Using Nostalgic Design in Facebook

Advertising: When is it Effective?

Spring Undergraduate Research Festival April 9th, 2014

Presenter and Research Assistants: Yuefeng Pan, David Lam-Lu Author: Kim Young Kyu, Jing Wang, Catherine A. Cole

2

IntroductionNostalgia: “sentimental longing for one’s past”Nostalgia Marketing: “Invoking misty water-

colored memories of the past to woo consumers into buying products in the present.” (Elliott 2012).

3

ExampleAbercrombie Throwback Graphic Tees, Reminds you anything of those old days?

4

BackgroundMain Effect of Nostalgia:

Previous research shows that ads featuring nostalgic design elements induce higher brand name/message recall, ad preference and involvement than those without the nostalgic elements (Mueling & Pascal 2012; Muehling & Sprott 2004).

In addition, ads with nostalgic design elements are likely to be discussed with others and eventually increase retention of the ad message (Unger, McConocha, & Faier 1991).

Our contribution: the matching hypothesis (an interaction effect)

5

The Matching Hypothesis: People who feel nostalgic are more likely to share advertising information and form a more favorable attitude toward the advertised product.

For people who do not feel nostalgic, whether the advertising evokes nostalgia or not will not affect their advertising sharing behavior or their attitude toward the advertised product.

Summary of Procedures Sample: 123 undergraduate students from Univ. of Iowa and University of British

Columbia Female: 42.5%, Age: 17 – 35 (Avg. 20.1)

Mindset (Control vs. Nostalgia)- Writing assignment about either; 1) Typical day or 2) Happy holiday family event

Ad Type (Control vs. Nostalgia)- Copy and color of images manipulated

DV1) Engagement DV2) Attitude towards the ads DV3) Attitude towards the product

Demographics Questions

7

Design of ExperimentDesign:

2 Mindset (Nostalgic vs Control) X 2 Ad Orientation (Nostalgic vs Control) between-Ss

160 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions.

They evaluated either a nostalgic version of an online bike ad (with the slogan: Remember when you learned to ride a bike?) or a control version (with the slogan: Do you own a steel framed bike?).

8

ProcedureAll research assistants received IRB certifications.Each participant arrived at the lab and randomly

selected a computer to work on the study.Participants received verbal instructions.Participants then began the questionnaires. They were

asked to evaluate an advertisement and express their honest opinion.

Research assistants walked around and answered questions.

Participants signed out at the end of the experiment.

9

Mindset Manipulations: Nostalgic Condition

Advertising Writing Study Imagine you are interning under a creative director at

an advertising agency. The goal of your creative team is to make a commercial, which targets college students just like you, for your client’s new product that comes out this holiday season. Your boss, the creative director, wants to know about ordinary college students’ daily life. Obviously, since you are the only college student in your team, this will be your first assignment at the agency. Please describe a happy holiday family event that occurred for you sometime in the past in as much details as possible. You will have three minutes to complete this on the next screen.

10

Mindset Manipulations: Control Condition

Advertising Writing StudyImagine you are interning under a creative director

at an advertising agency. The goal of your creative team is to make a commercial, which targets college students just like you, for your client’s new product that comes out this holiday season. Your boss, the creative director, wants to know about ordinary college students’ daily life. Obviously, since you are the only college student in your team, this will be your first assignment at the agency. Please describe your typical day at college in as much details as possible. You will have three minutes to complete this on the next screen.

11

Nostalgia Ad

12

Control Ad

13

Dependent VariableHow likely would you 'Share’ the AD on Facebook?

Very Unlikely Neutral Very Likely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

What’s your attitude toward the Ad?

Hate Neutral Favor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

What’s your attitude toward the product?

Hate Neutral Favor1 2 3 4 5 6 7

14

Study 1 Graphic Results

Control Nostalgic 0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

1.45 1.05

1.591.87

Sharing Intentions

Control AdNostalgic Ad

Mindset

Shar

ing

Inte

ntio

ns

15

Study 2 Graphic Results

Control Mindset1 2

0

1

2

1.9556

1.17241.5362

1.8214

Engagement(Like+Share+Comment)

Control Ad Nostalgic Ad

Nostalgia MindsetControl Mindset

16

1 20

1

2

3

4

3.5

2.62372.4744

3.2989

Attitudes toward Ad

Control Ad Nostalgic Ad

Control Mindset Nostalgia Mindset

17

1 20

1

2

3

4

5

4.2258

3.41943.0238

4.2069

Attitudes toward product

Control Ad Nostalgic Ad

Nostalgia MindsetControl Mindset

18

Results For Study 1The mindset x ad orientation interaction was

significant for intentions to share with Facebook friends (F (1, 84) = 4.40, p = .039) but contrary to the hypothesis, the interaction was not significant for attitudes towards the bike.

The sharing interaction occurs because nostalgic mindset consumers are more likely to share a nostalgic ad with Facebook friends than a non-nostalgic ad (M = 1.87 vs. 1.05; t (42) = 2.39, p = .02)

Non-nostalgic mindset consumers did not show such difference (M = 1.45 vs. 1.59; t (42) = .50, p = .62).

19

Future ResearchWhy did the matching effect occur for sharing

intentions but not for product attitude? In other words, why would participants in the matching condition be more willing to share the ad even though they did not like the ad / product more than others?

One possibility: the ad has interesting, unique, or newsworthy features that prompted sharing intentions

Another possibility: the mere fact of sharing helps establish a favorable image of participants as the information disseminator