HOW COMPLEXITY AFFECTS PERCEIVED CREDIBILITY IN MARKETING. : An interdisciplinary analysis of digital short-form marketing

Marketing through short-form content on social media presents unique challenges for marketers. Unlike other forms of video advertisement, like that on television, advertisement on social media only has seconds to intrigue viewers. Advertising on social media is also significantly more accessible to lower budget advertisers, which makes it harder for consumers to discern which marketers are reliable and which ones are not. This study aims to discover how design choices regarding complexity in short form marketing affect the perceived credibility of both the advertised product and the company behind it. A qualitative semi-structured interview has been conducted with ten respondents to garner enough data to form a concrete and credible answer. The interviews contained multiple questions regarding credibility related to design complexity in four different design elements. The design elements used are as follows; typography, background elements, information density, and animation. The data was then analyzed and coded into different key points which later got tabulated into three different graphs. All of the processed data then got used to conclude that a balanced level of design complexity is optimal for a credible company image, and also a credible presentation of a product.