Viral Dissemination of Content in Advertising: Emotional Factors to Reach Consumers

Abstract

Social media has become a relevant content dissemination channel in recent years. Each user has the capacity to potentially reach others, and in this way, social media challenges the traditional distribution of content through mass media. The advertising industry has had to adapt to this new ecosystem and develop audiovisual pieces specifically tailored to this environment as part of their communication strategies. These pieces aim at achieving not only views but to engage viewers in sharing content with their contacts. Recent research indicates that there are certain aspects of human behaviour related to emotions and motivations that have an impact on the decision to share information, news and content with others. However, there are few studies analysing how the features of the content shared influence that decision. This article presents the content analysis results of the 100 most widely shared advertising viral videos around the world from 2011 to 2015 according to Adweek. The analysis was conducted from an emotional perspective in order to establish the common features of the most shared videos and to identify the frequency in which emotional narrative resources are used.

Decoding the DNA of Viral Video Ads

“…are more likely to stimulate the target audience to share with their networks than those containing negative emotional appeals (fear, sadness, anxiety, anger, etc.) (Dafonte-Gómez et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2006;Porter & Golan, 2006;Segev & Fernandes, 2022;Sharma & Kaur, 2018). Previous research (Dafonte-Gómez et al, 2020;Kaur et al, 2022;Lin et al, 2006;Porter & Golan, 2006;Segev & Fernandes, 2022;Sharma & Kaur, 2018) show that humor is the strongest emotion which triggers the virality of the ads.…”

“…Previous research (Moldovan et al, 2019) contend that viral ads adopting both message strategies have a higher potential to be shared. However, others (Dafonte-Gómez et al, 2020;Segev & Fernandes, 2022;Sharma & Kaur, 2018) affirm that most of the viral ads depend upon the transformational message strategies.…”

“…Furthermore, viral ads have the main function of brand-building (branding) rather than call to action and informing (Çiftçi & Özdemir, 2022;Golan & Zaidner, 2008;Ketelaar et al, 2016;Porter & Golan, 2006;Segev & Fernandes, 2022;Sharma & Kaur, 2018). They are also claimed to be mostly preferred by the advertisers and advertising professionals for their advantages such as entertainment, credibility, likeability, non-interruptiveness and high engagement levels (Dafonte-Gómez et al, 2020;Kaur et al, 2022;Petrescu & Korgaonkar, 2011;Phelps et al, 2004;Sharma & Kaur, 2018Shirkhodaee & Rezaee, 2013). In this regard, it can be asserted that there are many factors playing a critical role in the success of the advertisement which is principal and essential for the advertisers and advertising professionals to acquire such benefits and advantages.…”

“…These factors may be broadly grouped into virality attribute factors, and content-related factors (Himelboim & Golan, 2019). The virality attribute factors include brand relationships (Hayes & Whitehill King, 2014;Ketelaar et al, 2016), media characteristics (Kaur et al, 2022), source credibility (Ketelaar et al, 2016;Phelps et al, 2004), personality traits (Dafonte-Gómez et al, 2020;Kaur et al, 2022;Ketelaar et al, 2016). On the other hand, the contentrelated factors cover creative message strategy (informational / transformational) (Kaur et al, 2022), emotional appeals (Kaur et al, 2022), borrowed interest devices (Kaur et al, 2022), type of viral messages, duration of the ad, voice-over, music (Kaur et al, 2022), brand mentions, and product pricing.…”

Public Perception of Tourism Cities before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic through the Lens of User-Generated Content

“…Some rely on the convenience of social media platforms to gain emotional support and recognition [9], while others are motivated by the desire to share content, connect with others, express themselves, or achieve personal goals [10]. Past studies on city promotion found that strong emotional cues [11], such as surprise or pleasure, were better at gaining public recognition. Other studies found that presenting the right information facilitated the development of common beliefs within social communities, mentioning that the mediating effects of information on behaviors and interactions increase concurrently with the functionality and emotional stimulus [12].…”