Does "story-making" have the potential to engage prosumers around a higher education institution’s brand? The case of Aveiro’ University

Abstract

The transformations in the online environment have raised new challenges to the relationship between brands and their audiences, so it is necessary to explore new communication strategies. One of them is story-making, a technique that has been recently explored by several studies developed in the marketing and communication fields to engage customers around brands. This study draws on some related topics, such as transmedia storytelling, transmedia branding, prosumerism, and engagement, to design a communication campaign using the story-making technique. The objective was to test its applicability to achieve prosumer engagement for the University of Aveiro (UA) brand. The Scientific Design Research (DSR) methodology was followed to create and implement the campaign, which was then validated with experts in the field. The results show that the tested approach was appropriate to the technique and fulfilled the necessary requirements to be considered as a story-making communication campaign. It is also possible to conclude the applicability of the campaign model to the case under study, and its effectiveness as an audience-oriented strategy for the brand, valuing people’s contributions to the process, and getting prosumers involved around the UA brand. An increase in the UA’s use of the story-making strategy on its social media platforms can now be observed and, based on an interview with the University’s manager, it was possible to identify the main benefits that this strategy brings to the brand’s consumer engagement.