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Abstract
With the rapid development of e-commerce and social media in China, user-generated short video ads through social media have become very popular. However, the unique elements and phenomena for user-generated short video ads through mobile platforms have not yet been investigated. Therefore, a theoretical framework is proposed to explain the effect of user-generated social media short video ads on product sales from the perspective of advertisement sociability and vividness attributes, especially considering the moderation effect of advertisement content generators, including influencers, sellers and buyers. An empirical study using data from the Douyin platform and the Taobao e-commerce platform was conducted using dynamic panel models. The results indicate that the number of comments as one of the advertisement sociability attributes and female vividness and music vividness as two of the advertisement vividness attributes have consistently positive effects on product sales. The moderating effects of the influencer and the seller are positive for the effect of sociability on product sales, whereas the moderating effect of the buyer is positive for the effect of vividness on product sales. Thus, the best strategy to promote products through user-generated short video ads on mobile short video sharing platforms is for buyers to publish short video ads with music and a female or both a male and a female together; moreover, having a large number of comments increases product sales.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights. The research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant [number 71831005], [number 71402039], and [number 71771063].
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
Jiaoju Ge
Dr. Jiaoju Ge is an Associate Professor of Business Administration in School of Economics and Management at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), China. She received her BS in Economics from Sichuan University in China and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in USA. Her primary research interest is marketing research with the interface of big data, finance and policy. Her published articles appear in Applied Economics, Agribusiness, China Agricultural Economic Review and Water Policy among others.
Yuepeng Sui
Yuepeng Sui is a PhD candidate of marketing in School of Management at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China. His primary research interests include social media marketing and scene marketing.
Xiaofeng Zhou
Xiaofeng Zhou is a master student of Business Administration in School of Economics and Management at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), China. Her research interests include the domain of marketing and advertising.
Guoxin Li
Dr. Guoxin Li is a professor of marketing in School of Management at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China. She also serves as director of the Research Center for Intelligence Marketing in HIT. Her research interests include social media marketing, location-based services, and innovation management. Her published articles appear in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Information & Management, and Computers in Human Behavior among others.