Internal communication and transmedia narratives, new strategies for responsible companies. Telefónica case study

Abstract

Based on the belief that participation and mutual exchange are an indispensable condition for effective communication with publics, this article presents transmedia storytelling as a driver of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication to internal publics, through the Play to Move case study of Telefónica. This approach is of special interest since, to date, most of the research on transmedia storytelling has addressed the subject in relation to audiovisual content, with very few works that have applied it to communication management, and nonexistent in terms of communication with internal publics specifically. In order to address the topic of study, a qualitative methodological perspective is adopted, based on a literature review and a case study to illustrate the application of these transmedia narratives to the communication of social responsibility with internal publics. The results show that transmedia storytelling is an effective public relations approach to communicate the corporate social responsibility strategy, without forgetting the importance of employee participation in these responsible policies. The future of public relations and internal communication of CSR goes through the confluence with other disciplines such as advertising or entertainment, and the incorporation of gamification, storytelling and transmediality into their strategies.