| Abstract | In the era of the great development of digital technology, the scope, vision, paradigm, and research methods of advertising disciplines have undergone great changes. Based on the knowledge picture of three international advertising journals, the Journal of Advertising Research, the International Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Advertising, this paper summarizes the fields and focuses of international advertising research in the past decade, from green advertising, game advertising, advertising effects, Gender stereotypes, endorsement advertising, computational advertising and other directions generally present important achievements of international advertising research.
| Keywords | International Advertising; Knowledge Graph; Journal of Advertising Studies; Journal of Advertising; Journal of International Advertising; Research Hotspots
| The middle figure classifier | G206; F713.8
| Document identification code | A
In the past decade, the iteration of Internet technology and the emergence of new formats have forced the advertising industry to transform. With the diversified development of social media, long and short videos, and e-commerce, Internet advertising continues to explore business boundaries, and the media industry and consumer behavior are gradually changing in the infiltration of new technologies. From 2015 to 2019, the scale of China's Internet advertising increased from 218.5 billion yuan to 646.4 billion yuan, and it is expected that the market size will exceed the trillion yuan mark in 2022, and 5G, AI, big data and other technologies will accelerate the production of high-quality advertising content and the accurate delivery of advertising,[1] And the Future Internet advertising market will still maintain great potential. So, with the transformation and compound growth of the advertising industry, what changes have taken place in the hot spots of international advertising research in the past decade? Are the mainstream areas and research hotspots of international advertising research different from those in China? What kind of enlightenment can international advertising research give to the development of domestic advertising market and academic research? These are the main concerns of this article.
01
Research samples and research methods
The Journal of Advertising Research, the International Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Advertising are the only three advertising specials in the core compilation of Web of Science (WOS). WOS core journal evaluation is strict, there are higher requirements for journal publication quality and influence standards, its quality standards include: editorial committee composition, peer review, content relevance, author distribution, etc. 24 items, influence standards involve comparative citation analysis, author citation analysis, editorial board citation analysis, content importance 4 items, so WOS journals in professional research has disciplinary representativeness and typicality. The three advertising journals are slightly different in the positioning of the journal: the Advertising Journal is committed to advertising effect, advertising ethics, global advertising, research methods, and multi-dimensional advertising research such as economy, politics, society, and the environment; the International Advertising Journal involves advertising media, direct sales, promotion, sponsorship, public relations, integrated marketing and other fields; the Advertising Research Journal advocates multi-angle and interdisciplinary advertising science research, the journal implements a peer blind review system, and the review members come from all over the world. Therefore, the journal's results also have both international perspective and regional research characteristics. This study is based on 1453 articles (January 2011 to December 2020) in three academic journals in the past ten years, and the distribution of literature quantity and impact factor are shown in Table 1.
This paper uses CiteSpace software to form a visual knowledge graph, and through co-occurrence clustering and other methods, the relevance and popularity of the research content are derived by the number and frequency of citations in the literature; the current topic hotspots and research results of international advertising are presented by keyword cluster analysis, the academic topics and research trends brought about by industry changes are analyzed, and the focus areas and research areas of current international advertising are reflected.
02
Research Focus: Leading topics in highly cited literature
The number and frequency of citations of literature can reflect the contribution of the literature in the research field, highly cited papers are regarded as important indicators to measure the academic influence, academic reputation and degree of contribution of the literature, and the author of the literature is regarded as the core scholar in the research field. Table 2 shows the top 5 most cited literature in the last decade.
Judging from the top 5 literature with the highest citation volume, innovative research on traditional academic hotspots in the field of social media is the main feature of highly cited literature, and topics such as word-of-mouth communication, brand interaction, and celebrity endorsements on social media have a high degree of attention. For example, in the study on the influencing factors of consumer participation in word-of-mouth communication on social media, Shu-ChuanChu et al. (2011) put forward factors such as contact intensity, homogeneity, trust, normative influence, and information influence, and divided the whole process of word-of-mouth communication into three processes: seeking opinions, publishing opinions, and disseminating opinions; [2] The way consumers participate in brand-related activities in social media can be manifested as consumption, contribution, and creation. Muntinga Daniel et al. (2011) proposed consumers' motivations for participating in brand activities: information, identity, social, entertainment, empowerment, compensation;[3] In a study of social media advertising attitudes conducted under the framework of motivation theory, Taylor et al. (2011) proposed a social media advertising attitude impact framework in four dimensions: advertising content (information degree, entertainment degree), structure (quality of life, time structure), social factors (self-consistency, peer influence), Barriers (perceived aggression, privacy concerns);[4] The celebrity effect also has a strong communication effect due to the spread of social media, but celebrity types can be divided into prosocial and antisocial categories. Celebrity followers have an intermediary impact on the credibility of the source (attractiveness, trustworthiness, ability), consumer impact (product participation, purchase intent, communication intention), and tweet information valence, reflecting the influence of celebrity types on purchase intentions and consumer social recognition. [5] The highly cited literature also reflects that innovative research using data sources for analysis is one of the reasons for the high frequency of citations, such as studies based on the quality of data from five data sources, including student samples (lab\online questionnaire), Amazon crowdsourced platform MTurk, online professional research platform Qualtrics and Lightspeed data, etc., compared with multiple data sources, and concluded that the data collected by the crowdsourced platform is of higher quality,[6] This has certain guiding significance for the data collection of subsequent advertising research.
03
Focus area: Keyword cluster analysis
Citespace's keyword co-occurrence feature demonstrates the affinity between keywords, and the different intensities between each keyword node contribute to different keyword clusters, helping to identify and detect representative subgroups of knowledge in the research field. Based on the literature of the three major journals, Citespace keywords have formed seven keyword clustering modules, revealing the fields, topics and categories of international advertising, "green advertising", "online game advertising", "calculating advertising", "advertising effect", "gender stereotypes", "celebrity endorsements", "advertising research", etc. are the results of keyword co-occurrence analysis, because the "advertising research" cluster coincides with the topic of this article and the boundary is too vague, so it is not included in the analysis category of this article.
3.1
Green Advertising: Design, Advocacy and Effectiveness
"Green" advertising is a highly researched area. The green advertising research in the past decade has mainly focused on four directions: green advertising design, green advertising advocacy, green advertising effect, and green advertising (misleading green advertising).
Green advertising design involves product packaging, content design and other links. Product packaging presents a trend in the use of environmental information, such as "recyclable" is the most commonly used environmental information in canned products, oats, beverages and food, "biodegradable" ranks first in cleaning products; content design pays more attention to how to promote the persuasiveness of content, of which the accuracy and psychological distance of content design are two priorities. [7] Adding precise expressions to green advertising content can promote the credibility of advertising,[8] such as changing "this product is biodegradable" to "this product and each part of its packaging will be completely biodegradable within five years", further increasing data-based information to persuade low-sensitivity consumers. [9] Information that is farther away from abstraction and time will bring better advertising effects to people with environmental perception, of which abstract information is expressed as the reason for protecting the environment, figurative information is expressed as a specific practice of protecting the environment, and time distance is expressed as the distance of time variables in the slogan, such as "Make tomorrow's world better" and "Make the world a better place in ten years". [10]
Green advertising advocacy is the core of advertising demands, and environmental advocacy can be divided into three levels according to the degree of effort required (low: recycling; medium: recycling, degradable; strong: energy saving, recycling, and degradable) [11]. For different types of appeals, in terms of emotional types, fear and fear can evoke and enhance consumers' determination to protect the environment[12]; when the advertising background is closely related to consumers, guilt appeals have a good persuasion effect on low-sensitivity consumers [13]. When using the ethnographic method to study green advertising in magazine advertising, green advertising can be divided into three categories: macro (public welfare), meso (promotion of enterprises), and micro (for consumer environmental concerns) [14]. Carlson divides green advertising claims into substantiveclaims and associateclaims, arguing that substantive claims include product-oriented and process-oriented, emphasizing the actual efforts of enterprises to assume environmental responsibilities; relevance claims are divided into image-oriented and environmental fact-oriented, emphasizing that the public has a positive green image outside of products and processes. Teona (2020) further found that consumers prefer to use substantive claims rather than relevance claims in promotional videos. [15]
Quantitative research is still the mainstream research method to measure the effectiveness of green advertising, mostly used to study consumers' reactions to different advertising propositions and advertising designs, and some interesting findings have been made. For example, the more concerned consumers are about environmental issues, the more they have doubts about green claims, and this doubt does not stop at the authenticity of green advertising, but also raises doubts about the price of green products on the list [16]. Not only does consumers' environmental concern and brand familiarity have an impact on the effectiveness of green advertising[17], but also the cultural background of different countries will also have an impact on consumers' green behavior[18]. Interprofessional research is a characteristic innovation of effects research. Combined with psychophysiology, Myriam studied the effect of different types of green information on stimulating consumer emotions through facial muscle monitoring, electrocardiogram, and skin conductivity indicators, and found that positive accessible information (PGM) can best encourage consumers to participate in environmental protection actions [19]; based on environmental psychology, natural images in non-green advertising stimulate consumers' autobiographical memory (autobiographicalmemory), allowing consumers to "suddenly jump out" of the natural scenery they have seen. Thus promoting brand attitudes [20].
The awakening of public environmental awareness is also accompanied by the emergence of corporate "greening" behavior. Enterprises use green elements, carbon emissions, and energy consumption information to mislead consumers in advertising design, resulting in a wrong brand image. [21] The main "drift green" advertising claims fall into two categories: deceptive and fuzzy. For example, if an oil company claims that gasoline is lead-free and pollution-free is a deceptive green claim; if a product advertises itself as an "all-natural" product, an ill-defined green claim is a vague green claim. Blurred green claims do not affect consumer perceptions of "bleaching", while deceptive green claims deepen "bleaching" perceptions, thereby dampening consumer attitudes towards green advertising and brands. How to let consumers learn to recognize "drifting green" ads in their purchases? Some studies have studied textual and visual elements of consumers, and found that it can effectively help consumers learn to judge "bleaching" information, find deceptive components in it, and change consumers' attitudes towards brands. [23]
3.2
Game Ads: Ad Placement and Player Experience
The multi-dimensional characteristics of games have a significant impact on the effectiveness of game advertising. Different game content brings different brand associations, such as racing games bring positive "speed" associations, and combat games bring negative "violent" associations. [24] Embedding ads in violent games can help brand memory, but players are more likely to have a negative impact on brand attitudes. [25] Increasing the difficulty of the game changes the player experience and affects the effectiveness of the game's implant advertising, the game winner will have a higher brand rating of the game and the implanted advertisement, and after experiencing the "flow" experience, the failure result will not have a negative impact. [26] From the perspective of game design, viral marketing has also tried to spread in the form of social games, calling player skills in game design, allowing players to gain identity when sharing games, and motivating players to invite friends to participate than setting up reward mechanisms. [27] There is no doubt that games are increasingly becoming an effective means of communication for advertising, with brands participating in the design of in-game ads to promote products, thereby driving more exposure and interaction with consumers in the game.
Ads implanted in games have always attracted the attention of researchers. The consistency of games and implanted products is very important, such as the consistency of game positioning and product positioning, which can maximize the memory of the brand, thereby producing a positive brand attitude;[28] The significance of advertising implantation is reflected in multiple dimensions such as brand identity size, screen center, and frequency of occurrence, which can improve the visibility of advertising and effectively enhance the player's implicit memory of the brand in the state of flow. [29] Privacy concerns about implanted ads directly affect the gaming experience, with low-trust brands more likely to cause negative gaming reactions than high-trust brands. [30] The emerging virtual direct experience (VDE) approach to game implantation is particularly striking, allowing players to experience products in the virtual context of the game, which can deepen brand memory and have a positive impact on purchase intentions. [31] The player's own traits also affect the effectiveness of advertising placement in the game. Although gamers cannot explicitly remember the implanted advertisements and say specific advertising products, the subconscious mind is impressed by the advertising products. [32] Players' familiarity with implanted brands is also reflected in advertising effects, with unfamiliar new brands attracting more perceptual attention and familiar brands having a relatively high interference effect on implicit memory. [33] Combined with research in the field of human brain science, it was found that the different ways in which information is processed in the player's left and right brains help explain the player's memory of game ads. When the text information appears in the right visual area and the picture information appears in the left visual area, the brain can be promoted to process the information more quickly, and people are more likely to have a positive attitude towards the information; when the brand name appears in the right visual area of the game, the brand image appears in the left visual area, which can effectively improve brand recognition. [34]
[35] Game advertising has a greater impact on children than television advertising, and simple advertising games designed for marketing products significantly increase "children's purchasing power", i.e. children have a tendency to make purchases from their parents. Judging from the food-related advertisements inserted in children's games, the advertising content is mostly foods with high calories and low nutritional value. [36] Studies have designed game advertising interventions and found that educational games that cultivate advertising literacy can play a role, and children who have played five minutes of educational games are more able to recognize the advertising characteristics of games and show a stronger critical attitude than children who have not played them. [37]
The theoretical models commonly used in the field of game research mainly include: (1) the persuasion knowledge model (PKM), which believes that consumers become familiar with marketing intentions and marketing strategies over time, so as to develop the ability to treat advertising with a skeptical and rational attitude; (2) social cognition theory, which believes that human behavior is affected by three factors of mutual causality, personal factors, behavior, and external environment, which can be applied to explain the brand bias established by children in games ;(3) Incentive intermediary message processing limited capacity model (LC4MP), where individuals' ability to process information is limited, and memory is weakened if stimulus is oversaturated; (4) game experience flow theory, which holds that people engage in a certain activity and enter an immersive state, while digital games easily put players into this highly concentrated flow state. [38]
3.3
Advertising Effectiveness: Social Media and New Forms of Advertising
In the era of social media, user-generated content (UGC) has broken the original monopoly pattern of content production and become an important way to improve the richness of disseminated content. UGC is more effective at customer acquisition than traditional media content, which is more important for customer retention, and the two have a synergistic effect on customer retention. [39] Both content sponsorship and content type combine to influence consumer perceptions of UGC: when content is gratuitous, product experience content is more likely to attract consumers than promotional content, and when content is sponsored, promotional content is more effective than experiential content. [40] Self-generated brand content generated by platform users will reduce consumer persuasion knowledge arousal, that is, make it difficult for consumers to identify the persuasive components, thereby reducing negative emotions about the content, and consumers' purchase intentions will be higher than those after watching brand feed ads or brand official posts. [41] There are also many factors in social interaction that affect advertising effectiveness, such as user message valence, that is, whether user reviews are positive or not, which can positively affect consumers' willingness to spread word of mouth than the two variables of star rating and review practicality; multi-screen use, such as updating social media while watching TV programs, such social interaction will amplify the brand effect in TV programs, TV program related posts can improve the popularity of programs and advertisements, and viewers will find and participate in corresponding topics. Sponsoring brands will also get more free social exposure. [42]
The study of the effectiveness of various new forms of advertising has become a research trend. First, the study of micro-film advertising, many brands in order to promote the micro-film to promote the brand image, the content narrative (drama) and fact (teaching) elements in micro-film advertising quality, personal nostalgia elements have a positive impact on advertising attitudes [43]. The second is the patch ads in online video ads, which require consumers to watch a short mandatory advertisement before providing an option to choose to skip. Different patch advertising characteristics will have an impact on user cognition, irritation and skip behavior, such as advertising length, insertion position, advertising context consistency, the longer the advertising time, the more can improve brand recognition, the intermediate interstitial is more able to obtain attention than the before and after interstitial, and the low relevance of interstitial content and video is poor[44]; with the popularity of interactive network television (IPTV) and mobile TV, the pre-patch advertisement of IPTV is more credible than the two channels of patch advertising. [45] It produces better ad recall. The third is the new interactive advertising, characterized by more vivid and personalized, the survey of interactive magazine advertising found that although consumers rarely use interactive functions, interactivity will still make consumers have a positive attitude towards the magazine [46]; compared with the impact of 2D static and 3D interactive advertising, 3D interactive advertising is easier to establish brand attitudes [47]; compared with the influence relationship between actual interaction and user perception interaction, it is found that adding interactive functions to the website does not necessarily guarantee a stronger interaction perception;[48]. A focus on the privacy of interactive advertising has found that the self-disclosure behavior of consumers with low privacy sensitivity in participating in interactive advertising campaigns can have a positive attitude towards brands. [49]
Consumer psychology has always been the center of advertising effectiveness research. When the advertisement is designed with self-reference hints, that is, the visual presentation of the limbs, consumers are prone to a psychological simulation state due to the psychological structure of self-reference, and they have already experienced it in their minds, and this hint can improve the purchase intention. [50] Consumer self-construction also has an impact on participating in online brand recognition behaviors (such as liking), which refers to people defining themselves in terms of relationships with external objects, and such people tend to participate more actively in online brand recognition behaviors. [51] Media multitasking is the new normal for consumer media use, and scholars are concerned about the impact of this media use on consumer psychology. For example, the impact of cognitive engagement on media multitasking levels and its subsequent impact on advertising memory[52], the impact of consumer visual attention on media multitasking and brand recognition [53], and the impact of task relevance of multitasking on brand memory [54]. The study found that while media multitasking weakens brand memory in most cases, there are also special cases, such as when consumers' cognitive engagement is high or the correlation between multiple tasks is high, consumer brand memory will improve.
3.4
Gender Stereotypes: Strategies and Problems
Gender stereotyped research incorporates more angles and directions. Some scholars analyze the decision-making process of creativity, social and cultural requirements, gender coding of audiences of different cultures, etc. from the interviews of creatives, and propose that gender stereotypes are more conducive to advertising communication, believing that this stereotyped concept is based on facts, more attractive to the audience, can accelerate the dissemination, and simplify the process of consumer information processing. [55] However, this stereotype does not apply when it reinforces the negative perception of advertising. [56] Creatives believe that women are susceptible to gender presentation in advertising, while men are immune to this. [57]
Gender stereotypes in advertising works are diverse. Traditional male stereotypes are more prevalent in humorous advertising, while traditional female stereotypes are more prevalent in non-humorous advertising. Gender stereotypes manifested in different cultural contexts. There are different gender stereotypes on German public television channels and private tv channels, the women in the channel are usually shown as product users, young, family and dependence and other role characteristics, men are usually shown as powerful, older, independent and other role characteristics;[59] Brazilian magazine advertising hinders the development of women's sense of independence, in which female characters are not representative of Brazilian women, of which non-white, obese, women over 40 years old are underrepresented, resulting in female stereotypes. Marginalized diverse female figures. [60] Gender studies of Super Bowl television ads over the past 20 years have also seen a shift in gender culture, with the image of men and women in Post-Millennium Super Bowl ads beginning to change, shifting from traditional patriarchy to more egalitarian narratives. [61] Overall, women's roles in advertising are moving towards more positive portrayals, while men's roles are softening. [62] Femvertising sells products by promoting female power and female empowerment, and women's high-empowerment advertising contains 5 key themes: obvious femininity, self-improvement, girls' hardships, on-set actors, and facing up to problems; low-empowerment advertising has 4 themes: low feminine traits, breaking stereotypes, men and women can engage in the same activities, and let men join. [63] The analysis of post-feminist discourse on feminist advertising points out that there are six discursive elements in this form of advertising: commodity feminist discourse, personalization, self-examination, new perspective on feminism, self-confidence, and love for one's own body. [64]
From the perspective of consumer impact and advertising effectiveness, gender stereotypes have a negative impact on women and young consumers, but do not affect male or older consumers,[65] and female stereotypes are more likely to have a negative impact than male stereotypes. The study of the third gender has also become an area of concern for gender studies. For example, for homosexuals, the impact of advertising on gay consumers is proposed from the dimensions of images, consumer characteristics, cultural values, clarity of images, and gender of spokespersons.[67] [69] Consumers with a higher tolerance for gay advertising tend to win over equalist consumers, some of whom have a positive impact on their novelty and partly because of cognitive resistance.
3.5
Endorsement Advertising: Trait Transfer and Influencer Research
With the increasing popularity of celebrity endorsements, the field of research on the effect of celebrity endorsements has been expanding. The effect of celebrity endorsement is affected by a variety of factors, specifically in the credibility, attractiveness, professional knowledge, celebrity brand fit, celebrity motivation, celebrity trait transfer, warmth, negative news, etc., of which celebrity credibility depends on factors such as perceived suitability, altruistic motivation, celebrity image [70], and the attractiveness, trustworthiness, and professional knowledge perception of celebrities can improve consumer brand attitudes [71]. Celebrity Trait Transfer (CTT) in endorsement ads is a focus that enhances familiarity with existing feature associations within a brand, but is unlikely to alter or create brand feature associations,[72] and the role of celebrity trait transfer increases ad effectiveness as consumers' brand experience and celebrity preferences increase,[73] explaining why CEO and founder endorsements are a rapidly evolving brand strategy. Further research found that ads with founders as endorsers were effective for new products, while ads by CEOs as endorsers were more effective for existing products. [74] According to the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), celebrity impressions can be analyzed from two dimensions: warmth and perceived intent, including friendliness, sincerity, helpfulness, trustworthiness, and morality; and ability dimensions are related to perception, including intelligence, skill, creativity, and efficiency. The warmth of the brand spokesperson will have an impact on consumers, and consumers will feel a stronger psychological connection between the brand and the self, bringing a more favorable brand attitude. [75]
The latest trend in celebrity endorsement research is influencer research on social networks. Influencers are more grounded than traditional celebrity endorsements, more able to make consumers feel similarity, trust and wishfulidentification, and consumers also hope to become such people as influencers, thus bringing more effective endorsement effects. [76] The perception of popularity caused by the number of followers of an influencer increases the perceived opinion leadership of the influencer. [77] Influencer-brand fit has a positive impact on both influencer image and advertising effectiveness. [78] Compared with celebrity brand associations generated by traditional endorsements or product displays, real celebrity images in social media can lead to more natural associations and more powerful brand effects. [79]
3.6
Computational Advertising: Principles and New Technologies
Computing advertising applications include not only traditional media, but also a variety of websites, search engines, social media, e-commerce websites, and mobile applications, all of which can serve as ad data collection points and aggregators. Computing advertising platforms include demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), and data management platforms (DMP). DSPs allow advertisers to auction up ad inventory in real time; SSPs create and deliver ad inventory for sale to advertisers and interact effectively with ad exchanges to automatically optimize ad inventory performance; DMP uses machine learning algorithms to collect, process, and analyze market segmentation data from a variety of sources, such as demographics, geography, media consumption, preferences, and audience shopping data. [100] The creation and delivery of computational advertisements is primarily done by implementing an auction (RTB) algorithm. [81] AI technology drives the emergence of new advertising technologies, opening a new chapter in the evolution of advertising through consumer insights, assessing consumer emotional tendencies, creating advertising content, predicting advertising content performance, media planning and purchasing.
For calculating ad content generation, the Automatic Brand Content Generation Model (ABC) states that content generation is an iterative process with some automation, in which both consumer and brand data promote content optimization. Users act as creators, meta-authors, and content propagators, and are active contributors to generating and sharing advertising content. [100] Trust calculation in social media is an important part of advertising practice, and the Social Media Trust Score Algorithm (TSM) measures the level of trust of individual users in social networks. TSM introduces two dimensions of trust and trustworthiness measurement, and adjusts the trust score according to the degree of participation in trust decisions of different networks. [100] The privacy risks posed by computing advertising have attracted more attention, and the collection of personal data may be considered an invasion of customer privacy, cause discomfort to consumers, and may increase the feeling of being monitored. In turn, how consumers feel about personalized messages can affect the validity of those recommendations. [86]
The future research agenda for computing advertising may include: calculating the trade-offs between advertising transparency, consumer advertising education, algorithmic interpretability and effectiveness, new consumers as data laborers, data commoditization, algorithmic fairness and privacy protection trade-offs, calculating legal and regulatory imbalances among participants in the advertising ecosystem, and trade-offs between technological innovation and consumer protection. [87]
04
Conclusion: Comparison of domestic research on recent foreign advertising research hotspots
Compared with foreign research hotspots and research trends, the domestic research in the past decade is similar and different.
At present, in the field of domestic green advertising research, we have begun to integrate green advertising and computational advertising research to introduce consumers' green preferences into behavioral targeted advertising, thereby improving the revenue expectations of green marketing strategies. This type of research is mainly based on empirical research, which explores the influence of variables such as the degree of information figuration in green advertising, the green attention of consumers, the two-sidedness of green information, and the type of advertising emotion on advertising attitudes. Although foreign green advertising research is also based on empirical research, most of the ethnographic or text analysis methods are used in green advertising appeal research or diachronic green advertising research, which is less concerned by domestic green advertising research.
In the past decade, mobile games and terminal tours have been very popular in China. Domestic game advertising scenarios are more diverse, including page pop-up advertising, prop advertising, scene implant advertising, reward advertising (watching advertising content can obtain resources), etc., compared with foreign game advertising research, domestic research focuses on the advertising effect brought by game characteristics and implantation characteristics, but the research on domestic game advertising is mostly based on introductory or delivery strategy research, and foreign children's game directions are less involved.
The research on advertising on social network platforms is relatively concentrated in China. Early research has focused on the consumer participation behavior behind the spread of the virus and the hidden dangers of the network security order it brings; recent studies have analyzed the impact of consumer social media participation on advertising attitudes from the psychological level, such as the impact of strong relationships in social network platforms, the impact of weak relationships on consumption willingness, and the impact of users' use of social networks on advertising attitudes. Native advertising has also attracted intensive attention from the academic community. Foreign research pays more attention to the impact of UGC multi-dimensional characteristics on social platforms on advertising effects, as well as the promotion effect of social platforms on brands in multi-screen scenarios.
In recent years, domestic research has begun to pay attention to the breakthrough and change of gender image, and explore the effect of this anti-stereotype advertisement. However, compared with foreign countries, there are fewer studies on the effect of stereotypes and anti-stereotypes in China, and there is less attention paid to LGBTQ people. In the field of celebrity endorsement research, China pays more attention to the characteristics of celebrities themselves, endorsement (fan economy) in new social media scenarios, celebrity endorsement effects, etc. In recent years, the novel endorsement model of virtual idols and the form of KOL "carrying goods" on social media platforms have also become research hotspots.
The rapid development of computing advertising has triggered a research boom in the academic community, and the popularity has continued to rise. There are many expressions about computational advertising in China, such as behavioral targeted advertising, precision advertising, personalized recommendation, intelligent advertising, digital marketing, big data advertising, etc. The first is more concerned about the specific scenarios of computing advertising, such as cross-platform advertising marketing, multi-platform data fusion, and sub-channel advertising under multi-consumption scenarios; the second is more concerned about the specific technologies used in computing advertising, such as the characteristics of personalized recommendations, RTB advertising, etc.; the third is more concerned about the changes in the advertising industry, information protection, privacy issues, and advertising career changes brought about by the development of computing advertising. Foreign research tends to study the use of a variety of specific algorithms in the recommended advertising scenario, and the introduction and innovation of these detailed specific algorithms are less involved in domestic computational advertising research.
Overall, the prosperity of the Internet industry has provided a rich research scenario for advertising research, while promoting the richness of domestic and international research. But it is also because of the continuous innovation of the Internet, the rapid iteration of the advertising industry is still continuing, and the new advertising scene will spur the academic community to continue to expand in new research fields.
(Author Information: Hongxing Han, Professor and Ph.D., School of Journalism and Communication, South China University of Technology; Yana Wu, 2020 Master's Student, School of Journalism and Communication, South China University of Technology)
References & Annotations
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【17】Barbara A. Bickart and Julie A. Ruth, “Green Eco-seals and Advertising Persuasion”, Journal of Advertising, 41.4(2012), 51–67.
【18】Elizabeth Minton and others, “Sustainable Marketing and Social Media: A Cross-Country Analysis of Motives for Sustainable Behaviors”, Journal of Advertising, 41.4(2012), 69–84.
【19】Myriam Martinez-Fiestas and others, “A Psychophysiological Approach For Measuring Response to Messaging How Consumers Emotionally Process Green Advertising”, Journal of Advertising Research, 55.2(2015), 192–205.
【20】Patrick Hartmann, Vanessa Apaolaza, and Martin Eisend, “Nature Imagery in Non-Green Advertising: The Effects of Emotion, Autobiographical Memory, and Consumer’s Green Traits”, Journal of Advertising, 45.4(2016), 427–440.
【21】Beatrice Parguel, Florence Benoit-Moreau, and Cristel Antonia Russell, “Can Evoking Nature in Advertising Mislead Consumers? The Power of ‘Executional Greenwashing’”, International Journal of Advertising, 34.1(2015), 107–134.
【22】Desiree Schmuck, Joerg Matthes, and Brigitte Naderer, “Misleading Consumers with Green Advertising? An Affect-Reason-Involvement Account of Greenwashing Effects in Environmental Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 47.2(2018), 127–145.
【23】Juliana Fernandes, Sigal Segev, and Joy K. Leopold, “When Consumers Learn to Spot Deception in Advertising: Testing a Literacy Intervention to Combat Greenwashing”, International Journal of Advertising, 39.7(2020), 1115–1149.
【24】Martin K. J. Waiguny, Michelle R. Nelson, and Bernhard Marko, “How Advergame Content Influences Explicit and Implicit Brand Attitudes: When Violence Spills Over”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 155–169.
【25】Eui Jun Jeong, Corey J. Bohil, and Frank A. Biocca, “Brand Logo Placements in Violent Games: Effects of Violence Cues on Memory and Attitude Through Arousal and Presence”, Journal of Advertising, 40.3(2011), 59–72.
【26】Celina Steffen, Gunnar Mau, and Hanna Schramm-Klein, “Who Is the Loser When I Lose the Game? Does Losing an Advergame Have a Negative Impact on the Perception of the Brand?”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 183–195.
【27】Damien Renard and Denis Darpy, “What Makes Online Promotional Games Go Viral? Comparing the Impact of Player Skills versus Incentive Rewards on Game Recommendation”, Journal of Advertising Research, 57.2(2017), 173–181.
【28】【29】 Iris Vermeir and others, “Impact of Flow on Recognition of and Attitudes towards In-Game Brand Placements Brand Congruence and Placement Prominence as Moderators”, International Journal of Advertising, 33.4(2014), 785–810.
【30】Verena M. Wottrich, Peeter W. J. Verlegh, and Edith G. Smit, “The Role of Customization, Brand Trust, and Privacy Concerns in Advergaming”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.1(2017), 60–81.
【31】Ali Besharat and others, “Leveraging Virtual Attribute Experience in Video Games to Improve Brand Recall and Learning”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 170–182.
【32】Minsun Yeu and others, “Are Banner Advertisements in Online Games Effective?”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 241–250.
【33】Yung Kyun Choi, Sung Mi Lee, and Hairong Li, “Audio and Visual Distractions and Implicit Brand Memory: A Study of Video Game Players”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 219–227.
【34】Gunwoo Yoon and Patrick T. Vargas, “Seeing Without Looking: The Effects of Hemispheric Functioning on Memory for Brands in Computer Games”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 131–141.
【35】Evy Neyens, Tim Smits, and Emma Boyland, “Transferring Game Attitudes to the Brand: Persuasion from Age 6 to 14”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.5(2017), 724–742.
【36】Soontae An and Hannah Kang, “Advertising or Games? Advergames on the Internet Gaming Sites Targeting Children”, International Journal of Advertising, 33.3(2014), 509–532.
【37】Soontae An, Hyun Seung Jin, and Eun Hae Park, “Children’s Advertising Literacy for Advergames: Perception of the Game as Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 43.1(2014), 63–72.
【38】Ralf Terlutter and Michael L. Capella, “The Gamification of Advertising: Analysis and Research Directions of In-Game Advertising, Advergames, and Advertising in Social Network Games”, Journal of Advertising, 42.2–3(2013), 95–112.
【39】Ya You and Amit M. Joshi, “The Impact of User-Generated Content and Traditional Media on Customer Acquisition and Retention”, Journal of Advertising, 49.3(2020), 213–233.
【40】Mikyoung Kim and Doori Song, “When Brand-Related UGC Induces Effectiveness on Social Media: The Role of Content Sponsorship and Content Type”, International Journal of Advertising, 37.1(2018), 105–124.
【41】Mira Mayrhofer and others, “User Generated Content Presenting Brands on Social Media Increases Young Adults’ Purchase Intention”, International Journal of Advertising, 39.1(2020), 166–186.
【42】Judit Nagy and Anjali Midha, “The Value of Earned Audiences: How Social Interactions Amplify TV Impact What Programmers and Advertisers Can Gain from Earned Social Impressions”, Journal of Advertising Research, 54.4(2014), 448–453.
【43】Darrel D. Muehling and Vincent J. Pascal, “An Empirical Investigation of the Differential Effects of Personal, Historical, and Nonnostalgic Advertising on Consumer Responses”, Journal of Advertising, 40.2(2011), 107–122.
【44】Hao Li and Hui-Yi Lo, “Do You Recognize Its Brand? The Effectiveness of Online In-Stream Video Advertisements”, Journal of Advertising, 44.3(2015), 208–218.
【45】Yoonjae Nam, Hyung-Seok Lee, and Jong Woo Jun, “The Influence of Pre-Roll Advertising VOD via IPTV and Mobile TV on Consumers in Korea”, International Journal of Advertising, 38.6(2019), 867–885.
【46】Fabienne Rauwers, Hilde A. M. Voorveld, and Peter C. Neijens, “Investigating the Persuasive Impact and Underlying Processes of Interactive Magazine Ads in a Real-Life Setting”, International Journal of Advertising, 37.5(2018), 806–827.
【47】Ki-Young Lee, Hairong Li, and Steven M. Edwards, “The Effect of 3-D Product Visualisation on the Strength of Brand Attitude”, International Journal of Advertising, 31.2(2012), 377–396.
【48】Hilde A. M. Voorveld, Peter C. Neijens, and Edith G. Smit, “The Relation between Actual and Perceived Interactivity: What Makes the Web Sites of Top Global Brands Truly Interactive?”, Journal of Advertising, 40.2(2011), 77–92.
【49】Guda van Noort, Marjolijn L. Antheunis, and Peeter W. J. Verlegh, “Enhancing the Effects of Social Network Site Marketing Campaigns If You Want Consumers to like You, Ask Them about Themselves”, International Journal of Advertising, 33.2(2014), 235–252.
【50】Mark Yi-Cheon Yim, Young K. Kim, and JeongGyu Lee, “How to Easily Facilitate Consumers’ Mental Simulation through Advertising: The Effectiveness of Self-Referencing Image Dynamics on Purchase Intention”, International Journal of Advertising, 40.5(2021), 810- 834.
【51】Stefan F. Bernritter and others, “‘We’ Are More Likely to Endorse than ‘I’: The Effects of Self-Construal and Brand Symbolism on Consumers’ Online Brand Endorsements”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.1(2017), 107–120.
【52】Hyejin Bang and Karen King, “The Effect of Media Multitasking on Ad Memory: The Moderating Role of Program-Induced Engagement and Brand Familiarity”, International Journal of Advertising, 1(2020):1-30.
【53】Ivan A. Guitart, Guillaume Hervet, and Diogo Hildebrand, “Using Eye-Tracking to Understand the Impact of Multitasking on Memory for Banner Ads: The Role of Attention to the Ad”, International Journal of Advertising, 38.1(2019), 154–170.
【54】Robert Angell and others, “Don’t Distract Me When I’m Media Multitasking:Toward a Theory for Raising Advertising Recall and Recognition”, Journal of Advertising, 45.2(2016), 198–210.
【55】Yun Shao, Fabrice Desmarais, and C. Kay Weaver, “Chinese Advertising Practitioners’ Conceptualisation of Gender Representation”, International Journal of Advertising, 33.2(2014), 329–350.
【56】Kasey Windels, “Stereotypical or Just Typical: How Do US Practitioners View the Role and Function of Gender Stereotypes in Advertisements?”, International Journal of Advertising, 35.5(2016), 864–887.
【57】Linda Tuncay Zayer and Catherine A. Coleman, “Advertising Professionals’ Perceptions of the Impact of Gender Portrayals on Men and Women: A Question of Ethics?”, Journal of Advertising, 44.3(2015), 1–12.
【58】Martin Eisend, Julia Plagemann, and Julia Sollwedel, “Gender Roles and Humor in Advertising: The Occurrence of Stereotyping in Humorous and Nonhumorous Advertising and Its Consequences for Advertising Effectiveness”, Journal of Advertising, 43.3 (2014), 256–273.
【59】Silke Knoll, Martin Eisend, and Josefine Steinhagen, “Gender Roles in Advertising Measuring and Comparing Gender Stereotyping on Public and Private TV Channels in Germany”, International Journal of Advertising, 30.5(2011), 867-888.
【60】Luciana Messias Shinoda, Tania Veludo-de-Oliveira, and Ines Pereira, “Beyond Gender Stereotypes: The Missing Women in Print Advertising”, International Journal of Advertising,40.4(2021), 629-656.
【61】Leonidas Hatzithomas, Christina Boutsouki, and Paschalina Ziamou, “A Longitudinal Analysis of the Changing Roles of Gender in Advertising: A Content Analysis of Super Bowl Commercials”, International Journal of Advertising, 35.5(2016), 888–906.
【62】Stacy Landreth Grau and Yorgos C. Zotos, “Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Review of Current Research”, International Journal of Advertising, 35.5(2016), 761–770.
【63】Sara Champlin and others, “How Brand-Cause Fit Shapes Real World Advertising Messages: A Qualitative Exploration of Femvertising?”, International Journal of Advertising, 38.8(2019), 1240–1263.
【64】Kasey Windels and others, “Selling Feminism: How Female Empowerment Campaigns Employ Postfeminist Discourses”, Journal of Advertising, 49.1(2020), 18–33.
【65】Bruce A. Huhmann and Yam B. Limbu, “Influence of Gender Stereotypes on Advertising Offensiveness and Attitude toward Advertising in General”, International Journal of Advertising, 35.5(2016), 846–863.
【66】Sarah De Meulenaer and others, “How Consumers’ Values Influence Responses to Male and Female Gender Role Stereotyping in Advertising”, International Journal of Advertising, 37.6(2018), 893–913.
【67】Martin Eisend and Erik Hermann, “Consumer Responses to Homosexual Imagery in Advertising: A Meta-Analysis”, Journal of Advertising, 48.4(2019), 380–400.
【68】Stacey M. Baxter, Alicia Kulczynski, and Jasmina Ilicic, “Ads Aimed at Dads: Exploring Consumers’ Reactions towards Advertising That Conforms and Challenges Traditional Gender Role Ideologies”, International Journal of Advertising, 35.6(2016), 970–982.
【69】Kyounghee Chu, Doo-Hee Lee, and Ji Yoon Kim, “The Effect of Non-Stereotypical Gender Role Advertising on Consumer Evaluation”, International Journal of Advertising, 35.1(2016), 106–134.
【70】Maria del Mar Garcia de los Salmones, Rafael Dominguez, and Angel Herrero, “Communication Using Celebrities in the Non-Profit Sector Determinants of Its Effectiveness”, International Journal of Advertising, 32.1(2013), 101–119.
【71】Stephen W. Wang and Angeline Close Scheinbaum, “Enhancing Brand Credibility Via Celebrity Endorsement Trustworthiness Trumps Attractiveness and Expertise”, Journal of Advertising Research, 58.1(2018), 16–32.
【72】Lars Bergkvist, “Celebrity Trait Transference: When Brands Pick up Endorsers’ Personality Traits”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.5(2017), 663–681.
【73】Johannes Knoll and others, “How Long Does Celebrity Meaning Transfer Last? Delayed Effects and the Moderating Roles of Brand Experience, Celebrity Liking, and Age”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.4(2017), 588–612.
【74】Arpita Agnihotri and Saurabh Bhattacharya, “The Relative Effectiveness Of Endorsers The Identity Badge of CEOs and Founders Versus the Attractiveness of Celebrities”, Journal of Advertising Research, 59.3(2019), 357–369.
【75】Hongxia Zhang, Xiaoying Zheng, and Xuan Zhang, “Warmth Effect in Advertising: The Effect of Male Endorsers’ Warmth on Brand Attitude”, International Journal of Advertising, 39.8(2020), 1228-1251.
【76】Alexander P. Schouten, Loes Janssen, and Maegan Verspaget, “Celebrity vs. Influencer Endorsements in Advertising: The Role of Identification, Credibility, and Product-Endorser Fit”, International Journal of Advertising, 39.2(2020), 258–281.
【77】Marijke De Veirman, Veroline Cauberghe, and Liselot Hudders, “Marketing through Instagram Influencers: The Impact of Number of Followers and Product Divergence on Brand Attitude”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.5(2017), 798–828.
【78】Priska Linda Breves and others, “The Perceived Fit between Instagram Influencers and the Endorsed Brand How Influencer-Brand Fit Affects Source Credibility and Persuasive Effectiveness”, Journal of Advertising Research, 59.4(2019), 440–454.
【79】Cristel Antonia Russell and Dina Rasolofoarison, “Uncovering the Power of Natural Endorsements: A Comparison with CelebrityEndorsed Advertising and Product Placements”, International Journal of Advertising, 36.5(2017), 761–778.
【80】【81】 V. Kumar and Shaphali Gupta, “Conceptualizing the Evolution and Future of Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 45.3(2016), 302– 317.
【82】Xuebing Qin and Zhibin Jiang, “The Impact of AI on the Advertising Process: The Chinese Experience”, Journal of Advertising, 48.4(2019), 338–346.
【83】Guda van Noort and others, “Introducing a Model of Automated Brand-Generated Content in an Era of Computational Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 49.4(2020), 411–427
【84】Yuping Liu-Thompkins and others, “Creating, Metavoicing, and Propagating: A Road Map for Understanding User Roles in Computational Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 49.4(2020), 394–410.
【85】Atanu Roy and others, “Development of Trust Scores in Social Media (TSM) Algorithm and Application to Advertising Practice and Research”, Journal of Advertising, 46.2(2017), 269–282.
【86】Joseph T. Yun and others, “Challenges and Future Directions of Computational Advertising Measurement Systems”, Journal of Advertising, 49.4(2020), 446–458.
【87】Natali Helberger and others, “Macro and Exogenous Factors in Computational Advertising: Key Issues and New Research Directions”, Journal of Advertising, 49.4(2020), 377–393.