Unveiling Sustainable Advertising: A Case Study of Storytelling Strategies and Archetypes in Malaysian Telco Advertisements

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-196-8_5How to use a DOI?

Abstract

The concept of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) was first introduced in September 2015 at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, which consisted of 17 main areas that need to be explored to fulfil the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The global concept took its prominence in 2020 due to many organisations' rampant application of the model due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This global effect can also be seen in Malaysia, as publicly listed companies have been advised by Bursa Malaysia to shift their focus, make sustainability part of their business goals, and for the companies to report their sustainability efforts in their annual report as evidence supporting these global efforts. This effect can also be seen in the academic research direction, where most researchers include this concept in their framework in one way or another to measure the effectiveness of the SDG item in the business. However, it has come to the attention of the researchers that there are significant knowledge gaps when it comes to the communication aspect of the concept. Limited research addresses the most effective way to communicate business sustainability efforts, particularly from the perspective of communication content. This research addresses this issue by examining how companies employ storytelling elements to communicate their sustainability efforts to target audiences. Focusing on Malaysia's leading telecommunication companies, the study conducts a qualitative content analysis of selected sustainability advertisements disseminated through YouTube. All the extracted content will later be sub-grouped using the thematic analysis method to identify the storytelling techniques, brand archetypes and dimensions of sustainability storytelling technique used by the marketers. This study contributes to the comprehension of effective communication practices within the context of sustainable development goals (SDGs), providing valuable insights into the strategic use of storytelling and brand archetypes in sustainability advertising campaigns. Moreover, this study lays the groundwork for future research endeavours in communication, content writing, and storytelling, enriching the broader discourse on sustainability communication within academic and professional domains. This research initiates future sustainability communication research, particularly in communication, content writing and storytelling.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Muhamad Izzuddin Zainudin
AU  - Nurafiq Inani Man
AU  - Nur Azlin Alimuddin
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/01/25
TI  - Unveiling Sustainable Advertising: A Case Study of Storytelling Strategies and Archetypes in Malaysian Telco Advertisements
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Communication, Language, Education and Social Sciences (CLESS 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 44
EP  - 56
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-196-8_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-196-8_5
ID  - Zainudin2024
ER  -