Search results

This paper aimed to determine the extent to which academic libraries and information services were extended due to the emergence of COVID-19 in the Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Founded on a pragmatism paradigm, the sequential explanatory research design was adopted to engage with participants and respondents on their experience of library services extensions to support users during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using online questionnaires and interviews. Cluster and purposive sampling were used and data for the quantitative part were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), whilst qualitative data were analyzed manually.

Findings revealed that academic libraries operating in a higher education environment provided extensive support to remote users during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done through the utilization of a variety of technology utilization, ranging from traditional e-mail support to the use of technology related to Artificial Intelligence such as the BOTsa, which is a Chatbot aimed to assist users in receiving speedy responses to library-related inquiries.

This study is unique in that it focuses on academic libraries that operate in higher education environments where support for achieving academic endeavors becomes imperative to ensure the smooth execution of teaching and learning activities within the restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adaptions and improvements to academic library services during and post-COVID-19 era were successful in ensuring that remote users could obtain similar services and access to information as was the case before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dynamic advertising, including television and online video ads, demands new theory and tools developed to understand attention to moving stimuli. The purpose of this study is to empirically test the predictions of a new dynamic attention theory, Dynamic Human-Centred Communication Systems Theory, versus the predictions of salience theory.

An eye-tracking study used a sample of consumers to measure visual attention to potential areas of interest (AOIs) in a random selection of unfamiliar video ads. An eye-tracking software feature called intelligent bounding boxes (IBBs) was used to track attention to moving AOIs. AOIs were coded for the presence of static salience variables (size, brightness, colour and clutter) and dynamic attention theory dimensions (imminence, motivational relevance, task relevance and stability).

Static salience variables contributed 90% of explained variance in fixation and 57% in fixation duration. However, the data further supported the three-way interaction uniquely predicted by dynamic attention theory: between imminence (central vs peripheral), relevance (motivational or task relevant vs not) and stability (fleeting vs stable). The findings of this study indicate that viewers treat dynamic stimuli like real life, paying less attention to central, relevant and stable AOIs, which are available across time and space in the environment and so do not need to be memorised.

Despite the limitations of small samples of consumers and video ads, the results of this study demonstrate the potential of two relatively recent innovations, which have received limited emphasis in the marketing literature: dynamic attention theory and IBBs.

This study documents what does and does not attract attention to video advertising. What gets attention according to salience theory (e.g. central location) may not always get attention in dynamic advertising because of the effects of relevance and stability. To better understand how to execute video advertising to direct and retain attention to important AOIs, advertisers and advertising researchers are encouraged to use IBBs.

This study makes two original contributions: to marketing theory, by showing how dynamic attention theory can predict attention to video advertising better than salience theory, and to marketing research, showing the utility of tracking visual attention to moving objects in video advertising with IBBs, which appear underutilised in advertising research.

Given the importance of the growing segmentation of ageing consumers and their increasing interaction with the Internet, digital marketing scholars are becoming more interested in this market. Prior research needs to pay more attention to this market in many contexts of digital marketing. This study aims to provide insights into ageing consumers’ content usage, content typology choices, and online brand advocacy (OBA).

Semi-structured interviews were applied, and 16 consumers from Southern Europe aged 55+ were included. The interviews were transcribed and examined following the principles of content analysis.

According to the research, older consumers display their usage and concerns regarding online content. They have different decision-making processes depending on whether they are purchasing products or services. Likewise, their choices of content typology vary based on the utilitarian or hedonic product category.

This study contributes to the literature by providing insights into this growing segmentation and proposing an OBA framework for older consumers related to content marketing. Finally, the study suggests that older consumers are passive online and active offline brand advocates.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the post type of the official account of the Korean fashion brands on Instagram and to analyze the images and keywords according to the use of the hashtag in it. This study also will provide data of how fashion brands use the new media of Instagram and how they promote it.

This study investigated the types of postings and keywords of hashtag(#) of fashion brand’s official Instagram account in order to analyze the post type and keyword. In total, six apparel brand companies were selected, with two in each of three categories (classic casual brand, outdoor sports brand and designer character brand), and seven types of postings were classified (lookbook and product, collection, broadcasting ads, brand issue, sensibility pictures, sponsorship and event). The frequencies were collected according to their types that were confirmed by four fashion major specialists.

First, the proportion of the types of postings varied according to the characteristics of the brand. Second, the six brands used keywords of a symbol because it is important to convey brand identity. Third, the sensibility keywords of each brand were investigated, and one of the designer character brands used only practical keywords without sensibility keywords. Fourth, this study examined the number of Instagram hashtags and hearts to determine if the reaction was in alignment with the marketing trends of the company’s official Instagram account and consumers. One of the classic casual brands, one of the outdoor sports brands and both designer character brands showed a high proportion of types of posts on Instagram that well matched with consumer response. As a hypothesis of this study, it was supported that the posting types of images and hashtags will be different according to the characteristics of brand.

Instagram is the fastest growing social network service (SNS) globally, especially among young adults. Instagram is noted for its strong SNS marketing but it has not been well researched in the apparel industry. The study results will help improve the brand image and promotion by using official Instagram account in the apparel industry.