Akpinar and Berger (2017) ask how to make content that people share and that still helps the brand.
Share data from hundreds of real online ads, plus laboratory experiments, show that emotional appeals are more likely to be shared than informative appeals. Informative appeals do more for brand evaluations and purchase, because the brand is integral to the content. Emotional ads that keep the brand integral do both.
Method
The authors combine share data from hundreds of real online ads with controlled laboratory experiments. They contrast informative appeals, which focus on product features, with emotional appeals, which use drama, mood, music, and other emotion-eliciting strategies, and they test emotional ads in which the brand is an integral part of the content.
Main findings
- Emotion travels. Compared with informative appeals, emotional appeals are more likely to be shared.
- Information carries the brand. Informative appeals boost brand evaluations and purchase because the brand is an integral part of the ad content.
- Brand-integral emotion does both. Emotional ads that make the brand integral boost sharing and brand-related outcomes.
Why this is in the Darwin index
This is the sharing-versus-brand paper in the index. It separates an ad that people pass on from an ad that changes how they evaluate the brand, and it names the execution that does both.
Source of record: doi:10.1509/jmr.13.0350.