“The effects of branded message appeals and video content
attributes on online consumer engagement through corporate
YouTube videos”
Dafni Bachou
Student ID: 10852956
Master Thesis
University of Amsterdam
Graduate School of Communication
Track: Corporate Communication
Supervisor: Dr. Theo Araujo
Abstract
Drawing from Uses and Gratification theory, the present study investigates the effects of branded message appeals and content attributes as they appear in official corporate YouTube videos. In particular, it inspects whether the intensity of functional and emotional video message appeals influences consumer engagement online. At the same time, it explores whether specific video content attributes (marketing/promotional, organizational and relational) enhance this influence. As a result, 200 branded YouTube videos, deriving from official corporate YouTube channels were examined with the aid of content analysis. The results revealed that the intensity of emotional appeals affected all levels of online consumer engagement, including how many consumers view a video, the video approval ratings as well as the number of comments and shares. The intensity of functional appeals presented no association with online consumer engagement at any level. In addition, the organizational and relational content attributes surrounding the emotional appeals proved to enhance emotional appeals’ effect on online
consumer engagement. Overall, this paper advances the empirical academic research on the field of online consumer engagement in YouTube. In addition, it is of great value for companies that actively seek to improve their practices online by indicating precise elements that should be included in their branded video contents.
Introduction
The rapid growth of YouTube’s popularity has pointed out the medium’s allure for both consumers and corporations. Attracting billions of unique users and over six billion viewers per month (Bonson, Bednarova, & Escobar Rodriquez, 2014), YouTube is not only used for
amusement, but is also employed as a public venue for consumers to gain and discuss brand experiences and inclinations (Jansen & Zhang, 2009). However, YouTube is also used by corporations as a medium to promote their brand efforts online (Cvijikj & Michalleles, 2013) with the ultimate goal of keeping their consumers highly engaged (Smith, Fisher, & Yongjian, 2012). The present study focuses on how companies create their corporate content on YouTube and investigates certain aspects of this content that influence online consumer engagement.
Past research inspects YouTube’s content mostly in association with the public or non-profit sector, leaving its effects on the private business sector highly under investigated. The majority of the studies that do explore the impact of YouTube’s corporate content on consumer’ engagement, analyze its characteristics together with the examination of other social media content (Smith et al., 2012). For instance, Brodie, Ilic, Juric and Hollebeek (2011), Dessart, Veloutsou and Morgan-Thomas, (2012) or Smith et al. (2012), tried to explore factors driving consumer engagement on YouTube; yet they performed their examination in conjunction with Facebook and/or Twitter. As a result, the exclusive investigation of YouTube and its content influence on consumers is scarce.
Moreover, the majority of the knowledge that we have on the corporate YouTube video information that drives consumer engagement comes from separate social media networks. Cvijik and Michalleles (2011) analyzed the influential factors of the corporate content on online consumer engagement using only Facebook as their main medium. In the same line, Ahuja and Medury (2010) investigated the effects of online corporate content on consumer engagement through corporate e-blogs. As a result, the existing literature fails to adequately address which content aspects, solely included in corporate YouTube videos, will enhance consumer
engagement. Consequently, a gap still remains concerning the way corporations construct their video content and particularly which aspects of it are more appealing to consumers to engage. The elements that significantly influence consumer engagement online are the functional and emotional appeals of the branded content ( Ashley et al., 2015). The former inherently task oriented (Chitturi, 2009) are claimed to lead to lower levels of online consumer engagement. In
contrast, the latter, closely connected with consumers’ sensational satisfaction are thought to drive higher levels of online consumer engagement (Lee, Hasanag, & Nair, 2013). Furthermore, when the message appeals are surrounded by specific conducive elements of the video content, such as marketing/promotional, organizational and relational content attributes, consumer engagement is being facilitated even more (Ahuja & Medury, 2010). However, research asserting which of these appeals or content attributes are more likely to evoke greater online consumer engagement is still insufficient. In addition, up to date, there is no research examining the effects of functional and emotional appeals in the context of corporate YouTube videos. This research scarcity is therefore crucial to be shortened. As a result, the present study will attempt to fill this gap.
Specifically, this study will focus on providing a more thorough understanding of message appeals and video content attributes effects on different levels of online consumer engagement. This will be performed by firstly dividing online consumer engagement into three levels (low, medium and high) according to the usage activity rates on YouTube. The low level will be measured through the number of views, the medium through the number of thumbs up and the high through the number of comments and video shares. Then it will be identified whether the functional or emotional message appeals together with which video content
attributes will contribute more effectively into these different levels. To summarize, the goal of the current study is to answer the following central research question,
RQ: “To what extent do functional and emotional branded message appeals together with distinct video content attributes, as depicted in official corporate YouTube videos, affect
consumer engagement online?”
Theoretical framework Uses and Gratification Theory (U&G)
YouTube constitutes a powerful online medium that fosters the development of a
valuable conversational exchange between a company and its consumers (Bonson, Bednarova, & Escobar Rodriguez, 2014). Organizations can acquire beneficial outcomes from such an
interaction. For instance, they can constantly gain new consumers, but most importantly retain them engaged in a long-term. (Bonson et al., 2014). To achieve that, organizations are expected to strategically provide consumers with value that takes the form of gratification of their
requirements (Shao, 2009). As a result, it is useful to comprehend the factors which will motivate consumers to search for online platforms that will satisfy their needs while their content will keep them engaged as much as possible (Cvijikj & Michalleles, 2013). Uses and gratification theory (Katz, Gurevitch, & Haas, 1973) provides precious insights into the motivations that drive consumers to interact with online media, and subsequently create a relationship with them (Shao, 2009). Specifically, it proposes that the members of the audience are not passive recipients of information. On the contrary, they play an active role in interpreting and integrating this information into their routines (Katz et al., 1973). Essentially, it investigates individuals’ motivations and decisions to use a medium in order to achieve a certain degree of satisfaction (Ko, Cho, & Roberts, 2005).
Shao (2009) postulates that the use individuals draw on online media depends on different motivations every time. As a matter of fact he posits that people consume online
content to inform and entertain themselves. Additionally, they participate in it to socially interact with others and develop communities. Individuals also produce online content to express and actualize themselves (Shao, 2009). Muntinga, Moorman and Smit (2011) distinguish between different uses and different gratification requirements as well confirming the above mentioned motivations for online brand-related content consumption. In fact, they argue that motivations constitute the driving wheel that unfolds consumers’ behavior (Muntinga et al., 2011).
Organizations by successfully meeting these drivers in their online strategies can achieve higher levels of engagement (Cvijikj & Michalleles, 2013). However, the applicability of U&G theory and its classification of benefits have been demonstrated by very few studies as far as consumer engagement online is concerned (Nambisan & Baron, 2007; Dholakia et al., 2009). The present study will follow this research approach and accordingly adopt U&G theory as its primary theoretical framework.
Online consumer engagement
The ability of corporate practices to engage individuals through online corporate
platforms, such as YouTube channels, will eventually determine whether a consumer will enter into a greater relationship with a corporation or not (Ahuja & Medury, 2011). Higgings and Scholer (2009) described the state of engagement as a situation where individuals are fully committed and immersed in a preserved attention, engendering the effects of a particular
attraction. Up to date though, relatively few authors have attempted to provide a concrete definition about consumer engagement (Brodie, Ilic, Juric & Hollebeck, 2013).
According to Kumar et al. (2010), consumer engagement rejects the obsolete notion of consumer value as a mere transactional purchase value. It is, instead, considered a composition of cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social aspects which are set off by either the consumer or the organization (Viviek, Beatty & Morgan, 2012). Brodie et al (2013) together with Hollebeek (2012) view consumer engagement as the degree of a consumers’ motivational, brand-related context dependent state of mind which is characterized by specific levels of cognitive, emotional and behavioral activity in brand interactions. Therefore, it can be inferred that the
aforementioned authors view consumer engagement as a multidimensional concept (Verhagen, Swen, Feldberg, & Merikivi, 2015). Van Doorn et al. (2010) perceive consumer engagement as a unidimensional conception locating their focus exclusively on consumers’ behavior as an
outcome of certain motivational drives. At the same time, a substantial body of researchers approaches engagement as an internal psychological process, excluding any external manifestations such as the expression of a behavior (Bowden, 2009a).
The emerging inconsistency in the conceptual dimensions of consumer engagement dominates the online environment as well. There, consumer engagement is addressed from the perspective of measuring usage actions such as click through rates, page views, likes, comments and shares (Cvijikj & Michalleles, 2013). Different measures are applied, though, depending on the possibilities offered by the platform (Lehmann, Lalmas, Yom-Tov, & Dupret, 2012). However, it can be argued that one might develop different levels of online engagement
according to the needs one wishes to fulfill (Muntinga et al., 2011). In the case of YouTube, for example, one might simply be a viewer of videos with the aim of acquiring information about a topic, or might share or/and comment on the video content as a means of expressing one’s self or interacting with others from the same community. Therefore, in order to satisfy a different need each time one might make a different use of the medium, as also suggested by U&G (Muntinga et al., 2011). A question could not help but arise at this point then. Which consumer is more engaged?
Consequently, it is imperative to distinguish among the different levels of online consumer engagement and not only measure it as a total construct. As a result, a continuum based on consumers’ YouTube brand usage activities will be developed, signifying the distance
from lower to higher engagement. Underpinned by U&G theory and Muntinga’s et al. (2011) COBRA’S typologies, this continuum embodies three different levels of online consumer engagement. They all correspond to a gradual online consumer behavior with corporate-related content; namely “low level”, “medium level”, and “high level”. Each category represents at the same time a basic unit of analysis.
Low level of Online Consumer Engagement
The current category of online consumer engagement represents its minimum manifested level and refers to a plain consumption of corporate-related videos. Users in this stage participate in the corporate-related material as simple audience members of the corporate content. They are passive recipients of corporate-related content; meaning that they just watch the videos
companies create. As a result, low level of online consumer engagement represents the usage activity rate of consumption which, for the purposes of our study, will be measured through the number of video views.
Medium Level of Online Consumer Engagement
In the medium level of online consumer engagement activity, users contribute to
corporate - related content. This means that apart from watching the corporate-related material, they indicate a certain level of preference towards it with the thumbs up command. Hence, medium level of online consumer engagement represents the usage activity rate of contribution which, for the purposes of this study, will be measured through the number of video thumbs up.
High Level of Online Consumer Engagement
The high level of online consumer engagement for the present study depicts its fullest level. It denotes active participation in the sense of recreation and publication of the corporate related video-content that others can consume and contribute to. Therefore, high level of online consumer engagement represents the usage activity rate of creation. For the purposes of our study, it will be measured through the number of video shares and the number of video comments.
According to Mollen and Wilson (2010), an active online engagement forms and flourishes only when consumers are able to acquire an instrumental value (i.e. utility and relevance), together with an experiential value (i.e. the level of emotional congruence with the narrative schema encountered in computer-mediated entities) in an interactive consumer-brand relationship. Taking into account that the instrumental value is depicted through the functional
appeals and the experiential value stems from the emotional appeals designated in the corporate narratives (Chitturi, 2009), it becomes sensible to assimilate their role in the brand messages.
Message appeals of the corporate video content
As suggested by U&G theory, the main reason why consumers choose to communicate and eventually engage themselves with a corporation is because they obtain certain gratifications from the use of its branded messages (De Vries & Carlson, 2014). The most important
gratification indicators that consumers receive from such a communication are the utilitarian and hedonic benefits (Shimp & Andrews, 2013). Consumers will be most likely to perceive
differently the utilitarian and hedonic values contained in the corporate messages depending on their needs. Utilitarian benefits are inherently connected with consumers’ task-oriented
motivational drivers of information seeking, problem-solving desire, or safety needs (Chitturi, 2009). On the contrary, hedonic benefits are closely connected with consumers’ sensational satisfaction such as pleasure, fun and entertainment (Carol & Ahuvia, 2006).
Utilitarian benefits can be thought as functional appeals and hedonic benefits as emotional (Franzak, Makarem, & Jae, 2014). In general, message appeals reflect the words chosen to communicate the message together with its features (audio and visual) which are notably stressed out for the receivers (Wu & Wang, 2010). The functional appeal carries objective, helpful and practical information that stipulate the utility or the functionality of the brand content (Kottler & Keller, 2008; Ashley et a.l, 2015). For instance, message characteristics depicting the high quality, the value or the accountability of a brand product or service, are considered to incorporate the functional appeal (Jahn & Kunz, 2012). On the contrary, the emotional appeal connects consumers’ psychographic needs with their decisions (Kottler & Keller, 2008), eliciting positive but stronger emotions than mere satisfaction; like admiration, amusement, excitement or surprise (Franzak et al., 2014).
Researchers strongly recommend that identifying the best branding appeal option helps practitioners develop suitable strategies that will attract consumers attention, help them process the information delivered (Kottler & Keller, 2008), and ultimately facilitate a higher level of engagement (Ashley et al, 2015). However, research so far has presented mixed results regarding the effects of strategic usage of branded message appeals on online consumer engagement.
Lee, Hasanag and Nair (2013) analyzing in a large-scale field study more than 100,000 unique Facebook posts across 800 brands, discovered that branded messages including emotional
appeals were more likely to increase online engagement. On the other hand, Facebook messages containing functional appeals decreased engagement unless they were combined with emotional or persuasive elements. Under the same reasoning, Armstrong (2010) and Berger (2012)
postulate that advertising messages consist mainly of emotionally colored information when compared to functional information because they seem to influence engagement significantly more (Armstrong, 2010; Berger, 2012). In a different approach, Chitturi (2009) also examining Facebook messages, claims that consumers consider the emotional dimension of the message content more prominent only after receiving a required degree of functional information. It is of worth noting though that no message (Facebook post, advertisement, Instagram post, etc) exist either containing only functional or only emotional appeals (Leek & Christodoulides, 2012).
Despite this, practitioners agree that there is a strong connection between emotional appeals and brand-related behaviors (Anderson, Kaplar, & Selo, 2013). In fact, it was found that the intensity of the emotional appeals can affect the degree of brand preference and how much consumers would feel engaged to it (Hagtred & Patric, 2009). Following the same line of argumentation, Anderson, Gliberto and Liaukonyte (2012) assert that functional content is important to attract consumers’ attention and motivate them to act, but it is the intensity of emotional content that will enhance a stronger relationship between them and the brand. These empirical findings do, therefore, advocate for the following hypotheses.
H1: The intensity of emotional appeals in the corporate YouTube videos will significantly increase online consumer engagement in (a)the medium (thumbs up) and (b)high (comments and shares) levels with no influence on (c)the low (views) level. In contrast,
H2: The intensity of functional appeals in the corporate YouTube videos will significantly increase consumer engagement in (a)the low level (views) with no influence on (b)the medium (thumbs up) and (c)high (comments and shares) levels.
Browden (2009) examined consumers brand engagement activities as outcomes of emotions and found that branded messages arousing strong emotions can positively affect consumer satisfaction, loyalty and eventually engagement. When the resulted outcome of brand- consumer interactions is an emotionally intense relationship, there an active engagement is more likely to occur (Keller, 2013). Franzak et al., (2014) confirm this notion by proving that high arousal emotions prompt higher brand engagement whereas low arousal emotion prompt lower engagement. High arousal emotions are the key appeals which drive audiences to care about the
brand and share its content developing an engaging relationship (Franzak et al., 2014).
Therefore, it is considered crucial that branding strategies should know which specific emotional appeals will lead their consumers to like, comment and ultimately share their message. This element has been heavily ignored in the empirical research. Building on high arousal emotions Libert, (2013) discovered that the top emotions portrayed in picture messages eliciting positive consumer reactions are: amusement, interest, surprise, happiness, hope, affection, excitement, admiration and trust. These positive consumer reactions could potentially lead to a sequential high level of consumer engagement (Franzak et al., 2014). In other worlds, when the
aforementioned emotions are depicted in a corporate video as emotional appeals, chances are that they will operate as predictors of a certain level of online consumer engagement (Chiu et al., 2014). Nonetheless, a specific range of the aforementioned emotions namely interest, surprise and amusement, proved to be more complex than the rest since they behaved as emotional multipliers for positive consumer reactions (Libert, 2013). However, the study was carried out using as stimuli online pictures. According to disclosure theory, the way information is presented to the public highly depends on the medium where it is hosted (Daft & Lengel, 1986). Therefore, these effects might differ in the messages included in the corporate YouTube videos. An
examination of their relevance on YouTube’s branded messages is thus necessary. Hence, H3: Corporate YouTube video messages consisting mostly of complex emotional appeals (interest, surprise and amusement) will significantly increase (a) medium (thumbs up) and (b) high (comments and shares) levels of online consumer engagement with no effect on (c) the low level (views).
H4: Corporate YouTube video messages consisting mostly of simple emotional appeals (happiness, hope, affection, excitement and trust) will significantly increase (a) low levels
(views) of online consumer engagement with no effect on the (b)medium (thumbs up) and (c)high (comments and shares) levels.
Attributes of the corporate video content
Consumers go through the video content only when they perceive value in it (Lee et al., 2014). Hence, it is not only the message characteristics that will gratify their needs and provide them with the relevant value. Additional attributes of the video content which surround that message have also the ability to improve the message’s potential (Lee et al., 2014). In the dynamic environment of YouTube, the video content attributes that allow for greater consumer
satisfaction and generate consequential engagement need to be identified. As a result, brands will be empowered to create videos in accordance with consumers’ desires. This can be accomplished if the brand’s objectives for content creation meet consumers’ expectations (Ahuja & Medury, 2010). Therefore, it would be advantageous to investigate the most conducive type of content attributes that companies encompass in their corporate YouTube videos, together with their capacity to prompt online consumer engagement. For the purposes of the present study, a number of video content attributes will be arranged into three main groups as they derive from the studies of Ahuja and Medury (2010) and Bonson, Bednarova and Escobar Rodriquez (2014). It should be noted here that a video can include multiple attributes from more than one group. Their presentation follows.
-Marketing/Promotional content attributes: Video content incorporating attributes which refer
to the way a company launches and promotes its brands. Specifically, content characteristics focusing on promoting a product or service that is proposed by the company, or launching new products and their features are considered as marketing/promotional content attributes.
-Organizational content attributes: The organizational content attributes are deemed as the
content special features that reveal internal parts of the company’s life and practices. Videos, for instance, which include interviews with a company’s leaders, managers, employees or partners in which they discuss the company’s corporate vision, culture, enterprise goals and its business surroundings are thought as organizational attributes.
-Relational content attributes: Any video which hosts ordinary people such as consumers, but
not organizational members; yet it is produced by the organization contains relational content attributes. More precisely, the portrayal of characteristics of activities and topics which are completely unrelated to the nature of the company’s products and the company’s identity disclose relational content attributes. These types of videos might be sponsored by third parties that do not have direct monetary benefits from the organization. They can also have been generated by non professionals (i.e. family members, couples, etc) who are talking about the company or about their experiences. In addition, the inclusion of celebrities being interviewed or simply talking about their experience with the company and its products/services in the video content suggests relational content attributes. In essence, the main goal of the relational attributes is to “humanize” the brand’s profile communicating a more intimate side of it.
Ahuja and Medury (2010) exploring online consumer engagement in organizational e-blogs showed that posts including relational attributes induced a higher level of online consumer engagement. Thereby they indicate that they should host a greater volume of posts with this sort of attributes (Ahuja & Medury, 2010). The attractiveness of the relational attributes appeared to strike an emotional chord within consumers enticing them to engage with organizations (Ahuja & Medury, 2010). To illustrate this narrative, it can be assumed that a message’s depiction is emotionally appealed while it is surrounded by relational attributes within the video content. In this case, the emotional message appeal is more likely to elicit relevant emotions to consumers, engaging them in a more intimate relationship with the brand. In other words, the relational video content attributes will probably boost the message’s emotional appeal possibilities to foster a high level of consumer engagement. Furthermore, Lee et al. (2014) argue that the persuasive messages which are richer in emotional appeals lead to higher online consumer engagement than the messages containing more functional information. Since, marketing/promotional content attributes aim to persuade the audience about the brand’s products, services and new launches (Lee et al., 2014), it can be inferred that their usage will also lead to higher consumer
engagement. The same rationality applies for organizational content attributes as well.
Specifically, it was found that portraying employees and organizational members in messages which are emotionally charged evokes positive attitudinal responses towards the brands, thus increasing consumer engagement (Mattila, 1999).
Consequently, it is presumed that consumers will exhibit different levels of online
consumer engagement regarding the different types of video content attributes that will escort the emotionally appealed video messages. What still remains unclear though, is what types of
content attributes will promote the emotional appeals’ potential for higher levels of online consumer engagement. Accordingly, the following sub-research question emerges: “To what extent will the intensity of emotional appeals when escorted by different video content attributes (marketing/promotional, organizational and relational) will significantly affect (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high levels of online consumer engagement?”
Methods Sample
The sample of the present study encompasses corporate YouTube videos of top
been collected for the purposes of the study’s analysis to gain insight on the videos’ branded messages and content attributes. A detailed description of the sampling procedure follows.
Sampling procedures
Τhe choice of the brands was based on the market segment within which they operate. The selection of the market segments was based upon the Global Industry Classification Standards (2015), which distinguishes ten market sectors, namely: 1)Energy, 2)Materials, 3)Industrials, 4)Consumer Discretionary, 5)Consumer Staples,6) Health Care, 7)Financials, 8)Information Technology, 9)Telecommunication Services, 10)Utilities. After the establishment of the market segments, the choice of the companies followed. A combination of two rankings of top global brands was utilized jointly to keep intact of a more extensive coverage (Araujo & Neijens, 2012). Twenty brands (two of each market sector) were used for the acquisition of the YouTube videos. A manual collection process then begun by firstly identifying which of these brands own an official corporate YouTube channel. A brand was considered as owning an official corporate YouTube channel only if it had an official profile page on YouTube, and its videos were uploaded by the brand itself. In addition, each channel should be aired in English and should have its statistics (views, time watched, subscription driven and shares) accessible under each video. For each brand the 10 most recent videos were chosen. This choice resulted in a total of 200 videos for analysis (N=200), whereby each video was considered a unit of analysis. All the videos were collected by the author within the same day (9.12.2015).
Codebook development
A codebook was developed to identify how many times each functional and emotional appeal was present in the video’s title, description box and content. The codebook development also aimed in the identification of the content attributes by which each video consisted of. Several adjustments were considered necessary to match with the video content, since the variable details used in previous researches-and employed afterwards for the present study-concerned either online articles, e-blogs, or social media posts and pictures. As a result, more specific examples and cases where added in the codebook whilst others were removed. A set of functional and emotional appeals were given to the coders to choose from. Particularly, coders were asked to specifically indicate how many times each functional and each emotional appeal was present in the video. In the cases that some of them were not included in the videos, the coders should code for “0”, denoting that the specific appeals appeared zero times. Precise and
various examples of video details were included in the codebook to guide the coders. According to Berger and Milkman (2012) the positive emotional appeals were found in a greater volume within content messages leading to higher level of engagement. Negative emotions like anger, frustration, doubt and embarrassment were less commonly found in highly shared content. For this reason, the present study chooses not to investigate negative emotional appeals since its main goal is to find out which specific emotional appeals provoke high online engagement levels. Furthermore, coders were asked to identify whether each video included certain attributes which were classified into three main group types, namely marketing/promotional,
organizational and relational. Coders were given the option to assign a video into more than one group if it contained attributes from multiple groups.
Μeasures
Dependent variables
Levels of online consumer engagement
Adjusting Muntiga’s et al. (2011) COBRA’S usage typologies (consuming, contributing, creating) on the content of YouTube, this study concluded into three levels of online consumer engagement. Muntinga et al. (2011) considering the activeness of social media created a continuum from high to low brand related activity. This continuum conforms to a gradual involvement with brand related content. In the same vein, we created a continuum from low to high online consumer engagement based on the users’ activity levels on YouTube. As a result, online consumer engagement was measured into the following levels.
Low level of online consumer engagement (M=146.965,78 , SD=837.682,75): Low level of online consumer engagement is considered its minimum manifested level and refers to a plain consumption (in the sense of only viewing) of corporate-related videos. Hence, it will be measured through the number of video views as they are displayed under each video.
Medium level of online consumer engagement (M=71.45, SD=327.29): The medium level of online consumer engagement is determined by the indication of whether the users like the video content. Thus, representing the contribution usage activity, it will be
measured through the number of thumbs up as they are shown under each video. The numbers of thumps down are excluded from this study since we are interested only in the positive consumer information that indicates some level of engagement.
High level of online consumer engagement: The high level of online consumer
engagement depicts its fullest level for the present study. It denotes active participation and publication of the corporate related video-content that others can consume and contribute to. Therefore, high level of online engagement represents the creation usage activity which will be measured through the number of video comments and number of shares.
Functional Appeals: The present study included the coding of nine functional appeals;
namely quality (M=1.91, SD=2.17), price (M=.14, SD=.45), excellence (M=.56, SD=.94), efficiency (M=.47, SD=.92), reliability (M=.28, SD=.86), safety (M=.25, SD=.74), innovation (M=.41, SD=1.19), convenience (M=.48, SD=1.07) and strategic value , (M=.77, SD=1.48). The functional appeals that appeared more frequently in the whole sample (N=200) are quality and strategic value (382 and 155 times, respectively). The least present were safety and price (52 and 29 times in total, respectively).
Emotional Appeals: Nine emotional appeals were coded too and presented as follows:
amusement (M=2.21, SD=1.93), interest (M=1.88, SD=1.63), surprise (M=.98, SD=1.47) happiness (M=2.35, SD=3.08), hope (M=.22, SD=.58), affection (M=.78, SD=1.49),
excitement(M=.44, SD=.94), admiration (M=.22, SD=.69) and trust (M=.13, SD=.74). Happiness was the most frequently present appeal in all the videos (470 times), followed by amusement and interest (442 and 376 times, respectively). Trust, was the least present emotional appeal (27 times in total).
A detailed description of each functional and emotional appeal together with the contextual cues that helped in their detection can be found in table 1 in Appendix B. Moreover, Appendix B includes table 2 and 3 with the appeals’ detailed descriptive information.
Intensity of functional appeals: Two new variables were created to measure the intensity
of functional appeals. The first one (M=.58, SD=.66) was computed by adding up all the functional appeals which were present in the video titles and description boxes. This variable was used as a predictor to all the models testing the low levels of online consumer engagement, considering that the viewers would decide whether they would watch a video by first noticing the appeals of the title and the information in the description box. The other variable also
all the functional appeals being present in the video content and it was used to measure medium and high levels of online consumer engagement.
Intensity of emotional appeals: The exact same rationale for the intensity of functional
appeals was employed for the creation of the intensity of emotional appeals as well. Two variables representing intensity of emotional appeals were calculated; the first one (M=.67, SD=.72) by adding up all the emotional appeals appearing in the videos titles and description boxed and the second (M=9.23, SD=7.38) by adding up all the emotional appeals being present in the videos content.
Video Content attributes: The video content attributes were grouped for the purposes of
this study into three major categories, based on the study of Ahuja and Medury (2010) and Bonson, Bednarova and Escobar Rodriguez (2014). They are presented as follows:
Marketing/Promotional content attributes: Marketing/Promotional video content attributes (being present at 33.5% out of N=200 videos) are determined by whether the video included the portrayal of a company launching and promoting its products, services and their features; or even itself as a brand in the form of a campaign or advertisement.
Organizational content attributes: Video content that reveals internal parts of the company’s life and practices falls into the organizational attributes type (being present at 34% out of N=200 videos). Videos, for instance, depicting attributes such as interviews with a company’s CEO’s, leaders, managers, employees or partners in which they discuss the company’s corporate vision, culture, enterprise goals and its business surroundings belong here. The discussion of an event, a charity project or any other social campaign is considered as organizational content attribute as well. Relational content attributes: Relational video content attributes (being present at
46% out of N=200 videos) can be determined as the attributes which present celebrities being interviewed; famous or non famous people like simple consumers describing their experiences with the company’s products and services or talking about their experience with the brand in general.
Number of channel subscriptions: Number of channel subscriptions (M=258.569,74,
channel, was used as a control variable. Taking into account that when a user makes the effort to subscribe into a channel, it probably means that he/she desires to receive repeatedly fresh
corporate feedback, and to update his/her knowledge on the brand’s news. As a result, it can be hypothesized that the user feels more than curious towards the brand and/or to its corporate video content with the intention of holding a greater relationship with it. Therefore, the study
considered proper to control for its potential effects on the various levels of online consumer engagement.
Inter-coder Reliability
The completion of the codebook followed its testing from a second coder to confirm that its guidelines and contextual cues were specific and clear enough for the coding process to begin. The second coder coded 10% of the 200 videos (N=200). With the aid of the automatic formula ReCAL OIR for multiple coders the inter-coder reliability test was carried out. Twenty codebook items that could be doubted for their objectivity were tested for their reliability. According to Krippendorf (2004) a coefficient of .60 and above is considered acceptable for stressing the reliability of a content analysis. Most of the examined items indicated a Kalpha level of .86 and higher which is very satisfying. Only one item had a Kalpha level of .68 which is still acceptable.
The coding process began on December 13th and was completed on December 20th. A synopsis
of the inter-coder reliability outcomes can be viewed in detail in Appendix C.
Results Intensity of emotional and functional appeals
To ascertain the influence of the intensity of emotional and functional appeals on online consumer engagement, four linear multiple regression models were developed, with each of the online consumer engagement level as dependent variables and the intensity of emotional appeals, the intensity of functional appeals and the number of channel subscriptions as independent variables. All models are significant as shown in table 6. All of them can therefore be used to predict the intensity of emotional and functional appeals and the number of channel subscriptions on the low, medium and high levels of online consumer engagement.
As presented in table 6, there is no statistically significant relationship between the functional appeals and the low level of online consumer engagement (p=.12), thus H2 (a) is rejected. The intensity of functional appeals displays no influence on the number of video views. In contrast, H2 (b) and H2 (c) are confirmed. Indeed, the intensity of functional appeals, as
predicted, exhibits no statistically significant effect on the number of thumbs up (p=.12), comments (p=.11) and shares (p=.13). Consequently, the absence of any association with any level of online consumer engagement reinforces the idea that they play no role in how much engaged a consumer feels with a brand online through its corporate YouTube videos.
As far as the emotional appeals are concerned there is a statistically significant relationship will all levels of online consumer engagement. Therefore, H1 (b) and (c) is supported whilst H1 (a) is rejected. Table 6 shows that the greater the intensity of emotional appeals, the greater their influence is on the low, medium and high level of online consumer engagement. In fact, per every unit increase in the emotional appeals, while holding the intensity of functional appeals and the number of channel subscriptions constant, the low level of online consumer engagement increases by .22, the medium level by .23, the high by .13 for the number of comments and by .21 for the number of shares, respectively. As denoted in table 6, emotional appeals do influence all levels of online consumer engagement. Hence, when a corporate
YouTube video includes both a certain amount of functional and emotional appeals, it is capable of receiving more views, thumps up, comments and shares when its message is mostly consisted of emotional appeals. In fact, the emotional appeals proved to have a stronger influence in the model for the number of thumps up (b*=.23); with their effect, in terms of strength, to follow in the model for the number of views (b*=.22) and shares (b*=.21). The intensity of emotional appeals in the model examining the number of comments proved to be the least influential of all (b*=.13).
Table 6
Functional and emotional appeals as predictors of online consumer engagement
Variables
Online Consumer Engagement
Views (Low) Thumbs Up (Medium) Comments (High) Shares (High) B SE β B SE β B SE β B SE β Intensity of Functional Appeals -64385.79 41266.80 -.11 -7.09 4.56 -.11 -2.22 1.39 -.10 -9.17 6.00 -.10 Intensity of Emotional Appeals 132737.48 43012.77 .22* 11.36 3.50 .23* 2.18 1.06 .13* 4.27 4.60 .21* Channel Subscriptions .18 .07 . 17* 3.18 .00 .08 6.62 .00 .48* .00 .00 .33** R2 .08 .07 .25 .16 F 5.07* 4.69* 21.28** 11.76** Note1: *p< .05. **p< .001
Note2: For the low level of online consumer engagement the intensity of functional and emotional appeals relates to how many times they were present in the videos title and description box in total.
Complex and simple emotional appeals
To find out exactly which levels of online consumer engagement do the complex
emotional appeals and which the simple emotional appeals influence the most, four relevant linear regression models were created. All the models with each level of online consumer engagement as a dependent variable and each emotional appeal (amusement, interest, surprise, happiness, hope, affection, excitement, admiration, trust) as independent variables are significant as denoted in table 7. Hence, the regression models can be used to predict the effect of each emotional appeal on the levels of online consumer engagement. As shown in table 7, the
outcomes suggest that only surprise has a significant and moderately strong relationship with the low level of online consumer engagement, thus confirming H3 (a). For every standard deviation increase in surprise while holding the other variables constant, the low level of online consumer engagement increases by .29. At the same time, amusement, interest and surprise significantly but moderately affect the medium level, confirming H3 (b). However surprise presents a
negative relationship with the dependent variable. That said, for every standard deviation that surprise increases, the medium level of online consumer engagement decreases by .16. On the contrary, for every standard deviation of increase in amusement and interest, the number of thumps up increases by .22 and .47, respectively. For all these effects other variables are assumed to be held constant. Therefore, as expected, when practitioners include complex emotional appeals in the process of constructing their brand’s corporate videos hold greater chances of increasing online consumer engagement at all levels. In particular, the complex emotional appeals of amusement and interest seem to have the strongest influence in the model
predicting the medium level of online consumer engagement (b*amusement=.22 and b*interest=.48),
indicating that when they are depicted in the videos, users will be more prone to liking the video’s message. Additionally, it is of worth addressing that out of all complex emotional appeals interest was the one being more influential on both the models predicting medium (b*=.47) and high, for the number of shares, (b*=.37) level of online consumer engagement.
Regarding the high level measured by the number of comments, table 7 reports that only
amusement has a statistically significant but moderately strong relationship with it. Specifically, for every standard deviation increase in amusement, the number of comments increases by .24. When it comes to the high level of online consumer engagement measured by the number of video shares, both amusement and interest have a moderately strong significant effect on it, supporting H3 (c). In particular, for every standard deviation increase in amusement and interest, the number of video shares increases by .21 and .37, respectively. For the abovementioned effects other variables were held constant.
With respect to the simple emotional appeals table 7 designates that most of them have
no influence on any level of online consumer engagement. Exception constitutes happiness which significantly and moderately affects the number of thumbs up and video shares. However, the relationship among the aforementioned variables is negative (b*=.-19 and b*=-.21,
respectively). Specifically, per every unit increase in happiness the medium level of online consumer engagement decreases by .19 and the high by .21. These outcomes lead to the partial rejection of hypotheses H4 (b) and (c) which foresaw that none of the simple emotional appeals would have an effect on the medium and high level of online consumer engagement. However the partial rejection of H (b) and (c) applies only for the emotional appeal of happiness which, contrary to our expectations, affects the number of thumbs up and shares, even negatively.
Nevertheless, we can still claim that they are confirmed for the rest of the simple emotional appeals (hope, affection, excitement, admiration and trust) as they, according to our predictions, present no significant influence on the medium and high level of online consumer engagement
(see table 7).Nonetheless, H4 (c) is supported for the number of comments, as neither happiness
nor any other simple emotional appeal significantly influence this number. H4 (a) instead, contrary to our predictions, is rejected, as designated in table 7, since there is no influence of the simple emotional appeals observed on the low levels of online consumer engagement.
Table 7
The influence of complex and simple emotional appeals on the levels of online consumer engagement
Variables
Online Consumer Engagement
Views (Low) Thumbs Up (Medium) Comments (High) Shares (High) B SE β B SE β B SE β B SE β Complex Emotional Appeals Amusement 35428.26 38095.33 .08 37.54 13.66 .22* 13.95 5.11 .24* 48.52 19.58 .21* Interest -24383.54 43680.23 -.05 94.54 15.67 .47** 7.99 5.86 .12 101.72 22.45 .37** Surprise 164609.04 48183.16 .29* -34.93 17.28 -.16* 1.57 6.47 .02 -22.40 24.76 -.07 Simple Emotional Appeals Happiness -13504.90 25476.14 -.05 -20.02 9.14 -.19* -6.43 3.42 -.18 -31.55 13.09 -.21* Hope -43743.20 108702.69 -.03 34.82 38.99 .06 -6.82 14.60 -.03 7.52 55.82 .11 Affection -27558.17 44277.93 -.05 8.32 15.88 .04 .54 5.94 .01 6.26 22.76 .02 Excitement -55450.94 67310.09 -.06 -20.60 24.14 -.06 -12.14 9.04 -.10 -31.32 34.60 -.06 Admiration -42541.17 89136.70 -.03 -43.78 31.97 -.09 10.57 11.97 .07 -33.44 45.81 -.05 Trust -77714.05 82110.88 -.07 -6.16 29.45 -.01 -6.57 11.03 -.04 -26.47 42.20 -.04 R2 .10 .24 .29 .19 F 2.33* 6.78** .20* 4.87** Note1: *p< .05. **p< .001
Note2: For the low level of online consumer engagement the intensity of functional and emotional appeals relates to how many times they were present in the videos title and description box in total.
Video content attributes
To examine to what extent will the relationship of the intensity of emotional appeals with the video content attributes influence the low, medium and high level of online consumer engagement, four linear multiple regressions were carried out in the first place. The multiple regression models constituted of marketing/promotional, organizational and relational content attributes together with the intensity of emotional appeals and the number of channel
subscriptions as independent variables, with the low, medium, high for the number of comments and high for the number of shares levels of online consumer engagement, respectively, as dependent variables. All the models were significant, as denotes in table 8, and, thus, able to predict each level of online consumer engagement. Table 6 displays that that only organizational and relational attributes have a significant, but moderate effect on the medium level of online consumer engagement. That said, per every unit of organizational attributes exclusively being present in the content of a video, the number of thumbs up increases by .22. In addition, per every unit of relational attributes solely being present in the content of a video, the number of thumbs up goes up by .23. In fact, relational content attributes also seem to be slightly more influential (b*=.23) for the model of thumbs up than the organizational (b*=.22). For the remainder online consumer engagement levels the results turned out to be insignificant.
Specifically, organizational attributes have no effect neither on the low level (p=.82), nor in the high for the number of comments (p=.45), nor in the high for the number of shares (p=.13). In the same line, relational attributes do not play a role in the number of views (p=.38), number of comments (p= .63) or number of video shares (p=.12). Marketing/Promotional video content attributes present no effect at any level of online consumer engagement (p views=.85, p thumbs up=
.13, p comments = .45 and p shares= .41). What is more, the intensity of emotional appeals is
statistically significant only for the low level of online consumer engagement. For every unit of the intensity of emotional appeals the number of views increases by .16. Intensity of emotional appeals does not affect neither the medium (p=.14), nor the high for the number of comments (p=.22), nor the high for the number of shares (p=.41) level of online consumer engagement. As a result, it can be concluded that only organizational and relational video content attributes influence online consumer engagement but only on its medium level by increasing the number of thumbs up. The intensity of emotional appeals when included in a video with all the groups of
the content attributes presents a significant relationship with online consumer engagement, but only on the low level by increasing the video’s number of views.
Table 8
Intensity of emotional appeals and content attributes as predictors of online consumer engagement levels.
Variables
Online Consumer Engagement
Views (Low) Thumbs Up (Medium) Comments (High) Shares (High) B SE β B SE β B SE β B SE β Marketing/Promotional attributes 61432.67 182555.09 .02 116.78 71.00 .15 -14.75 21.79 -.07 83.87 94.02 .08 Organizational attributes 53788.22 17591.87 .02 157.08 72.02 .22* -17.10 22.13 -.07 142.54 95.55 .14 Relational attributes 16696.37 182995.25 .02 153.60 76.31 .23* 9.23 23.42 .05 150.91 101.13 .16 Intensity of Emotional appeals 108001.32 44543.17 .16* 7.81 4.00 .12 1.87 1.23 .09 10.37 5.31 .12 Channel Subscriptions .19 .08 .18* 3.95 .00 .02 6.76 .00 .49** .00 .00 .35** R2 .07 .08 .26 .16 F 2.71* 3.40* 12.76** 7.07** Note1: *p< .05. **p< .001
Note2: For the low level of online consumer engagement the intensity of functional and emotional appeals regards the frequency of their presence
in the video title and description box.
In order not to omit any potential effects on online consumer engagement a further investigation of the data was performed. Our data analysis also included the testing of all the possible interactions of the intensity of emotional appeals with the video content attributes’ groups separately. The reason for that was to find out whether the intensity of emotional appeals combined with the three distinct content attributes groups in a video, presents any influence on the dependent variables. Thus, three interaction terms were created: 1) intensity of emotional
appeals-by-marketing/promotional attributes, 2) intensity of emotional appeals-by-organizational attributes and 3) intensity of emotional appeals-by-relational attributes. Next, twelve multiple regression models were formed. In the first four, intensity of emotional appeals,
marketing/promotional attributes, the interaction term of intensity of emotional appeals-by-marketing/promotional attributes and channel subscriptions operated as predictors. In the next four, intensity of emotional appeals, organizational attributes, intensity of emotional appeals-by organizational attributes and channels subscriptions were the independent variables. In the last four models intensity of emotional appeals, relational attributes, intensity of emotional appeals-by relational attributes and channel subscriptions were our predictors. For all the above
mentioned models low, medium, high (number of comments) and high (number of shares) level of online consumer engagement, respectively, functioned as dependent variables. All the models were significant, therefore being able to predict what they were designed for. A detailed
presentation for all the models lies in tables 10, 11 and 12 in appendix E.
From all the combinations under investigation, the only statistically significant results that occurred are briefly demonstrated in table 9 that follows. The interaction between the intensity of emotional appeals and organizational content attributes and the interaction between the intensity of emotional appeals and relational content attributes have a significant, moderately strong association with the low level of online consumer engagement, as illustrated in table 9. In fact, per every emotional appeal that is added in the video when combined with organizational content attribute, the number of video views decreases by.37. In contrast, per every unit of emotional appeals included in the video when combined with relational content attributes, the number of video views increases by .31.For these effects other independent variables are assumed to be held constant. Consequently, the negative direction of the interaction effect regarding the organizational attributes shows that it is better not to be combined with emotional appeals since they lower the chances for a higher number of video views. Instead, the emotional appeals in combination with the relational content attributes lead to higher low level of online (increased number of views) consumer engagement when included together.
However, the inclusion of the interaction term of the intensity of emotional appeals-by-the organizational content attributes in appeals-by-the model measuring appeals-by-the low level of online consumer engagement indicates a suppression effect. The organizational content attributes from
shown in table 9. Per every unit increase in the organizational content attributes, the low level of online consumer engagement increases by.18. For this effect, other independent variables are assumed to be held constant. Hence, the presence of the organizational content attributes exclusively in a video increases the number of views, only when the condition of the
combination between the intensity of emotional appeals and organizational content attributes is satisfied.
In addition, when the interaction term of the intensity of emotional
appeals-by-marketing/promotional attributes was entered to the model measuring the number of thumbs up and number of shares, respectively, the intensity of emotional appeals turned out to be
significant, revealing another suppression effect. In other words, the intensity of emotional appeals exclusively being present in a video has an effect on the number thumbs up and shares only under the condition that the video includes a combination of the intensity of emotional appeals and marketing/promotional attributes. Per every emotional appeal, the medium level of online consumer engagement increases by .23 and the high level for the number of shares by.20, respectively. For these effects all the other independent variables are assumed to be held
constant. A detailed overview of the above mentioned outcomes as well as details of the insignificant findings can be found in tables 10, 11 and 12 in appendix E.
Table 7
Brief overview of the statistically significant results after the addition of the interaction terms
Online Engagement Level Intensity of Emotional Appeals
Content Attribute Type Intensity of emotional appeal X content
attribute type
R2 F
Marketing/Promotional Intensity of emotional appeals X marketing/promotional Views (Low) .23* .26 3.47* Thumbs up (Medium) .23* .22 2.46* Shares (High) .20* .14 8.15**
Organizational Intensity of emotional appeals X organizational
Views (Low) .39** .18* -37* .11 5.83**
Relational Intensity of emotional appeals X relational
Views (Low) .31* .09 4.88*
Note1: *p< .05. **p< .001
Note2: For the low level of online consumer engagement the intensity of functional and emotional appeals regards the frequency
of their presence in the video title and description box.
Note3 In the first column there are the levels of engagement where influence from at least a predictor occurred. The second and
third column depicts the exclusive effects of the independent variables. The third column presents the only significant interactions and the last two refer to the models’ coefficients.
Discussion
Drawing from the U&G theory, the present study aimed to examine different levels of online consumer engagement, as defined according to YouTube’s usage activity rate. Online consumer engagement was mainly considered a consequence of the portrayal of functional and emotional video message appeals in corporate YouTube videos. A review of them together with the levels of online consumer engagement in twenty different brands’ YouTube videos was performed. At the same time, the influence of certain video content attributes
(marketing/promotional, organizational and relational) was also investigated to ascertain their impact on online consumer engagement.
One important finding is that the intensity of functional appeals in the branded YouTube messages presents absolutely no effect on any level of online consumer engagement. Apparently, consumers go beyond searching what is expected form a brand, in terms of its product and services functions. They mostly seek for a relationship which will be meaningful, unique and special. The intensity of the emotional appeals enhances the development of such relationships (Candi, Beltagui & Riedel, 2013). The present study’s empirical results confirm this notion. Specifically, it was found that the use of emotional appeals redounds to the development and maintenance of online consumer engagement. In fact, it can be argued that the more emotional appeals are encompassed in the video messages the more likely it is that consumers will view the videos (low level), exhibit their liking towards them (medium level), and actively participate in their re-publication (high level). These outcomes are also aligned with previous research findings which assert that although branded messages are composed of both functional and emotional appeals (Leek & Christodoulides, 2012), it is the intensity of emotional appeals that will trigger higher levels of online consumer engagement (Chitturi, 2009; Anderson, Gliberto and
Liaukonyte, 2012; Lee, Hasanagar and Nair, 2013).
Another important finding is the significant impact of specific emotional appeals on different levels of online consumer engagement. Previous empirical research on online pictures (Libert, 2013) differentiated between complex emotional appeals such as amusement, interest and surprise and simple ones like happiness, hope, affection, excitement, admiration and trust. It was actually claimed that the complex ones lead to higher levels of consumer engagement whilst the simple appeals to lower. Our findings were able to extend this inference in the branded YouTube videos as well. Specifically, they demonstrate that from the abovementioned appeals only surprise influences the low levels of online consumer engagement. The brands need to attract the audience’s attention before putting an effort on retaining it and transforming it
afterwards into higher engagement. The appeal of surprise is capable of stipulating a consumers’ attention but it is not enough. That is why the other complex emotional appeals of interest and amusement are added as the level of engagement increases into its medium level. Regarding the high level, only amusement influences the number of comments, indicating that funny, comic and entertaining information leads viewers to comment on the video content. In contrast,
consumers are more likely to share the branded video content when its messages include both amusing and interesting appeals.
The simple emotional appeals, as expected, present no effect on any level of online consumer engagement. Hence, they confirm the concept that complex emotional appeals being based on high arousal emotions prompt higher brand engagement. Instead, simple emotional appeals being based on low arousal emotions elicit in turn low engagement (Libert, 2013; Franzak, Makarem and Jae, 2014). However, happiness surprisingly reveals an association with the medium and high level of online consumer engagement; yet a negative one. Perhaps viewers need only interesting and amusing content to indicate their liking. Consequently, when too arousing emotional stimuli is portrayed in the messages they get confused or even annoyed (Eckler & Bolls, 2011). One would expect that happiness would be probably depicted in the video content to create a pleasant sense in the audience. Thus, the latter would feel aspired to like it, comment on it or share it with their friends. However, our results signify the opposite.
Consequently, amusement, interest and surprise are the key appeals that drive consumers to share the brands’ YouTube corporate content, engaging them at a higher level.
Furthermore, the present study investigated the relationship of the emotional message appeals with various content attributes to discover which environment is the most suitable for the message’s potential to be flourished. Classifying the content attributes into the categories of marketing/promotional, organizational and relational, it was discovered that only the last two had a significant impact, but only on the medium level of online consumer engagement. To be more precise, the present study also checked for the effects of the combination of emotional appeals with the distinct content attributes. The results revealed that from all the possible combinations only when the intensity of emotional appeals was escorted by the relational attributes was able to increase at least the number of views. These outcomes enhance the assumption that brands should prefer attributes which release the video content from the depiction of any monetary benefits or organizational efforts to gain particular advantages from consumers. Following this path they can turn the video content into more attractive and favorable. However, these results partly corroborate previous research findings supporting that mostly the relational and
marketing/promotional content attributes escalate consumer engagement (Ahuja & Medury, 2011). In fact, in our study the marketing/promotional content attributes showed no influence on any level of online consumer engagement. This may be due to the fact that consumers realize it
when brands try to promote their content. Hence, they develop a more skeptical behavior towards it and elaborate on their content more.
Practical Implications
The findings of this study carry several implications for branding managers that decide to promote their companies’ activities online through an official YouTube channel. To begin with, they are advised to shape their YouTube messages mostly by emotional appeals downsizing the role of the functional ones. Hence, their content will be more appealing and interesting. As the results denote, consumers are mostly fascinated by a genuine video content that reflects their needs. In line with U&G rationale (McQuail,1992), the present research argues that the prevailing of emotional appeals in branded messages’ contents lies in their ability to satisfy consumers’ desires for hedonistic benefits and emotional release (Chitturi, 2009). As a result, when practitioners incorporate higher emotional value in their videos, they motivate consumers to feel more engaged with their content. In this way, they create a strong relationship with their consumers which will lead to a more stable and prosperous consumer behavior.
This conclusion is also reinforced by two important findings. Firstly, the significant interaction of the intensity of emotional appeals with the relational attributes, and secondly, the absence of any interaction between the emotional appeals and the marketing/promotional
attributes. Branding practitioners need to understand that consumers are not passive recipients of promotional information. They actively decide whether they are going to consume that
information, as also suggested by U&G (Katz et al., 1974). Hence, it is recommended that they should emphasize more on the relational elements in the videos instead of trying to promote and sell their brands through it. YouTube probably constitutes a non suitable medium for functional and promotional information provision. Instead, its audio and visual elements foster the offering of an entertaining and experiential value with the portrayal of the everyday life, and the positive emotions that go across human relationships, for example. Therefore, it is recommended to branding specialists to treat it as such in order to gratify consumers needs for a more intimate and “humanized” relationship with the brands. Consequently, consumers would feel more satisfied increasing the chances for a higher consumer engagement level.
The notion of YouTube as being a medium where mostly the emotional appeals are fostered is also signified by the negative relations of the intensity of emotional appeals with the organizational content attributes on the numbers of views. Probably, consumers have associated
the organizational attributes with utilitarian benefits. Hence, every time they meet them in the video titles or description boxes together with emotional appeals they perceive it as a fake way to be influenced by organizational members about the importance of their brands and services. While this association is negative, the exclusive influence of organizational content attributes rises up. This outcome indicates that consumers expect organizational members to share their brand experiences or talk about their corporate settings, for instance, objectively and without too many emotional descriptions. Apparently, by getting to know the companies from an internal angle without bias they come closer to them. Hence, the creation of a more confidant relationship is facilitated and the increased likelihood for higher levels of online consumer engagement is enhanced. Therefore, it is recommended to practitioners to strategically integrate this outcome when they design their corporate YouTube videos.
To put it in a nutshell, the current empirical study demonstrates that a relevant use of the
branded message appeals in the corporate YouTube videos can influence different levels of online consumer engagement. However, from the previous parts of the discussion and
implication sections, it emerges that it is the suitable use of these appeals that will significantly influence the higher levels of online consumer engagement. Practitioners should always put the consumers’ needs in the first row and try to continuously keep them satisfied, if they want to move to higher levels of engagement beyond the number of video views. They ought to surround the message’s emotional appeals with a substantial amount of relational content attributes in an attempt to humanize the brand’s face. In addition, for an increased level of online consumer engagement it is advised that they rely mostly on the complex emotional appeals; yet without overdoing it. The significant effects of the relational and organizational attributes at a second level indicate that consumers are most likely to like the corporate video content when the human and social factors are depicting in it. As a result, practitioners when creating their corporate YouTube videos should bear in mind all the above hints.
Limitations
Although this study managed to determine the effects of branded message appeals on the levels of online consumer engagement via corporate YouTube videos, when interpreting its results a few limitations should be taken into consideration. Firstly, the measurement instruments for the functional and emotional appeals as well as the video content attributes were created mostly on the basis of other studies which analyzed either Facebook, Twitter, and organizational
