Social Media Marketing and Brand Experience Effects on Streaming Subscription Intentions: The Moderating Role of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Among University Students

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-960-5_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social Media Marketing; Brand Experience; Electronic Word-of-Mouth; Subscription Intention; Digital Marketing Strategy

Abstract

This study examined the influence of Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Brand Experience (BE) on Subscription Intention (SI) for streaming services, with Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) as a moderating variable. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) frameworks, the research employed a quantitative, cross-sectional design with a census sampling of 150 undergraduate students at Universitas Prima Indonesia (UNPRI) PSDKU Pekanbaru. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) via SmartPLS 4, following established reliability, validity, and model-fit assessments. The results indicated that SMM had a significant positive effect on SI ( β = 0.293 , p < 0.001 ), whereas BE showed a positive but non-significant effect ( β = 0.170 , p = 0.065 ). eWOM negatively moderated the SMM–SI relationship ( β = - 0.167 , p = 0.010 ), suggesting that excessive or low-quality peer content reduced marketing effectiveness. In contrast, eWOM positively moderated the BE–SI relationship ( β = 0.128 , p = 0.029 ), demonstrating that credible peer endorsements strengthened the influence of brand experiences on subscription decisions. The model explained 77.9% of SI variance, reflecting substantial predictive power. This research contributed to digital marketing literature by identifying the dual moderating role of eWOM, highlighting how peer communication can both dampen and enhance marketing effects depending on content quality. Practically, the findings suggested that streaming service providers should integrate curated eWOM strategies with immersive brand experiences to increase subscription retention and growth.

Copyright

© 2025 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.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Alfina Tiurmida Sitanggang
AU  - Darwin Lie
AU  - Robert Tua Siregar
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Social Media Marketing and Brand Experience Effects on Streaming Subscription Intentions: The Moderating Role of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Among University Students
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Economics, Business, Management and Accounting (ICEBesMA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 82
EP  - 97
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-960-5_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-960-5_6
ID  - Sitanggang2025
ER  -