Context management of advertising in a digital environment

Abstract

Content characteristics of advertising messaging have been well-researched in prior marketing literature, particularly in the case of traditional media. However, the effect of advertising context - where, how, and when the message is placed - on consumer response is becoming more important in today's digital media environment. As the rise of digital media has enabled (and required) marketers to respond to external changes more quickly, researchers have been more actively exploring the effect of context in marketing messages on consumer responses. My dissertation aims to deepen understanding of the effectiveness of advertising context management in today's digital environment. In my first essay, I look at the effect of "real-time marketing" (RTM) social media messages - messages that incorporate current moments or events - on consumer engagement, and I explore differences between two varieties of real-time message: planned and improvised. I find that improvised RTM messages generate lower levels consumer engagement in social media, and I explore ways that help such messages to be more engaging. My second essay explores how consumers engagement in branded social media messages is influenced by the devices on which they view those messages (in particular, mobile phones vs. desktop computers). My analyses utilize a combination of datasets collected from different sources including research agencies, consumers, and text analysis.