How Does “Storytelling” Influence Consumer Trust in We Media Advertorials? An Investigation in China

Abstract

We Media, as an important channel of information dissemination in today’s digital world, has attracted many companies and brands to advertise in it. However, due to the low entry requirements and imperfect supervision of We Media, the content in We Media has proliferated fast. Only the interesting and unique content could secure consumers' attention and interest. Not surprisingly, “Storytelling” has become a popular approach for advertisers to use in We Media advertorials to create unique and interesting content that will resonate with the audience. However, little empirical research in extant literature focuses on “storytelling” in We Media advertorials and it remains unknown whether and how “storytelling” could help establish consumers’ trust. In the present study, we develop and empirically test a set of theoretical hypotheses on how “storytelling” can affect consumers’ trust in We Media advertorials. The four major characteristics of “storytelling” in We Media advertorials studied in this research include relevance, antithesis, concreteness, and positive values of the story. Based on an empirical study in China, we found that the characteristics of relevance, concreteness and positive values of story are positively related to consumer trust in We Media advertorials. We also discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.

Keywords:

• We Media
• advertorial
• storytelling
• consumer trust
• China

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91646125 and 71102127) and the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (18YJA630051).