Brand Webtoon as Sustainable Advertising in Korean Consumers: A Focus on Hierarchical Relationships

Abstract

This study explores the impacts of webtoons as branded entertainment on consumer responses in competitive advertising markets. A webtoon is a digital cartoon format developed in South Korea for Korean audience that do not read comic books often, but are heavy consumers of webtoons. Using general surveys on brand webtoons in Korea, factors influencing consumer attitudes and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions were investigated. The results of this study found that there are hierarchical influences on the use of brand webtoons on consumer emotion, transportation, persuasion knowledge, and advertising believability in order. The pattern of relationships was somewhat different between effects on attitudes toward brand webtoons and eWOM intentions. More specifically, pleasure and arousal influenced both attitudes and eWOM intentions. However, dominance only influenced eWOM intentions, and transportation only influenced attitudes towards branded webtoons. Persuasion knowledge negatively influenced both dependent variables. Advertising believability showed positive influences on attitudes and behavioral intentions.

Factors Affecting Sustainable Purchase Intentions of SNS Emojis: Modeling the Impact of Self-Presentation

“…In a similar vein, one of the main reasons for purchasing entertainment content (e.g., event tickets, webtoons, movies, dramas, etc.) is a need for distinction via consumption [47]. In general, online users are provided with greater freedom to differentiate themselves by expressing their uniqueness through digital associations on the online platform [46].…”

e-Commerce Sustainability: The Case of Pinduoduo in China

“…WOM is defined as communication to exchange opinions and product and service information in people's social network [25,26]. In the information systems and communications field, scholars created the term electronic WOM (e-WOM) because people are now using the Internet to communicate with their social network members [27][28][29]. The WOM network includes everyone who connects to the Internet using computers or mobile phones.…”

Motivation and Reuse: How Does Motivation Affect Sustainable Use Intention for Brand Webtoons?

“…It can have the same appeal as a webtoon, and this type of branded entertainment has been labelled a "branded webtoon" (known in Korea simply as brand webtoon) by the industry and can be seen to illustrated a convergence between advertising and entertainment. In general, brand webtoons are quasi-advertisements that are used to promote companies, brands, and public service announcements-available either on a company website or online portal sites such as Naver or Daum [1].…”

“…On the other hand, from a consumer's point of view, the fun and emotional benefits contained in the webtoon mean its consumption has value. Another reason that enabled the rapid growth of brand webtoons can be found in the change to a new media environment: that is, as the spread of smartphones increases, the consumption of paper cartoon contents in the past in analog form has moved to the digital platform [1,2].…”

“…Continuous use intention is a concept explaining a consumer's plan to continue use of a particular product or service [5]. Many factors have driven scholars to explore not only the reasons behind the continuous use of branded content, but also the impact of brand messages on usage intention [1,5]. Some of these factors include consumers' loyalty to webtoon writers, certain stories or topics, convenient access to webtoon platforms, and the volatility of the mobile webtoon market [6].…”