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The current study examines a novel model that examines how the online and offline or general personality of the same person predicts social identification with the endorser in a message and their subsequent online behaviors (e.g. ad-skipping) on social media, both differentially and simultaneously.

Real-time ad-skipping behaviors were tracked and analyzed across three online experiments.

The results supported the model explicating the dual and simultaneous influence of offline and online personalities on ad-skipping behaviors. Specifically, in response to a skippable video ad, online and offline personalities respectively increase and decrease viewers’ identification with the endorser. Consequently, the higher or lower the identification, the lower or higher the rate of ad-skipping behaviors.

The current study will benefit from a larger set of real-world data (i.e. big data) to enhance the generalizability of the findings, supporting the model.

With the growing prevalence of the gap between online and offline self-identities driven by social media usage, this paper suggests that the ad message needs to address the dual influence of both online and offline identities on ad-skipping behaviors.

The current study tests a novel model that shows that the online and offline personalities of the same person concurrently influence one’s behavior on the Internet, rather than separately.

The purpose of this paper is to use social identity theory and the elaboration likelihood model to explore differences in consumer response to positive and negative online brand advertising based on the degree to which the consumer identifies with the brand featured in the ad. Dependent variables include attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, willingness to share the ad and purchase intention.

This study uses a posttest-only, 2 (low consumer–brand identification v. high consumer–brand identification) × 2 (negative advertisement v. positive advertisement) between-subjects factorial design for two separate brands based on the pretest results.

Results show, in support of extant research, that consumer–brand identification enhances consumer perceptions of positive brand advertising. In addition, this research shows that consumer–brand identification also minimizes the potentially detrimental effects of negative advertisements on the dependent variables. Further, results suggest that those with a low consumer–brand identification are more likely to share negative online brand advertising.

Building consumer–brand identification among target consumers results in positive brand attitudes and behaviors while at the same time shielding brands from negative online attack advertising. However, consumers with weak consumer–brand identification can be influenced through peripheral cues in online ads. This research indicates that managers need to focus on strengthening consumer–brand identity with target audiences and closely monitor negative online sentiment.

This exploratory research extends current consumer–brand relationship scholarship and adds support for application of the elaboration likelihood model in an online environment. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the role of consumer–brand identity and its role in explaining consumer responses to online display advertising.

This study aims to explore the interdependent impacts of online word-of-mouth (WOM) and online ads on digital product adoptions, as well as their dynamic changes throughout the product life cycle.

This study adopted an empirical approach by using a unique data set of five mobile games launched between 2012 and 2014 provided by Renren Games Ltd. in China.

The results indicated that advertising generally has a positive impact on WOM. During the product life cycle, the influence on volume and variance gradually decreases, whereas the impact on valence increases over time. WOM (including WOM volume and WOM valence) and advertising both have positive impacts on game adoptions. They complement each other to shape adoptions throughout the product life cycle: advertising is more effective in encouraging adoptions in the early and later stages of the demand evolution process, whereas WOM has a greater impact on adoptions in the mid-stage.

This study provided detailed managerial recommendations on how to effectively integrate different types of marketing communication and optimize the investment strategy of online ads and online WOM in different stages of the product life cycle.

First, the study enriched the theory of digital marketing communication by studying the relationship between mass media (online ads), interpersonal media (online WOM) and product adoptions in the network context. Second, it provided an empirical basis for the inference of the dynamic development of media effect in the new product diffusion theory. Third, the results will be helpful to end the debate in current theoretical literature on whether there is a complementary or alternative relationship between the two effects. Last but not least, it enriched research on the antecedents and dynamic effects of online WOM.

The paper aims to determine the effectiveness of specific online advertisements, comparing banner ads that are brand‐reinforcing versus ones that are product‐reinforcing.

The research uses three experimental design studies to empirically test the hypotheses based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) by manipulating type of online banner advertisement (brand‐type versus product‐type) and measuring individual need for cognition (NFC).

Consumers high in NFC recall product‐type banner ads more readily than those low in NFC, while brand‐type banner ads are more likely to be recalled by low‐NFC consumers. However, high‐NFC consumers recall brand‐type ads under all situational influences tested. And while consumers low in NFC recall product‐type banner ads featuring a directive better than their high‐NFC counterparts, they do not recall directive ads at a greater rate than high‐NFC consumers recall brand‐type ads.

While previous research has found that variations in ad size, color, interactivity, and web site location affect recall, this research only measured static banner ads that appear at the top of the page. However, because it is the first to examine involvement in terms of NFC in combination with brand‐ and product‐type ads, the research sheds new light on consumer awareness of two types of banner ad strategies adopted by marketing managers today.

In an online context, the type of banner ads used by marketing managers should be paired with the web site based on how much time consumers spend at the site and how many pages they click through at the site. All things being equal, however, managers should favor brand‐type banner ads over product‐type banner ads.

The research extends understanding of ELM as it relates to type of banner ad while establishing a potential research stream for better understanding of how consumers process various types of online ads. At the same time, it provides new evidence that can help marketing managers make better strategic decisions regarding their online marketing mix.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits of Ad-Video and Product-Video congruity for embedded online video advertising. A conceptual model is constructed to test how congruity between online advertisements, advertised products and online videos impact consumer post-viewing attitudes via processing fluency.

An online experiment with eight versions of mock video sections (with embedded online video advertisements) was conducted. The study is a 2 (type of appeal: informational vs emotional) × 2 (Ad-Video congruity: congruent vs incongruent) × 2 (Product-Video congruity: congruent vs incongruent) full-factorial between-subject design. A total of 252 valid responses were collected for data analysis.

Results show that congruity is related to the improvement of processing fluency only for informational ads/videos. The positive effect of Ad-Video congruity on processing fluency is only significant for informational appeals but not emotional appeal. Similarly, the positive effects of Product-Video congruity on processing fluency are only significant for informational appeals but not emotional appeal. Involvement has been found to be positively related to processing fluency too. Processing fluency has a positive impact on the attitudes toward the ads, advertised products and videos.

The finding that congruity is related to the improvement of processing fluency only for informational ads/videos extends the existing literature by identifying the type of appeal as a boundary condition.

Both brand managers and online video platform owners should monitor and operationalize the content and appeal congruity, especially for informational ads on a large scale to improve consumers’ responses.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the effects of Ad-Video and Product-Video congruity of embedded advertisements on video sharing platforms. The findings of this study add to the literature on congruity and processing fluency.

Digital advertising enables retailers to rely on large volumes of data on consumers and even leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to target consumers online with personalised and context-aware advertisements. One recent example of such advertisements is programmatic advertising (PA), which is facilitated by automatic bidding systems. Given that retailers are expected to increase their use of PA in the future, further insights on the pros and cons of PA are required. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the implications of PA use for retailers.

A theoretical overview is conducted that compares PA to traditional advertising, with an empirical investigation into consumer attitudes towards PA (an online survey of 189 consumers using an experimental design) and a research agenda.

Consumer attitudes towards PA are positively related to attitudes towards the retailer. Further, perceived ad relevance is positively related to attitudes towards PA, which is moderated by (1) consumer perceptions of risks related to sharing their data with retailers online and (2) consumer perceptions of AI's positive potential. Surprisingly, the disclosed use of AI for PA does not significantly influence consumer attitudes towards PA.

This paper contributes to the literature on technology-enabled services by empirically demonstrating that ad relevance drives consumer attitudes towards PA. This paper further examines two contingencies: risk beliefs related to data (i.e. the source of PA) and perceptions of AI (i.e. the somewhat nebulous technology associated with PA) as beneficial. A research agenda illuminates central topics to guide future research on PA in retailing.

Interactive media strategies and digital tools have enabled advertisers to target children with promotional offers and creative appeals.

Based on theories related to metaphors in advertisements, cognitive comprehension by children, promotional appeals, and presentation techniques, the research for this study comprised a content analysis of 1,980 online banner advertisements with reference to use of metaphors, promotional appeals, creative content, and selling techniques.

The research study concludes that online advertising to children, in contrast to traditional advertising vehicles, is characterized by (a) a vibrant visual metaphor, (b) surfeit of animated content, (c) interactive features, (d) myriad product types, and (e) creative content for a mixed audience of adults and children.

This study argues that the impact and content of the Internet as a new advertising medium are distinctly different from traditional characteristics of television and print.

Online advertisement brings huge revenue to many websites. There are many types of online advertisement; this paper aims to focus on the online banner ads which are usually placed in a particular news website. The investigated news website adopts a pay-per-ad payment model, where the advertisers are charged when they rent a banner from the website during a particular period. In this payment model, the website needs to ensure that the ad pushed frequency of each ad on the banner is similar. Under such advertisement push rules, an ad-recommendation mechanism considering ad push fairness is required.

The authors proposed a novel ad recommendation method that considers both ad-push fairness and personal interests. The authors take every ad’s exposure time into consideration and investigate users’ three different usage experiences in the website to identify the main factors affecting the interests of users. Online ad recommendation is conducted on the investigated news website.

The results of the experiments show that the proposed approach performs better than the traditional approach. This method can not only enhance the average click rate of all ads in the website but also ensure reasonable fairness of exposure frequency of each ad. The online experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.

Existing researches had not considered both the advertisement recommendation and ad-push fairness together. With the proposed novel ad recommendation model, the authors can improve the ad click-through rate of ads with reasonable push fairness. The website provider can thereby increase the commercial value of advertising and user satisfaction.

The number of internet consumers who adopt ad-blocking is increasing rapidly all over the world. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this phenomenon by: assembling the existing considerations and key theoretical aspects of the determinants of online ad-blocking; and by exploring the consumers’ beliefs and sentiments toward online ads and expected outcomes of ad-blocking behavior.

Data consist of 4,093 consumers’ opinions in response to the news items about ad-blocking, published by a leading news and technology website in the period 2010–2016. The unstructured data are analyzed using probabilistic topic modeling and sentiment analysis.

Five main topics are identified, unveiling the hidden structure of consumers’ beliefs. A sentiment analysis profiling the clustered opinions reveals that the opinions that are focused on the behavioral characteristics of ads express the strongest negative sentiment, while the opinions centered on the possibility to subscribe to an ad-free fee-financed website are characterized on average by a positive sentiment.

The findings provide useful insights for practitioners to create/adopt more acceptable ads that translate into less ad-blocking and improved internet surfing experience. It brings insights on the question of whether ad-free subscription websites have or do not have the potential to become a viable business opportunity.

The research: improves the current understanding of the determinants of ad-blocking by introducing a conceptual framework and testing it empirically; makes use of consumer-generated data on the internet; and implements novel techniques from the data mining literature.