019). When adopted by brands, storytelling can help developing customer relationships, providing topic and meaning to conversations (Gensler et al., 2013; Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010). Serrat (2017) suggests that the advantages of this digital communication strategy include: (i) enabling articulation of emotional aspects as well as factual content, hence allowing expression of tacit knowledge (which is particularly difficult to convey); (ii) providing a broader context in which knowledge arises, increasing the potential for meaningful knowledge-sharing; and (iii) increasing the likelihood that learning will take place and will be passed on. Some authors add that storytelling reinforces the construction of emotional ties, recognition, memorability, and personal identification with the brand (e.g., Herskovitz & Crystal, 2010; Zollo et aí, 2020).
It is therefore no wonder that storytelling deserves increasing attention from marketers, being used by brands to communicate value propositions, personality, identity, and to increase brand awareness. The phenomenon itself is not new. What is new is that the contribution of the digital age has amplified, facilitated, and made this phenomenon more notorious (Copeland & de-Moor, 2018; Escalas, 2004; Escalas & Stern, 2003; Gensler et aí, 2013; Hollebeek & Macky, 2019; Pera & Viglia, 2016; van-Laer et aí, 2019) to the benefit of brands.
One of the reasons for the popularity of digital storytelling campaigns through SNS is the fact that it offers mechanisms for the development and management of customer relationships (de-Vries et aí, 2012). Digital storytelling not only helps connect brands with customers and prospects but also plays a crucial role in transforming experiences and developing advocacy (Chronis, 2005; McCabe & Foster, 2006). The branding literature has long recognized the power of storytelling to provide brand meaning, while practitioners have used storytelling to enhance consumers' connections with brands (Brown et al., 2003; Escalas, 2004; Megehee & Woodside, 2010; Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012; Woodside et aí, 2008).
Nevertheless, the existing literature, particularly on digital level, is still scarce. A search by the keywords "digital storytelling" and "brand" in Scopus database showed only 16 results between 2010 and 2019. The last year (2019) showed a clear increase (6 articles published), despite the numbers continuing low. At Web of Science database the scenario is similar, with only 5 results from the same query ("digital storytelling and "brand"), ranging from 2012 to 2019. Consequently, there is a clear research gap regarding the factors that explain the impacts of digital storytelling strategies on brands. In order to help practitioners developing effective digital storytelling strategies, there is a need to better understand the impact of digital storytelling campaigns, namely regarding attitudes and perceptions towards brands and on the behavior of consumers, in general, and young consumers, in particular.
Indeed, the generations that use SNS more intensively are the younger. Generation Y (born 1978-1994) is known as the generation of Facebook, and Generation Z (born 1995 onwards) is known as "Net Gen," the generation that fully integrated the Internet into their daily lives (Williams & Page, 2011). The impact of communication campaigns on SNS over millennials is widely acknowledged. Members of these two generations were born, grew up, and currently live in the digital age, where the internet and the SNS are an integral part of their lives. As such, their digital interaction with brands is a very important field of study, which was also considered by this article.
This article focuses on digital storytelling as brand content strategy (Escalas, 2004), aiming to contribute to a greater understanding of the outcomes shared in the SNS, and thus highlight the factors that increase its effectiveness amongst young consumers. For the purpose of this article, customer interaction with branded content in SNS comprises liking, commenting, and sharing. The article also focus on the development of brand-customer relationships, from emotional bonding to brand loyalty.
Overall, this article provides several contributions. First, an updated reflection on the use of storytelling in social media marketing and communication strategies. Despite the popularity of the topic among practitioners, its literature is scattered, and the focus provided in this article regarding consumer behavior and the impact on brands offers an interesting framework that can be used by other researchers. The article also provides anecdotal evidence of in-depth first-hand views of consumers related to examples of digital storytelling campaigns, offering support to points made by extant literature but also providing new insights on how storytelling campaigns are perceived and their expected impacts on brands and consumer behavior. Combining both the contributions in extant literature and the findings of the qualitative study, this article presents a synthesis of the factors that explain interaction with digital storytelling campaigns and the outcomes for their associated brands. In general, this article demonstrates the relevance of further studying digital storytelling and provides valuable cues for managers considering adopting this strategy, including alerts regarding risks related to possible lack of consistency between the issues approached in the campaign and the characteristics of the brand.
The following pages present the main contributions of the literature on digital storytelling, which served as the basis for proposing two research questions as presented in the method: (RQ (1)) What are the determinants of users' interaction with storytelling campaigns on SNS?, and ([RQ.sup.2]) How do storytelling campaigns on SNS affect brands? In order to tackle the two research questions, the authors conducted a qualitative empirical study, comprising 8 focus groups with a total of 40 Portuguese consumers aged 19 to 37. Results provide anecdotal evidence of the impacts of digital storytelling campaigns in young consumers' behavior and interesting cues particularly for marketing and communication practitioners.
Background
Throughout the ages, the art of storytelling has been used as a method for creating emotional connections. From our ancestors to present days, the popular tradition of telling stories has never been lost, and there is a reason for these to continue to be told and remembered. A story is a description of an event (or a series of events) which will lead to a transition from the initial state to the later state or outcome (Bennett & Royle, 2016). Generally, narratives are the most powerful and lasting strategies for sharing information, knowledge and values, passed down through generations. The emergence of the internet and the latest advances in information and communication technologies have brought new ways of being socially and professionally connected, leading to the emergence of digital marketing and digital content strategies. And this gave rise to brand usage of digital storytelling tools to capture consumers' attention.
Storytelling as a marketing and communication strategy
The power of stories in marketing and communication has long been recognized by managers (Dessart & Pitardi, 2019; Gensler et al., 2013), who adapt storytelling strategies to convey marketing messages and branded content in order to influence customers' perceptions, feelings and behavior (Escalas, 2004; van-Laer et aí, 2014). As explained by Dessart and Pitardi (2019), the storytelling narrative structure has two essential strategic components: chronology and causality. While chronology conveys a temporal dimension to the story (Dessart & Pitardi, 2019), helping the public to clearly identify its stages (beginning, middle, and end), causality adds causal inferences to the events presented in the story, enabling the establishment of causal relationships among its elements (Escalas, 1998). In addition, storytelling often uses emotional appeals designed to stimulate listeners and to trigger higher levels of emotional involvement with the story (Brechman & Purvis, 2015). As noted by Pera and Viglia (2016), moral gist is particularly important, as stories that focus on a "lesson learned" are deemed more impactful to the audience. Furthermore, autenticity is also an essential feature, as it fosters audience trust and story acceptance (Dessart & Pitardi, 2019), and thus increase audience involvement and engagement.
Brand content strategies, such as brand storytelling, are increasingly used in an attempt to get the attention of customers and prospects (Maslowska et aí, 2016). Brand content has been studied in how it is deployed and broadcasted, using parameters such as the timing of the broadcast, its interactivity, and the type of information it conveys (Lee et al., 2018; Schultz, 2017). Yet, beyond...
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