Viral advertising: viewer’s emotional tone, attitudes and sharing intention

Abstract:

This research applied Lang’s model of limited intermediate information processing ability (2000, 2006, 2009) to test the impact of different emotional reactions to attitudes towards viral video advertising, brand attitude and sharing intention of Vietnamse viewer after watching viral video ads. Experimental Research Design is used to test the relationships between independent variables and dependent variables. Research results show that viral advertising brings a pleasant emotional response that will positively influence viewers’ attitudes toward the brand and their intention to share it with others. On the contrary, with unpleasant emotional reactions (unpleasant), viral advertising will make the viewer’s attitude towards the brand more negative and the intention to share will therefore be very low. For the rest, with viral video ads that bring a neutral feeling (coactive), its impact on viewer attitudes, brands as well as sharing intentions is only average, relatively. The research results will contribute to marketing knowledge studying emotions and attitudinal responses to advertising by conceptualizing emotional tone in a multidimensional perspective that allows for not only positive or negative but also mixed cooperative emotional tone.