Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the effect of personalization of advertising and adding an advertising cue to advertisements on Facebook, on 9-to-13-year-old children’s awareness of selling intent, attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) and word-of-mouth (WOM) intention.Design/methodology/approachA 2 (personalized ad vs non-personalized ad) × 2 (advertising cue vs no advertising cue) between-subjects design was tested among 167 Belgian children aged 9-13 by means of an in-class online experiment.FindingsPersonalization combined with an advertising cue increases the awareness of selling intent but influences neither Aad nor WOM intention. Awareness of selling intent does not affect WOM intention. Personalization does not increase Aad. Aad has a positive effect on WOM intention.Research limitations/implicationsImplementing a clear advertising cue enhances children’s awareness of selling intent of personalized advertising but does not affect behavioral intention. Public policy, the advertising community and the educational system should take these insights into account when developing regulations, ethical advertisements and educational packages to improve children’s understanding and responses to contemporary advertising formats.Originality/valueThe study is the first one to investigate the joint effect of advertising personalization and an advertising cue on awareness of selling intent and on evaluative and behavioral responses of children. Additionally, the role of Aad and awareness of selling intent for the development of WOM intention is explored.
Highlights
Advertising aimed at children has been a subject of debate among advertising practitioners, scholars, parents and policy-makers for decades
Apart from focusing on evaluative responses such as the attitude towards the advertisement (Aad), in the current study, we focus on awareness of selling intent and word-of-mouth (WOM) intention as outcome variables of personalized and cued advertising
The mediating role of awareness of selling intent and the attitude towards the advertisement In H2, we argued that in the presence of a cue, personalized advertising leads to less WOM-intention than non-personalized advertising
Summary
Advertising aimed at children has been a subject of debate among advertising practitioners, scholars, parents and policy-makers for decades. The focus of this debate has shifted from traditional advertising to online advertising formats, especially on social networking sites (SNSs) (Daems et al, 2017; Hudders et al, 2017). SNSs are very popular among children and teenagers (Ofcom, 2017). In the UK, for example, 23 per cent of the children between 8 and 11 years of age and 74 per cent of teenagers between 12 and 15 years of age have a Facebook profile (Ofcom, 2017). In Flanders (Belgium), the context of the current study, 27 per cent of the children between 10 and 12 years old and 65 per cent of the children in the first two years of secondary school (12-14 years old) are active on Facebook (Apestaartjaren, 2018)
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