The Internet and how consumers make use of it is constantly changing. The Internet has evolved from an information retrieval source to a place of interactivity, and a place for dialogue from one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many. Many term the Internet today “Web 2.0.” As one of many social platforms of Web 2.0, the use of video as a means of online communication is gaining increasing popularity among Internet users. Video publishing is no longer accessible solely to trained and skilled videographers; assisted by the development of inexpensive and user-friendly media software, consumers are now creating their own content. The accessibility of video publishing, combined with the network effects of video-driven social media platforms such as YouTube, is changing the advertising landscape. This paper discusses Consumer Generated Advertising (CGA), where consumers create brand messages independent of the brands themselves in order to persuade, inform or remind fellow consumers. Because of the anonymity, visibility and interactivity of online CGA, consumer dialogues and market conversations are difficult to interpret through traditional advertising research methods (surveys, ratings services, etc). However, there may be an opportunity for brand managers to capitalize on Web 2.0 to gain valuable insight into the ways consumers interact with their brands. In this exploratory study, we make use of the content analysis software Leximancer to make sense of and measure consumer feedback around conversations on CGA. We study consumer comments posted on You Tube in response to three video advertisements in order to draw meaningful trends and insights from the large volume of seemingly disorganized consumer discussion.
Godkänd; 2015; 20150116 (andbra)