Social Media and Employee Productivity at Workplace

This study makes theoretical contributions related to social media usage in the workplace. Participants who showed high work performance used social media to help communicate with their colleagues. People showed high work performance were also the ones escaping from an unsatisfying job for a while and escaping from a demanding job for a while by using social media in the workplace. High frequency of using social media in the workplace resulted in increased work performance.  Keywords: Social media, work performance, and uses and gratifications. JEL Classifications: D83, L25 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.1080

YouTube advertising: Exploring its effectiveness

Advertising on YouTube is becoming increasingly popular due to its large potential in engaging existing and new target audiences via highly interactive video advertisements. However, YouTube is criticised for providing mostly lower value user-generated content. This leads to major concerns among marketers regarding how resources can be allocated most efficiently across channels and how effective YouTube is as an advertising channel. The purpose of this study is to evaluate existing literature exploring the effectiveness of YouTube advertising. This research contributes to academic literature by compiling a set of measures to assess advertising effectiveness and identifying factors affecting it in the context of online video advertising. In order to identify relevant criteria and frameworks for evaluating advertising effectiveness in the context of YouTube video advertising, the characteristics of social media and online video advertising were analysed and the theoretical foundations of online advertising were established

Online video advertising in building brand equity

The objective of this study is to add understanding to the role of online video advertising (voluntarily consumed online video content produced for commercial purposes) in building brand equity (the additional value created by a brand). The focus is on answering the research question: What is the role of online video advertising in building brand equity? As earlier research acknowledges that brand equity can be increased through its dimensions, the present study will also utilize brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty in the examination. The study aims to expand the body of research on the crossroads of modern advertising and branding in the increasingly interactive communication environment. The managerial interest towards the topic arises mainly from the potential to reach consumers in the volunteer content consumption, as online video keeps on growing its share as the dominant content format of the internet. Simultaneously, the ability to build strong brands is recognized as one of the very few ways to build sustainable competitive advantage. The research problem was approached through qualitative multiple-case study of four prominent Finnish brand marketers: Valio, Fazer, Cloetta and Paulig. 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted among the company representatives, media partners and creative partners. The data analysis was executed as an abductive content analysis, guided by a conceptual framework created for the purposes of this study. The study resulted in identification of four versatile and inter-related roles of online video advertising in building brand equity: (1) Channel, as online video advertising can be seen as a tactical choice among other marketing efforts in brand building, however, benefitting from the ability to reach fragmented audiences; (2) Facilitator, as online video advertising can be seen as a strong enabler of more innovative and creative advertising concepts, building stronger activation and experiences to consumers; (3) Challenger, as online video advertising encourages the marketer to re-evaluate the old conventions and brand control; and (4) Participator, as online video advertising creates great potential in making the advertiser a true member of consumer’s everyday life through discussion and continuous content. The overall findings of the study imply that online video advertising has strong perceived potential in increasing brand equity across its dimensions Additionally, crucial barriers of online video advertising’s success were identified: relevance, technical & creative implementation and transparency. The concluding chapter presents a refined framework where the original conceptual framework is enriched with the new empirical findings

Online video consumption practices: Studying Finnish viral video mavens

Online videos are being actively and in increasing amount consumed by modern day consumers, who benefit from an almost unlimited choice of online videos available. Moreover, online videos are not confined by time and place, allowing them to reach geographically dispersed audiences quickly. The fast diffusion of online content occasionally creates shooting stars of online video - viral videos. In viral marketing, like in online video advertising, consumers are harnessed as the distributional force of online content. This means that the diffusion of promotional messages is practically free for marketers. It is no surprise that marketers are eager to benefit from viral opportunities, which has led to an increase in online video advertising spending. If executed successfully, online video advertising can provide marketers with cost savings, better campaign reach, reduced advertising avoidance and earned publicity for the brand. Overall, online video consumption has experienced significant growth in the past years and it is estimated to continue to do so in the future. Previous studies in the fields of viral concepts are mainly quantitative in nature and focus on fine tuning factors that are most likely to create viral success. The purpose of this study is to fill in the gap in previous studies by describing how online videos are actually used by consumers. More specifically, my study focuses on the hard-core users of online videos, termed as viral video mavens. In focusing on viral video mavens, my study provides practitioners and scholars in-depth knowledge about the distributional force of viral marketing. Narratives were collected in eight semi-structured interviews and a realistic approach was taken to interpret the stories. The interviews were analyzed using the theoretical lens of practice theory. This study finds that the use of online videos is a highly routinized activity among Finnish viral video mavens. The main contribution of my study is the identification and description of key online video consumption practices. The findings are organized into four thematic groups, which refer to different ways of using online videos: loitering, learning, social interaction and controlling. Although the themes are overlapping and intertwined, certain practices occured together more often than they did with others. Additionally, my study discusses the underlying understandings, explicit rules and teleoaffective structures that essentially link sayings and doings. These social codifications are important elements as they guide the way practices are carried out. Overall, my findings should provide useful insights for marketers that are interested in promoting products and services through the use of online videos

An exploration of creative managers' perspectives on digital creativity: the impact of viral campaigns on creative processes, appeals and creative teams in UK advertising agencies

This research aims to develop conceptual insight into the practice and impact of a specific digital phenomenon – “viral marketing” – on marketing communications agencies. Specifically, it explores the UK, one of the most important hubs in global advertising looking at agenciesr campaign design planning, the roles of creative teams and the management processes through three research objectives: - To explicate, classify and explore the changes in advertising campaign planning processes and roles which digital phenomena such as virals have introduced - To capture and codify the working models which creative managers employ and the messaging strategies considered and implemented in viral campaigns - To develop theoretical models for understanding virals, agency campaign management, creative roles and develop extant frameworks Prior Work: Research into virals has grown rapidly over the last ten years but it is dominated by computing studies of online diffusion. The creative perspective has received little attention. Those studies which do address this viewpoint are principally focussed on the final advert. The voice of the producers of such campaigns – creative managers – is largely absent from the literature with a single study of campaign measurement. The roles of core teams/functions within the agencies, the criteria for viral creative concept evaluation, the campaign processes and working models are experiencing unprecedented change. Viral campaigns offer a bridge between the “old” and “new” worlds; it possesses the characteristics of TV and the Web. It is important because such viral campaigns have challenged the established models of advertising management and planning. Methods: The study undertakes the first comprehensive evaluation of the exisiting research into viral marketing, locating gaps in the creative design and management. Qualitative methodology through semi-structured in-depth interviews with creative managers in a range of UK advertising agencies is used to represent their views and responses to viral phenomena as they conceived, designed and reflected on campaigns. Contribution to Knowledge: This is the first study of the pre-launch/pre-production phase of campaign development. It has clarified a plethora of terms, in so doing developing the SPEED framework to understand the biological metaphor underpinning the phenomena, and finally producing a more accurate and comprehensive definition of the phenomenon. The paradigm funnel evaluation of prior research has tested and extended formal tools to arrive at a state of the art. The current research primarily consists of studies utilising secondary datasets, mainly quantitative – this study explores questions not just of what but of why, producing deeper insight than available before. Theoretical contributions: In the final model of viral creative management and design is an overarching conceptual contribution which for the first time represents creative roles, agency management and creative considerations at both pre and post-launch campaign phases. The thesis also develops theoretical constructs in specific areas – definition from practitioners, construct of campaign zones in viral design, a model of critical factors which facilitate virals, comparative theory of conventional and viral campaigns, characteristics of viral agencies, model of digital brand/agency relationships, a role construct for digital creatives among the main theoretical developments. These led into the final theoretical model