Creative Hook Strategies in Digital Promotional Campaigns: An Analysis of Short-Form Videos (Reels) on Instagram to Measure Their Appeal to User Audiences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59994/ajbtme.2025.2.1Keywords:
Creative Hook, Digital Promotional Campaigns, Short-Form Videos (Reels), InstagramAbstract
This study aimed to explore the impact of creative hook strategies on users’ digital engagement on Instagram, with a focus on short-form videos (Reels) as a modern marketing tool. The study adopted an experimental methodology by analyzing a sample of 26 videos, divided into two groups: an experimental group that employed creative hooks and a control group that used a traditional approach. Digital engagement indicators were measured, including reposts, shares, comments, likes, and video completion rate. The results revealed the superiority of videos incorporating creative hooks across all engagement indicators compared to traditional videos, as creative videos achieved higher rates of reposts, shares, comments, likes, as well as higher completion rates. The interpretation of these findings indicates that creative hooks enhance attention capture, stimulate curiosity, and create an enjoyable interactive user experience, thereby increasing the likelihood of audience engagement and content sharing. The results also support previous literature that emphasized the importance of using creative elements to improve the effectiveness of digital campaigns and strengthen the relationship between brands and their audiences. Accordingly, the study recommends adopting creative hook strategies as a core tool in designing digital marketing campaigns to maximize organic engagement and effectively achieve reach and dissemination objectives. The originality of this study lies in its direct experimental examination of creative hook strategies in short-form video content (Reels) on Instagram and its quantitative measurement of their impact on multiple digital engagement indicators. It is further distinguished by linking marketing creativity with actual user behavior, thereby contributing to filling a research gap in Arabic studies on the effectiveness of modern digital marketing tools.
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