Provision of Helpful Review Videos: Effects of Video Characteristics on Perceived Helpfulness

Abstract

With the rapid growth and popularity of YouTube, an increasing number of consumers rely on online product review videos to obtain product-related information. Review videos, with visual and vocal cues, can convey product experiences in rich and immersive ways and have a powerful impact on consumers’ perceptions and intentions to purchase the product. As the provision of online review videos grows and consumers increasingly rely on them for their purchase decisions, understanding factors that contribute to the perceived helpfulness of video reviews becomes critical for video review management. This paper examines how various visual and vocal characteristics of online review videos are associated with the perceived helpfulness of videos. We collect detailed data on 13,840 electronic product review videos posted on YouTube and employ video content analysis, speech recognition, and natural language processing techniques to extract the visual and vocal characteristics of review videos. We find that the increase in visual stimulation, which is captured by visual dynamics and brightness, increases the perceived helpfulness of reviews. In addition, featuring reviewers’ faces in review videos also increases the perceived helpfulness of videos. Consumers also perceive review videos in which reviewers express more positive facial emotions as more helpful. Furthermore, higher speech rates and lower voice pitch are associated with higher perceived helpfulness of reviews. The findings can facilitate the management and operation of online review videos for product reviewers, businesses, review platforms, and consumers.

Keywords: Product review videos, review helpfulness, video mining, voice mining