Evaluating the Effectiveness of Viral Advertising Using Experimental Design

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Prof., Dep. of Business Management, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

2 Ph.D. Student in Business Management, Kharazmi University, , Iran

Abstract

In recent years, viral advertising has received ample
attention from marketers and practitioners due to significant expansion
of internet. This research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of viral
advertising. We applied experiment strategy to conduct the study.
Students of Mazandaran University constituted the population. Totally
386 students were selected using cluster sampling. The selected
sample was equally divided into experiment and control groups. Some
viral and some non-viral ads for unfamiliar brands were selected.
Viral ads were shown to the experiment group and non-viral ads were
shown to the control group. Data was collected through a
questionnaire. Reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using
Cronbach's alpha. Data was analyzed using SPSS. The results indicate
that viral ads significantly lead to more favorable ad attitude, brand
attitude, purchase intention and forwarding intention than non-viral
ads.

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Main Subjects