1 How Relationships with Consumer Ad Creators Develop and Affect Viewer Response Colin Campbell Simon Fraser University Vancouver, Canada

2 A Definition of CGA “any publicly disseminated, consumer generated advertising messages whose subject is a collectively recognized brand” - Berthon et al. (2008, p. 3) Refers to videos consumers create, about brands or products, and share

3 CGA vs. Traditional Ads Traditional AdsCGA Creator Firm, ad agency Unknown, consumer Purpose Persuade, inform, remind Unclear Distribution Television, movies, internet Internet, viral Style Carefully honed, consistent Varies

4 Growth in Consumer Generated Advertising

5 Research on CGA Hints of advertiser benefit (Freeman and Chapman, 2007a, 2007b) Demonstrated ingenuity, skill, and determination of consumers in constructing CGA (Muniz and Schau, 2007) Consumer creativity has been discussed, yet solely within the realm of consumption experiences (Burroughs and Mick, 2004; Dahl and Moreau, 2007; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Holbrook, et al., 1984; Moreau and Dahl, 2005)

6 Larger goal is to look at how consumer-brand relationships are important to both creation and consumption of consumer generated ads First steps: examining motivations of creators as well as response of consumers This paper proposes a new theory of why consumers might respond differently to consumer generated ads

7 Overview Goal is a framework for response to CGA How do viewer perceptions of an advertisement’s creator affect viewer responses? Propose a new theoretical approach to conceptualizing endorsement (Friedman and Friedman, 1979; McCracken, 1989) Draw on social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979, 1986)

8 Research on Endorsers Source credibility (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 1999; Sternthal, Dholakia and Leavitt, 1978; Sternthal, Phillips and Dholakia, 1978) Source attractiveness (Chaiken, 1979; Kahle and Homer, 1985) Source-product “fit” (Friedman and Friedman, 1979; Kamins and Gupta, 1994; Kamins, 1990; Till and Busler, 2000) Current approach limiting (McCracken, 1989)

9 Traditional Ads EndorserEndorser Product or Brand BrandAdAdConsumerConsumerCompany(Sponsor)Company(Sponsor)CreatorCreator

10 Proposed Approach EndorserEndorser Product or Brand BrandAdAdConsumerConsumerCompany(Sponsor)Company(Sponsor) CreatorCreator

11 Creator as Endorser Hints in existing literature that endorser- consumer fit is what matters (McCracken, 1989) Celebrity as referent (Kamins and Gupta, 1994) Expertise vs. trustworthiness in credibility (Sternthal, Dholakia and Leavitt, 1978) Applying existing framework to CGA might not work and could miss a crucial characteristic of CGA: that it’s made by other consumers

12 Proposed Model Consumer-Consumer Perceived Similarity Consumer-Consumer Attraction Consumer-Group Identification Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Perceived Creator Motivations Perceived Group Prestige

13 Similarity Leads to Attraction Theories (e.g. Fiske, 2004; Heider, 1958; Rushton, 1989) link similarity and attraction Supported by findings for both perceived and actual similarity (Cronbach, 1955) 1. Viewers will be more attracted to advertisement creators that viewers deem similar 2. Perceived motivations of creator will moderate this perceived-creator similarity and attraction

14 Proposed Model Consumer-Consumer Perceived Similarity Consumer-Consumer Attraction Consumer-Group Identification Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Perceived Creator Motivations Perceived Group Prestige

15 Social Identity Theory Primarily from Tajfel and Turner (1986) Individuals have social identity rooted in their membership in social groups Role of social categories, social groups, social identity, self-categorization, self-enhancement Importance of ranking, hyperbolized similarity and differences, negative groups, self-esteem Contrast with internalization

16 Attraction Leads to Identification 3. The more a viewer considers an ad creator’s perceived social group’s identity to match their own, the greater the attraction, and hence the greater the identification with the social group. 4. The more prestigiously an ad creator’s perceived social group is perceived by others, the greater the attraction, and hence the greater the identification with the social group.

17 Proposed Model Consumer-Consumer Perceived Similarity Consumer-Consumer Attraction Consumer-Group Identification Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Perceived Creator Motivations Perceived Group Prestige

18 Identification and Influence Kelman (1961, p. 63) describes social influence: “when an individual adopts behavior derived from another person or a group because this behavior is associated with a satisfying self-defining relationship to this person or group.” Act publicly and privately in line with group’s expectations - purely to retain membership Links suggested (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Dutton et al., 1994; Curras-Perez et al., 2009)

19 Identification and Influence 5. The more a viewer identifies with an ad creator’s perceived social group, the more likely the viewer is to engage in activities that demonstrate and support this identification, either privately or publicly (e.g. forward link to ad, comment on ad, rate ad, book ad). 6. The more a viewer identifies with an ad creator’s perceived social group, the higher the perception of the advertisement and the brand.

20 Proposed Model Consumer-Consumer Perceived Similarity Consumer-Consumer Attraction Consumer-Group Identification Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Group influence in the form of: 1. Public support 2. Ad rating Perceived Creator Motivations Perceived Group Prestige

21 Conclusion Proposed a new approach to understanding endorsement so as to help explain consumer response to CGA Currently testing parts of the theory Future research in looking at negative ads, the effect of ensuing consumer discussions, ads with multiple brands, and more ambiguous videos.