Plot Extension in Advertising: Behind Parodies and Sequels

Abstract

Two laboratory experiments examine consumer responses to ad plot extension strategies – sequels and parodies – on brands’ existing positions in competitive markets. The authors show how alternative message forms (argument versus drama) and response strategies of the attacked brand (retaliation versus no retaliation) influence effectiveness of plot extensions. The ad strategies are evaluated with comparative and simple self-promotional advertisements. Results indicate that sequels boost the sponsored brand with better overall brand recall than comparative and self-promotional advertisements, and both sequel and parodic ads induce higher preference scores than self-promotional advertisements. A significant contribution of this research is the finding that unlike comparative advertisements, sequels are more effective with drama-based messages. The authors also demonstrate that like comparative advertisements and unlike sequels, parodic ads deteriorate the preference for the attacked brand, hence the effectiveness of sequels may be more sustainable than parodic or comparative advertisements.