New advertising in-real-time formats and transmedia storytelling. A case study on Tous’ <i>Tender Stories</i> campaign

Abstract

Nowadays, the advertising industry is turning to new strategies based on transmedia storytelling. This happens because technological progress allows users to take increasingly part on advertising content and to interact with it across different means and formats, which stands for a new age where consumers are referred to as prosumers (Toffler, 1980). Tender Stories, an advertising campaign created by the firm Tous, is a good example of this kind of content as it is made up of five independent stories aimed at promoting different jewellery collections. The advertising strategy is based on a main story spreading throughout different platforms, with social media among them. Precisely, the most innovative part of the campaign was launched in real time on Instagram –Instagram Tender Stories. This study addresses the analysis of the advertising strategy developed by Tous in Tender Stories, a strategy based on the use of social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) between 2014 and 2016. A quali-quantitative methodology approach based on the content analysis technique is adopted in order to analyse the campaign’s transmedia storytelling strategy and its use of social media from an interaction-participation point of view.