Playful advertising: Entertainment and the consumer interactive role

Abstract

As we progress in the second decade of the 21st century, new technologies and new media have become a part of everyday life. This has created a new breed of consumer: an individual who is «always connected», participates, produces content and requires something in return for his attention. In this context, we highlight the Branded Entertainment format, through which so many brands have offered entertainment experiences, which feature a narrative and gameplay character to their targets. In this study, with the objective of identifying the composition of these experiences, we focused on the behavior of one of the key elements: the interactivity. We have identified various types of interactivity as well as the role assumed by the consumer and the interactive levels achieved. In addition, we consider the textual, verbal and visual elements of the pieces, clarifying how the election of certain elements and the absence of others influences the construction of an entertainment message. We selected to study two campaigns: the English «Dip Desperado», by Doritos, and the Brazilian «Red Bull Street Art View», by Red Bull. The results of our initial study confirm our hypothesis: that the focus of the message in entertainment campaigns is not on the object to be sold. Traditional elements are replaced by a consumer orientation and, thus, the target is led to an independent conclusion about the brand or product in question. If the outcome of this conclusion is positive, then we consider this a new type of persuasion: the entertainment persuasion.