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Employing the conceptual framework of play themes, this study examined and reported the product categories that presented branded entertainment the most, the different types and features of branded entertainment, and how various play themes were incorporated in branded entertainment in the context of Facebook brand profile pages. The major findings were consistent with the conceptual framework and literature on branded entertainment. Some unexpected findings were also provided and discussed. The line between entertainment and marketing communication has become increasingly blended or even erased during recent years, particularly in the Internet context. Researchers and practitioners are highly interested in the marketing potential of branded entertainment since it may boost brand awareness and build strong consumer‐brand relationships. Little academic research to date has been conducted to systematically study branded entertainment on the Internet. This study is a nascent attempt to understand branded entertainment in user‐centered social networking websites (SNWs), since young users are shifting away from other online media to SNWs. Branded entertainment may help marketers gather segmented yet fun‐seeking SNW users and deliver nonintrusive marketing messages to them.

To explore US consumers' perceptions of the level of fun associated with non‐price retail promotions and to predict likelihood of participation among demographic groups.

The study employs a sample generated from retail forward panel data (n=500) to assess the impact of demographic variables including gender, age, educational attainment, income and household size on consumer perceptions and likelihood of participation in five types of non‐price retail promotions. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (t‐tests, regression) are used to evaluate the data.

Identifies demographic groups who perceive high levels of fun associated with non‐price retail promotions and examines relationships between demographics and likelihood of participation in these types of promotions.

Generalizations of the findings of this study to markets outside the USA are limited due to the differences in consumers and forms of retail promotion within various markets. Future studies could examine perceptions of non‐price retail promotions across international markets as well as identify additional predictors of response to non‐price retail promotions.

This research provides retailers that operate within the USA specific knowledge of consumers' perceptions of non‐price retail promotions and identifies demographic characteristics of consumers who are likely to participate in such activities. As price competition in the sector continues to evolve, understanding non‐price forms of competition is critical to superior performance and survival in the industry.

This exploratory study uses demographics as a framework for examining consumers' perceptions of and likelihood of participation in non‐price retail promotions. The paper is unique because there are few similar empirical studies focused specifically on non‐price retail promotions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects gender, age, income and employment status on consumer response to short message service (SMS)‐oriented direct‐response requests or a call‐to‐action tactic in a television advertisement or program, consumer's participation in SMS sweepstakes or other competitions, and consumer uptake of mobile services such as ringtones, logos, screensavers and wallpapers ordered by SMS message.

The data used in this study were collected via an online survey. A total of 4,062 consumers responded to this survey. Cross‐tabulation and binary logistic regression were used to examine the associations between the explanatory variables and responses to mobile advertising campaigns.

The results suggest that women are more active than men in their responses to SMS call‐to‐action campaigns. In addition, the results indicate that mobile advertising is not only for teenagers. For instance, consumers in the 36‐45 age group were most likely to respond to SMS calls‐to‐action in a television program and participate in SMS sweepstakes and other competitions. However, the youngest consumers most actively ordered mobile services using SMS. In addition, it was found that employment status had a substantial impact on consumers' SMS campaign activity.

Self‐report survey data are the bases of the findings discussed in this article. Substantial evidence exists in previous research that many respondents are inaccurate in reporting their own attitudes and past behavior. Thus, additional research relying on, for instance, SMS delivery measures (e.g. number of messages sent, number of replies, and – where an identifiable offer is promoted via mobile phone – the exact purchase rates), should be executed. Such experiments go beyond consumer reports by providing useful estimations of the impact of SMS text advertising based on customer inquiry and actual behavior.

This study clearly demonstrates the prevalence of SMS advertising campaigns and provides important insights into consumers' engagement with SMS advertising activities. Basic demographics such as gender, age, income, and employment status are useful in modeling and predicting consumer behavior in relation to SMS call‐to‐action campaigns. Thus, the findings reported in this paper should help marketers to design campaigns that focus more closely on the target audience.

While building on and maintaining continuity with extant work, this paper provides results that do facilitate research efforts focused on mobile media and aid practitioners in their quest to achieve mobile advertising success.

The use of various forms of cooperative sales promotions such as intracompany and intercompany multibrand promotions is on the ascendance, particularly among manufacturers and marketers of frequently purchased packaged consumer products. This article provides an overview of various forms of cooperative sales promotions, objectives that firms strive to realize through cooperative sales promotions, and other issues. In addition, from the standpoint of improving marketing productivity, the need for greater focus on the consumer franchise building potential of various sales promotion tools is highlighted.

This study describes the impact of changes in e-atmospherics in internet advertisings on consumer clicks and purchases. The study describes two unobtrusive field experiments: testing the impact of a third-party endorsement message embed in email advertising on customer clicks and purchases and testing the impact of sweepstake-award embeds in email advertising on customers’ clicks and time using brand (Blikwayski) tourism information. The studies include multiple dependent variables ranging from clicks-to-open email, clicks-to-open offer, clicks-to-purchase room rental, number-of-nights stayed and total revenue generated for the treatment versus control groups. Behaviour responses were higher for all dependent measures per participants in the treatments versus control groups. This study supports Eskin’s (1975), Cialdini’s (2006) and List’s (2011) proposal that true-field experiments can provide substantive direct evidence on the impact of alternative marketing treatments on behaviour.

This study examined both American and Korean consumers’ motivation to share marketer-generated content (MGC) on Facebook and how these motives are related to the frequency of various types of sharing activities and the frequency of sharing various types of MGC.

An online survey was conducted in the US and Korea.

The findings demonstrated that both American and Korean consumers share MGC for several reasons: liking/helping the brand, self-presentation/social interaction, economic rewards, and entertainment. In addition to these four motivations, Korean consumers also share MGC with others to offer information that may be of use to them. These different types of motivations were associated with the frequency of sharing MGC directly from Facebook brand pages, of re-sharing what Facebook friends shared first, of adding comments when sharing, and of sharing different types of MGC differently. We found similarities and differences in the patterns of these relationships between the US and Korea.

Although many studies on electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have examined consumers’ motivations for providing consumer-generated content, research on consumer motivations to forward marketer-generated content is scarce. Additionally, earlier work examined the influences of motivation on sharing in general and on a certain type of MGC. Our findings that focused on various types of motivations to share MGC, and their influences on various types of MGC and specific types of sharing activities can provide a more complete picture than what was previously available in the eWOM literature. Further, by comparing American consumers’ motivations to share MGC on SNSs and their influences on sharing activities with those of Korean consumers, this study contributes to building a body of cross-cultural studies on consumer sharing of MGC.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the functional motive and trait antecedents of four forms of gambling – slot machines, skilled card games, sports betting, and participating in marketing promotional games such as sweepstakes and contests.

A hierarchical model of motivation and personality (3M model) was employed to investigate the trait and functional motive antecedents of four gambling activities. Five motives for gambling were identified – money, excitement, social interaction, escape from problems, and self‐esteem enhancement. In addition, the effects of demographic variables (i.e. age, gender, and education) on four gambling types were examined. A total of 1,158 responses were collected from an online consumer panel.

The results suggest that the four forms of gambling have divergent motives, traits, and demographic profiles.

Future research should further explore other possible traits in predicting different gambling activities (e.g. superstitious beliefs). Another limitation of the study is the online panel sample, which is somewhat older and more highly educated than the general public.

The findings will help marketers better segment the market based on unique profiles of personality traits, functional motives, and demographic variables associated with each gambling type and design communication strategies to reach the targeted consumers.

Previous researchers have neither investigated the functional motives for gambling nor compared the motives for divergent forms of gambling. This research employs a hierarchical model (3M model) to investigate the trait and functional motive predictors of multiple forms of gambling.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how best to build online advocates for a food company’s brand based on data available from the brand’s Facebook pages. Specific research objectives are to study examine whether incentivizing actions such as “liking,” sharing or commenting on a brand’s Facebook impacts the brand community’s sentiment and engagement with the brand, and whether such engagement is different for different actions (e.g. liking vs sharing).

To achieve the objectives of this research, sentiment analysis is performed on Facebook insight data from a Fortune 500 company, consisting of fans’ comments, shares and “likes” for promotional and fan posts pertaining to one of its brands. Paired samples t-tests are performed to assess differences in sentiment and engagement before and after each promotional post.

The results do not support a strong impact of promotional posts on overall sentiment. However, there is evidence in support of a positive impact of the campaigns on overall wall-level engagement with the brand. Moreover, the levels of engagement are not the same for all promotional posts. Rather, some posts resulted in much higher engagement levels than others, suggesting that not all incentivized campaigns are created equal.

The study used the data from only one of company’s many brands. Therefore, similar studies on other brands are warranted.

Social networking sites are increasing in numbers, and more and more businesses are embracing social networks and/or blogs as part of their marketing platforms. Many companies offer coupons and incentives on social media to entice customers to engage with their social media platforms as well as buy products. The study results provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of different kinds of social media promotional campaigns, and can help managers decide which campaigns to implement to achieve specific objectives.

This research adds to the literature in two ways. First, it contributes to the limited literature on the effectiveness of incentivized social media campaign. Second, it contributes to the social media analytics literature by demonstrating how sentiment analysis can be used along with other statistical procedures to make sense of qualitative social media data.

The purpose of this paper is to examine features of branded entertainment in apparel brands’ Facebook pages based on the conceptual framework of play themes (Zhang, 2010).

A content analysis was performed for 1,443 posts present on 50 apparel brands’ Facebook profile pages in the time period from November 28, 2011 to December 25, 2011.

The findings provide meaningful insights into apparel brands’ use of Facebook as a social media strategy. The most dominant branded entertainment consisted of photos and advertisements and was directed toward promoting specific products and sales without using a particular play theme. Among the play themes used, play as frivolity, which includes simple and fun activities, was predominant. Overall, apparel brands utilized limited types of branded entertainment on their Facebook pages.

By integrating play themes into branded entertainment, apparel brands can optimize their branded contents on Facebook to connect with consumers and increase consumer motivation to interact with the brand. More specifically, apparel brands that adopt additional play themes other than play as frivolity for their branded entertainment will stand out and cut through the clutter of competitors’ Facebook pages.

No previous research investigated apparel brands’ use of Facebook pages. This study fills the void in the literature by addressing how apparel brands utilize types of branded entertainment on their Facebook profile pages.

After decades of successful expansion, The Reader's Digest Association's products were mature. With an average readership age for the flagship Reader's Digest magazine of 50.3 in 2004, efforts to develop new products had so far failed to entice a significant number of younger customers. Following a financial downturn in 1996, positive financial results remained illusive. Several major changes instituted by Thomas O. Ryder, CEO since 1998, including acquisitions, re-capitalization, restructuring and systematic re-engineering of the corporate culture, had proven mildly successful, but RDA, as well as the entire publishing industry, faced a persistent decline in profitability. Could RDA fulfill its stated mission to create “products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures around the world”, and could it do this by continuing to rely on the 80-year old Reader's Digest magazine?