Transmedia storytelling, an emerging marketing strategy in themed entertainment, involves extending stories across different media platforms. Its success is partly attributed to prior knowledge effects, where imparting visitors with specific story world knowledge prior to their visit enhances attraction experiences at the destination that are part of a shared transmedia storytelling universe. With lacking theoretical framing and empirical support, our aim was to unravel the underlying dynamics of such prior knowledge effects and to assess their effectiveness. Drawing on media entertainment theory, we hypothesize that prior knowledge facilitates enhanced understanding of the narrative content of theme park attractions, resulting in heightened emotions and ultimately better evaluated attraction experiences. We tested this hypothesis by collecting questionnaire and skin conductance data from theme park visitors engaging with transmedia storytelling practices surrounding a dark ride attraction in a European theme park destination. The collected data support our hypothesis and provide evidence for the role of enhanced narrative understanding as the key driver of the effect. To enhance the effectiveness of transmedia storytelling strategies, themed entertainment destinations are recommended to incorporate key backstory elements in previsit media to enrich visitors’ understanding of the narrative content presented in their attractions.
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