More Is Not Better: An Inverted U-Shaped Relationship Between Advertising Creative Strategies and Consumer Review Valence

Abstract

Since many companies choose to publish digital video advertisements with creative features on the Internet to promote new products. This study aims to examine the impact of the number of creative strategies (NCS) in adverting messages on consumer review valence and explore whether this impact varies by new product type (incrementally new products vs. really new products). Based on the method of content analysis and empirical analysis on 564 digital video advertisements published by six world-renowned electronic product brands from 2018 to 2019 on YouTube, this study draws three main conclusions: (1) whether new products belong to incremental new products (INPs) or really new products (RNPs), there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between NCS and consumer review valence; (2) the inflection point of NCS (INP) is greater than the inflection point of NCS (RNP) and (3) the maximum value of consumer response for INP is greater than that for RNP. This study not only provides a new theoretical perspective for NCS, but also contributes valuable guiding principles for designing the effective advertising creative strategies for new products.