Narrative conversion of marketing assets - The case of Welcome to Wrexham
(A2025-125928)

AUTHORS

Susanna Sarkki Ekestubbe, University of Helsinki; Essi Pöyry, University of Helsinki; Petri Parvinen, University of Helsinki

ABSTRACT

Creating media products that display branded content alongside a catching story have become commonplace. This is beneficial for marketers, as using stories to engage audiences is known to be effective. This paper studies a marketing strategy of a media product that, through the acquisition, creation and narrative conversion of assets, serves as a marketing platform for displayed brands. We present a case study of a documentary series called Welcome to Wrexham that depicts Hollywood celebrities who acquire an underperforming Welsh football club Wrexham AFC. An analysis of the documentary and news articles discussing the acquisition and the documentary suggest that, through storytelling, the documentary creates and converts assets linked to the football club into strategic marketing assets utilized for the benefit of both. Consequently, the media product grows the value of the assets linked to the club and creates spillovers to the associated branded entities.