The Effects of Humor and Non-humor Techniques in Television Commercials

Measuring the effects of humorous and non-humorous techniques on recall of commercials and persuasion to purchase car insurance commercials when placed in humorous and non-humorous television programming are the main objectives of this study. Also, there has been few studies focusing on Geico, Progressive, State Farm, and Allstate car insurance commercials in particular. There is reasonable belief that the combination of humorous and non-humorous techniques and programming environment dynamically impact the recall of specific information in commercials, and they influence persuasion to purchase. However, there is limited scholarly literature on the links between humorous and non-humorous commercials placed in different programming. An experiment was conducted to measure the effects of humorous and non-humorous Geico, Progressive, State Farm, and Allstate commercials on the viewer’s ability to recall information from the commercials and if the commercials persuaded the viewer to purchase. First, the experiment results indicated that the humorous commercials are recalled the most no matter what the programming environment is. Second, the combination of humorous and non-humorous commercials yielded the biggest persuasion effects on viewers to purchase in both humorous and non-humorous programming environments. Finally, the study concluded that just because a humorous commercial is recalled the most, it does not always guarantee a consumer’s decision to purchase the insurance

The effectiveness of the length of commercials in different types of television programs

The effectiveness of television advertising has been most extensively investigated with two variables, moods-generated by television programs and the length of commercials. However, scant attention has been paid to determining these variables together and investigating the interaction between them in influencing advertising effectiveness. This study hypothesized that longer ads would be more effective than their shorter counterparts and that ads placed in a positive mood program would be more effective than those embedded in a negative program. To examine these hypotheses, this study conducted a 2X2 factorial-designed experiment. The data for this study were analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). This study included two independent variables, commercial-length formats (15-second and 30-second) and program-induced moods (positive and negative). The dependent variable was advertising effectiveness measured by brand recall, brand recognition, attitude toward ad (Aad), and purchase intention (PI). Consistent with previous research, the length of commercials was positively associated with advertising effectiveness regardless of moods-generated by television programs. In terms of context-induced mood, however, the findings were not as significant as that of commercial length. The ANOVA analyses found significant mood effects from an individual measure of attitude toward ad where the ad placed in the positive television context was found to be more effective than those in the negative-mood condition. For other variables, the findings were not significant, and they were somewhat contradictory. Similarly, interaction effects were only found in individual ad and brand. However, this study failed to detect significant interaction effects in overall evaluations. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that commercial length effects are more salient in affecting ad performance than effects generated by program context. Nonetheless, considering two significant interactions and several near-significant interactions, more empirical research should follow to gain a better understanding of the effects of context-induced mood and commercial length on television advertising

Brand Response to Consumer Backlash in Social Media: A Typology

The use of social media by consumers to admonish firms for their conduct has become increasingly common. Such backlash can take many forms and often occurs rapidly, spreads widely and is highly visible. The potential damage to brands can be severe if these situations are not dealt with effectively. To date, the issue has been examined relatively superficially in a range of disciplines without specific regard to the management of consumer-brand relationships in online environments. Our research examines the nature of company reactions to social media backlash and conceptualises a typology that categorises reputational damage and effective response. We present four typical reactionary scenarios and conclude that insufficient research exists in this domain proportionate to the level of consumer-brand social media discourse to the peril of practitioners operating via these channel