22. Digital Storytelling Impact on Consumer Engagement

We live in an era where we witness constant changes and advances, especially at a technological level. Both consumers and organizations are becoming increasingly digital. This new consumer requires the use of digital to be managed in a much more interesting and challenging way, seeking to engage him/her as a basic condition to preserve the attractiveness of a brand. The use of storytelling as a consumer engagement strategy is increasing in several domains, but there is still scarce research relating consumer engagement to advertising in a digital storytelling format. This investigation is thus a contribution, aiming to understand the impact of the various components of digital storytelling on the different dimensions of consumer engagement. Adopting a qualitative and exploratory methodology, four focus groups directed at the Z generation were conducted to understand digital storytelling’s impact on consumer engagement. A content analysis was then performed using a qualitative analysis support software, and the results were supportive of the existence of a relationship between the components that make up the stories and the engagement they provide to the brands. The components most valued by consumers are, respectively, the message, the plot, the verisimilitude, the music and the characters. However, the message is the storytelling component that most impacts consumer engagement.