User experiences with 360 brand videos: device experiences, presence, and creativity driving brand engagement

Applications of 360 videos for brand storytelling and customer engagement are growing due to their immersive nature and novel sensory experiences, particularly when discovered through social media. These innovative digital media facilitate compelling experiences impacted by a user’s interaction with the medium and device, subsequently shaping how 360 videos achieve brand engagement. However, existing branding research ignores the user’s subjective experience of the device, does not consider how they assess the 360 brand video’s creativity, and typically examines brand outcomes that are not focal to brand managers for such a communication tool. To address these gaps, mediation analysis is undertaken for two distinct 360 brand videos experienced through a PC, Tablet, or VR device, incorporating psycho-physiological affective measures (arousal and pleasure). Findings highlight to brand managers the necessity to empirically assess the subjective experience a user has with the device and its influence on presence within the 360 video. We substantiate for the first time the mediating influence of the perceived creativity of a 360 brand video, and establish brand engagement outcomes relevant to how users respond to 360 videos.