The Future is Fleeting: How Ephemeral Brand Messages Impact Viewing Behavior

Ephemeral messaging service, such as Snapchal and Inslagram stories, allows consumers lo send messages that disappear within a specified time after they are opened. Our research arises from the observation that ephemerality introduces a new type of time limit. The traditional notion of a time limitation is through a deadline which refers to "until when one can avail of something"; in the messaging context, it means till one can avail of or read the message. Ephemeral messages break up the traditional time limitation into two phases: phase 1 ("opening time")--which is the time from receiving the message to opening it, and phase 2 ("seeing time")--which is the time from opening the message to the time one stops seeing it. Our research contributes theoretically to literature on ephemerality, time perception, and mere urgency. We show that the time limitation introduced by the new ephemeral media induces novel time perceptions for consumers--even though the phase 2 limit (seeing time limit) is orthogonal to the phase 1 limit (opening time limit), it still impacts opening time--and does so, even when consumers understand the two phases. This result has added to the literature on ephemerality and on time perception/time limits.