The impact of streaming services on brand storytelling

Abstract

Subscription Video on Demand companies like Netflix and Amazon invest money in their own TV shows like never before. It seems to pay off, as in some places and age groups, their platforms already surpassed traditional TV in terms of viewing time and popularity. Theses hows do not only have an impact on our everyday entertainment, they also influence storytelling in general. Netflix and others are not the only ones who try to tell the most interesting stories to consumers. Just like that, brands, with their own stories and messages,are trying to break through the information clutter, on their daily quest to communicate to their consumers.This study first explains what storytelling is and moreover, what good storytelling requires.It will be examined in which ways storytelling on platforms like Netflix has changed and why this change has been successful. Research is conducted by the explanatory mixed method approach. The research goal of the first part of this study, is to find out about how consumers perceive these changes and what they expect from today’s stories. In the second part, equipped with the results of the answered questionnaires from the first part, four industry experts from the field of branding are interviewed. The aim is to resolve the question how today’s brands have to adapt to the changes in storytelling, in order to stay relevant.The combined results of the two parts indicate that first, people are attracted by complex stories and characters with emotional depth. Also, people like to watch content that somehow refers to current societal issues and overall, participants were in favour for brands to adapt SVOD storytelling techniques in order to make brand communication more interesting.Second, the four experts agree on the fact that storytelling is a highly important tool for brands nowadays to communicate. Specifically, regarding the question of what brands can learn and adapt from SVOD content, they indicated that brands, like films or series, best reach the consumer on an emotional level with interesting stories, and through a character that is strongly connected to it.Just like entertainment content, brands as well can build in surprising plot twists and humour into their stories when at the end the consumer still knows what the brand ultimately stands for. Honesty and authenticity are also key words when brands want to address topics into their communication that are not directly connected to the product itself. Where the experts clearly advise against, contrary to the findings from the survey, is to make brand storytelling too complex, as consumers supposedly prefer “easy to get” messages.

Date of Award	8 Mar 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Mariana Victorino (Supervisor)