Listen and Watch! Decoding the Power of Video in Experiential Product Success through a Multimodal Analytical Approach
(A2025-125850)

AUTHORS

Jonah Berger, University of Pennsylvania; Lily (Xuehui) Gao, Stockholm School of Economics; Qiong Tang, University of Groningen; Xiangnan Zhang, Temple University

ABSTRACT

Selecting the best experiential products can be challenging for customers. In the digital age, video content offers a sensory preview of how these products can provide meaningful experiences. However, not all video content effectively drives the success of experiential products. Why? To address this question, we (1) propose a comprehensive framework to capture the dual power of experiential dimensions embedded within video content, and (2) introduce the Story-telling Structural Dynamic Rate—a nuanced metric that quantifies the key narrative elements like sequence, frequency, and timing, to (3) assess their impact on experiential product success. Our analysis draws from 6,169 movies on IMDb and 13 billion viewer comments from YouTube. We leverage AI-driven deep learning models for fine-grained video data analysis and apply ridge regressions to assess the relative importance of experiential dimensions, their dynamics, and their impacts on customer perceptions, behaviors, and sales.