The Influence Of YouTube Let's Play Videos On The Purchasing Decisions Of Young Adult College Students

Book excerpt: A research study was conducted to discover if leveraging content creators of Let's Play videos is an effective investment of marketing dollars for influencing purchasing decision. Before this study was conducted, it remained unknown in the scholarly literature if employing this marketing activity was truly an effective investment of marketing dollars by brands for positively influencing purchasing decisions. A mixed methods research study that applied the descriptive research design was able to ascertain if leveraging content creators of Let's Play videos is an effective investment of marketing dollars for influencing purchasing decision. This research study used an online survey questionnaire as the primary data collection instrument to garner responses from a sample group of 22 college students aged 19-22. To ensure the reliability of the survey instrument, the test-retest reliability was applied twice to the study. Additionally, the research study employed an online interview questionnaire as the secondary data collection instrument to garner responses from video game industry experts which further validated the study's findings with additional evidence-based research findings. The usage of triangulation methodology strengthened the validity of the research findings and allowed the researcher to investigate the phenomenon in much greater depth. The findings of the study ultimately showed that content creators of Let's Play videos positively influence the video game purchasing decisions of college students. The study was able to show how leveraging Let's Play videos as an emerging vehicle for influencer marketing and social media marketing can be a worthwhile investment of marketing dollars.