Sponsored content in paid, owned and earned media
A study on the effect of different sources on word-of-mouth intentions
Graduate school of Communication
Joyce Engels – 10968571
Master thesis Persuasive Communication Supervisor: Stefan Bernritter
Master’s programme Communication Science University of Amsterdam
January 29th 2016 Word count: 7649
Abstract
More and more brands use sponsored content instead of traditional advertising. Various aspects of sponsored content have been examined, but there is no research yet on sponsored content in blogs in combination with the effects of different sources. This paper divides these sources into paid, owned and earned media (POEM). It was examined whether POEM would result in different word-of-mouth intentions of the consumers and also how this was mediated by persuasion knowledge. This was investigated by means of an online experiment with 294 participants. This experiment showed a sponsored blog to four groups of participants, one group saw sponsored content by earned media, others by owned media, paid media and the last group of participants was the control group. After the participants studied the descriptive text about the source and looked carefully at the blog they filled in a survey. The results showed that no direct effect of POEM on WOM intentions was found. However, a mediation effect of persuasion knowledge was found, out of which could be concluded that paid media resulted in the highest activated persuasion knowledge, resulting in the lowest WOM
intentions, followed by owned media and at last earned media with the least activation of persuasion knowledge and therefore the highest WOM intentions. Earned media differed significantly from the control group and paid and owned sponsored content. Therefore it is suggested for brands to use sponsored content by earned media when they want to generate WOM intentions.
Introduction
Since consumers are getting known with traditional advertising and they know how these advertisements work, brands need to think of new ways to reach their audience. One of these new ways is using sponsored content. Sponsored content is a promotional message that is made to look like editorial content written by an unbiased source (Boerman & Willemsen, 2015). This ranges from very subtle sponsored content such as a product or brand placement (van Reijmersdal, 2011), to more prominent sponsored content in which the whole message is created by the brand. Sponsored content has many different forms, and this study will focus on sponsored blogs. Blogs have increased in popularity and are useful media to use for sponsored content. This study has three aims: first, to see the effects of sponsored blogs on WOM intentions, second to gain insight into the differences in effect of POEM on WOM intentions, third to measure the effect of sponsored content by POEM on WOM intentions via persuasion knowledge.
Sponsored content is a broad concept and previous research has already covered several aspects of this phenomenon, such as sponsored content versus traditional advertising (van Reijmersdal, 2011) and the effects of disclosures on sponsored content (Boerman, van Reijmersdal & Neijens, 2014).However, a number of questions regarding sponsored content remain unanswered, resulting in some gaps in the literature.
One of these gaps in literature is the effect that different sources can have on the effectiveness of sponsored content. Sponsored content can be used on different platforms, by different sources. This study divides these sources into paid, owned and earned media
(POEM). A paid medium promotes a product or brand that an advertiser is willing to pay for (Burcher, 2012). This means that the sponsored content is displayed on a platform of the paid medium. Sponsored content in owned media is placed in any assets of the brand (Burcher, 2012). Earned media are brand or product-related consumer actions and conversations
(Burcher, 2012). These media differ on various aspects and are therefore also expected to differ in levels of activated persuasion knowledge, which could influence other consumers’ reactions such as WOM intentions. To our knowledge, there is no previous research that compares POEM with each other with regard to sponsored content. It is important to cover this gap in the literature in order to bring the research of sponsored content and different media together.
Another unanswered question includes the effect sponsored content can have on word-of-mouth plus how this can be influenced by POEM. WOM always used to be face-to-face communication, but with the uprise of social media consumers cannot only reach their close friends anymore, but practically everyone with access to the internet. This makes it even more important for brands to try and influence WOM. It is nowadays very easy for consumers to share their opinion about a brand online and to share messages that they like or think are important, such as blogs. Only few studies have previously examined the effects of sponsored content on WOM intentions, and no study so far has focused on sponsored blogs. These aspects make it very interesting and important to explore the combination of these concepts.
Previous studies have already focused on sponsored content on other social media such as Facebook (Boerman & Willemsen, 2015) and Twitter (Boerman & Kruikemeier, 2015) but to our knowledge not yet on blogs. Blogs differ from other social media on diverse aspects. One of these aspects is that sponsored content in blogs is a pretty new phenomenon and is expected to be less familiar than sponsored Facebook posts or tweets. In that way it is likely that sponsored blogs will activate less persuasion knowledge than sponsored tweets or Facebook posts might have. Consumers also use blogs for different reasons than other social networking sites such as Facebook. Blogs are used more for background information and how-to stories, while social networking sites are used more to read updates and news (Kim, Sin & Tsai, 2014). This is probably because blogs often provide more elaborate information
in comparison to other social media which only post short messages. In this way, blogs are expected to be more useful for consumers regarding product information. Since blogs differ from previous researched social media, it is of importance to also examine sponsored content in blogs.
This study wants to cover these previously mentioned gaps in literature and provide more insight into how previous research about sponsored content, word-of-mouth and different sources fit together. This resulted in the next research question:
RQ: To what extend does sponsored content of paid, owned and earned media differ in their effect on the word-of-mouth intentions of consumers?; how does persuasion knowledge mediate this effect?
By examining these concepts, this paper will not only provide several contributions for this field of research but it also provides practical implications. One of these implications is that when brands know what source of sponsored content will increase the consumers’ WOM intentions this will lead to a bigger reach of the message and it could also increase the
purchase intention of the consumers, which in turn can result in higher profit for the brands (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). In addition, since brands are getting increasingly active on the internet and social media, it is also important to see what the effects are of sponsored content online, and especially on blogs. This study will give brands and marketers more insight into how to use sponsored blogs and how the use of different sources (POEM) can result in different word-of-mouth intentions.
Theoretical background
Sponsored content
Sponsored content is a form of masked marketing. Masked marketing is defined as marketing communications that do not appear to be marketing communications (Petty &
Andrews, 2008). When using sponsored content, brands can alter their messages to make it seem like it belongs to the editorial content. One way of doing this is with a product
placement which is the purposeful incorporation of brands into editorial content (Karrh, 1998). The first and most famous product placement is the use of Reese’s pieces in the film ET (Mental Floss, 2008). Another way of incorporating brands into editorial is by forming a whole story around the brand such as with a product review. With these tactics the audience will most likely be deceived, and will think that the message is from another source instead of the brand. Since consumers are nowadays exposed to so many advertisements and
commercials they become skeptical of all marketing efforts. However, it was found that consumers are not skeptical towards product information they received from other sources (Darke & Ritchie, 2007). This is a large part of the motivation for brands to use sponsored content and also why it is interesting to examine the effects that POEM can have on the effectiveness of sponsored content.
Sponsored blogs. As mentioned before, this study focuses on sponsored blogs. Blog is short for web log, and is often used as online diary and guide of the web (Thevenot, 2007). There are several advantages for brands to use sponsored blogs. First, blogs are getting more and more popular. Just the platform of Tumblr alone contained 260.5 million blogs in October 2015 (Statista, 2015). Second, consumers are getting more product information from online product reviews (Li & Zhan, 2011), which can often be found in blogs. This means that blogs are a large influence on consumers’ opinions and decisions. This shows that blogs are an important medium and it is likely that more and more brands will start to use blogs to show sponsored content in the future.
Paid, owned and earned media
Brands can create and display sponsored content in numerous ways. As mentioned before, this study will make a distinction in the media type the sponsored content is placed in
on the level of paid, owned and earned media (POEM). It is expected that these different media will provoke different reactions from consumers towards the sponsored content because of their different characteristics.
Paid media. Many brands use paid media to advertise their brand. An example of paid sponsored content is the product placement of Sony Vaio hardware by James Bond in the film Skyfall and also the beer brand Heineken was a paid product placement in this film (The Guardian, 2012). Paid media is the source that is researched most. For example by Cowley and Barron (2008), who examined the effect of prominence of product placements on brand attitude. Another example is the study of van Reijmersdal (2011), which examined the difference in effect of radio commercials and brand placements on credibility and brand recall. Overall it was found that paid sponsored content had better results than paid traditional advertising.
Some motivations to use paid media are that the brand has complete control over the ad and they are able to aim at the right target group (Eisend & Küster, 2011). These
advantages also apply to paid sponsored content, and that is probably why the use of paid media is most common for sponsored content. There are also disadvantages of paid media, such as the skepticism of the audience and the low credibility it causes (Eisend & Küster, 2011). These disadvantages are expected to be less for owned and earned media. That makes it interesting to compare paid media to its components owned and earned media.
Owned media. Sponsored content in owned media means that it is displayed in an asset of the brand (Burcher, 2012), such as the recipes on the site of the cooking brand Koopmans, where Koopmans products are used such as flower and Koopmans Apple pie (Koopmans, 2015). Owned media is also called brand journalism. Brand journalism gives the brand the chance to reach out to the customer with tailored editorial content while they are also promoting their brand and products (Cole & Greer, 2013). An example of a medium
owned by a brand is a customer magazine (Van Reijmersdal, Neijens & Smit, 2010). Customer magazines, as well as other owned media, have the struggle to find the perfect balance between advertising and editorial content. A good solution for this is sponsored content since it is not as deliberate as advertisements but it can still promote the brand. Thus when brands use sponsored content on their owned media they can keep their level of
commerciality low by showing editorial content, but they can also promote their products by integrating them into the content.
Brands should be careful when using owned media since it can also backfire. It was found that high commerciality of customer magazines results negatively on the credibility of the magazine and it increased the perceived persuasive intent (Van Reijmersdal, Neijens & Smit, 2010). This in turn resulted in a lower attitude towards the magazine. These findings were supported by Cole and Greer (2013) who found that non-branded magazines rated higher in credibility than the branded magazines. Thus when owned media keep their commerciality low, they are expected to have a higher credibility. These findings showed again that a difference in source can result in different outcomes such as credibility and attitude towards the source and message.
Earned media. Brands are not the only sources that promote products. This also occurs in earned media, which are brand or product-related consumer actions and
conversations (Burcher, 2012), such as a social media post about a new product or brand just because the consumer likes that brand. In other studies, earned media is also referred to as consumer generated content. Digitalization and social media have made it very easy for consumers to become journalists, without having an education in that field, and share consumer generated content. Consumers can now create blogs, YouTube-videos and other social media posts to broadcast their own opinion. In these articles and videos consumers might discuss products or brands, which can look the same as sponsored content. Consumers
create this user generated content because of ego-defensive and social functional sources (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright, 2008). Ego-defensive sources refer to the consumer wanting to minimize self-doubt and to feel part of a community. The social functional sources refer to connecting with friends and feeling important (Daugherty et al., 2008). This shows that earned sponsored content is written for very different reasons than owned or paid sponsored content which main reason is to promote the brand.
It is clear that POEM differ on various aspects, such as on the motivations for writing the content, the perceived commerciality of the message and the level of skepticism from the audience. Because of these differences, it is also expected that POEM cause differences in the effectiveness of sponsored content, such as word-of-mouth intentions of the consumers.
Word-of-mouth
Word-of-mouth (WOM) is person-to-person communication between a receiver and a communicator whom the receiver perceives as non-commercial, concerning a brand, a
product, or a service (Arndt, 1967). Creating WOM has various advantages for brands. First, WOM increases reach, since consumers spread the message to their friends and family. Second, friends and family are not perceived to have commercial or persuasive intentions, therefore their messages are trusted the most (Nielsen, 2012). And third, word-of-mouth is a primary source of information which influences purchase intentions (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). These advantages are a big motivation for brands to create word-of-mouth.
When wanting to create WOM it is important to know when consumers are willing to forward the message. This has been researched by various studies which found diverse results. Ho and Dempsey (2010) found that consumers have several reasons to forward a message: the need to be part of a group, the need to be individualistic, the need to be altruistic and the need for personal growth. Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh and Gremler (2004) found some additional motivations for consumers to generate EWOM. Social benefits, care for others,
economic motives and self enhancement were the major motivations for consumers to use EWOM. It can be concluded that the major reason for consumers to forward a message and generate (E)WOM is for social reasons. Message characteristics enjoyment and entertainment are most influential for consumers to forward emails. It seems that blogs are a media that also fulfils these requirements of creating WOM, since they are mostly joyful and entertaining. The message also needed to be important or something that the receiver would like. An additional factor of influence was that the consumers needed to be in the right ‘mood’ to forward the message (Phelps et al., 2004).
As discussed before, paid, owned and earned media differ from each other which can evoke different reactions with consumers. Earned media probably feels most sincere for consumers, since they are not paid to write the content. It is suggested that consumers are more likely to forward a message by a sincere source than a commercial source. The
consumers probably do not want to be associated with the commercial associations of the paid and owned media. Since owned media need to be aware that they are not perceived to be too commercial (Van Reijmersdal, Neijens & Smit, 2010), it is expected that they will result in a less positive reaction from the consumers than earned media. Since paid media can activate the skepticism of the consumers and can cause lower credibility (Eisend & Küster, 2011), it is expected that paid media will result in the least positive reaction from the consumer. These reactions of the consumers are connected to their intentions to spread WOM. It is therefore hypothesized that:
H1: Sponsored content by earned media will result in highest WOM intentions of the consumers, followed by sponsored content by owned media and finally sponsored content by paid media.
Persuasion knowledge
Since consumers have to cope with so many advertisements and persuasion attempts, they have formed various ways to respond to these persuasion attempts. For example, they can accept the persuasion attempt, ignore it or counter argue it. They decide what to do with the persuasion attempt based on their persuasion knowledge (Friestad & Wright, 1994). Persuasion knowledge is the knowledge consumers have about the tactics used in persuasion attempts. Friestad and Wright (1994) suggested that persuasion knowledge is “a set of
interrelated beliefs about (a) the psychological events that are instrumental to persuasion, (b) the causes and effects of those events, (c) the importance of the events, (d) the extent to which people can control their psychological responses, (e) the temporal course of the persuasion process, and (f) the effectiveness and appropriateness of particular persuasion tactics” (p.6).
The persuasion knowledge model (Friestad & Wright, 1994) explains how consumers cope with persuasion attempts. The way in which consumers cope with a persuasion attempt depends on the characteristics of the persuasion attempt of the agent and on the persuasion knowledge, topic knowledge and agent knowledge of the consumer. As the characteristics of the persuasion attempt and the agent knowledge will differ with regard to the different POEM, it is expected that this will affect the coping behavior of the consumers, including the
activation of their persuasion knowledge.
Persuasion knowledge is often linked to the effectiveness of persuasion attempts and thus also sponsored content. Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015) examined the effect of promoted tweets by brands and political parties. It was found that when the political tweet was promoted (versus not-promoted), this resulted in activation of the persuasion knowledge, while persuasion knowledge was activated for both the promoted and not-promoted tweet from the brand. From these findings it can be suggested that owned media (brands) and sponsored messages (paid media) activate persuasion knowledge, while the not sponsored
messages, such as content by earned media, do not activate persuasion knowledge. Boerman and Willemsen (2015) found similar results in their study which examined sponsored
Facebook posts of celebrities and a brand and sponsorship disclosures. It replicated the finding that the activation of persuasion knowledge remained the same for sponsored and not sponsored messages by brands. The study also showed that when the consumers knew the post was sponsored this resulted in negative effects and less WOM intentions.
According to Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015), consumers did not expect the political party to send promoted tweets, which caused a ‘change in meaning’, this in turn could result in negative effects such as: lower WOM intentions, lower perceived trustworthiness of the source, more negative attitude towards the source and more skepticism towards the message. Sponsored content by paid media might also cause a change in meaning’, since consumers might perceive the paid media to send the message freely, especially when they normally only display their own content. But when paid media suddenly disclose that it is a sponsored message, this might surprise the consumers, similar to the political tweets of Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015). It will probably be seen as more surprising for paid media to send promoted messages than for owned media, which are similar to the branded messages in the study of Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015), since it is expected of a brand to promote itself.
Since the change in meaning can evoke skepticism towards the message and other negative results, it is also expected to increase the activation of persuasion knowledge.
Sponsored content of paid media is suggested to result in the highest change in meaning, since it is more surprising of paid media to send sponsored content than of owned media. Paid media is followed by owned media, which will cause a slightly less activation of the persuasion knowledge. Since earned media do not try to persuade the consumer and do not send promoted messages, this will activate persuasion knowledge the least. This is similar to the non-promoted tweets of Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015) which did not activate
persuasion knowledge. Based on the persuasion knowledge model and previous research it is hypothesized that:
H2: Sponsored content by paid media will result in high levels of activation of persuasion knowledge, followed by sponsored content by owned media and finally sponsored content by earned media with the lowest level of activated persuasion knowledge.
When a message activates persuasion knowledge, it can have negative effects for the advertiser. Wei, Fischer and Main (2008) found that activated persuasion knowledge from covert marketing, such as sponsored content, has a negative effect on the evaluation of the brand. It was also found that these negative effects decrease depending on the perceived tactic appropriateness and the brand familiarity. Tutaj and van Reijmersdal (2012) found that ads which appear to be more persuasive were perceived as more irritating. This in turn can affect the other outcomes of the ad. As was seen in previous studies (Boerman & Willemsen, 2015; Boerman & Kruikemeier, 2015), activated persuasion knowledge can result in lower WOM intentions, lower perceived trustworthiness of the source, negative attitude towards the source and more skepticism towards the message. Because of all the negative effects caused by persuasion knowledge in previous studies it is hypothesized that:
H3: The higher the activation of the persuasion knowledge of the consumers, the lower their word-of-mouth intentions.
Method
Design
This study examines whether consumers differ in engaging in WOM about sponsored content dependent on POEM. Persuasion knowledge is a mediating factor in this analysis. This study employs a single factor between subjects design with three levels (medium type: paid, owned, earned, control).
Sample
An online experiment was conducted with a total of 294 participants to test the hypotheses. The participants were contacted via social media, such as Facebook, and by snowball-sampling via email. Some participants (N = 91) were excluded from the experiment because they did not fulfill the entire questionnaire or they guessed the actual purpose of the study. Others (N=57) were excluded from the experiment because they did not pay enough attention to the manipulation, meaning that they looked at the source description for less than 8 seconds. The final sample consisted out of 146 participants with a mean age of 37.66 (SD = 15.44). The control group had 33 participants, the earned media group 42 participants, the owned media group 35 and the paid media group 36 participants. Out of the sample group 59 were male and 85 were female. Most of the participants were highly educated (35.6% studied
WO and 39.0% studied HBO) and they all had a Dutch nationality. The participants did not gain any rewards for fulfilling this questionnaire.
Procedure
The online experiment was conducted on Qualtrics. The participants completed the online experiment on their own computer in their own environment and at their own chosen time. To prevent the participants of knowing the actual purpose of this study, they were told that they were participating in a research regarding blogs and the evaluation of blogs. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions or the control group.
First, the participants saw a welcome text introducing the online experiment and explaining the ethical instructions of the experiment and the Graduate school of
Communication of the University of Amsterdam (see Appendix A). Following, the
participants were exposed to the blog and then answered questions regarding WOM intentions and persuasion knowledge. Also some filler and control questions regarding other variables such as the writing style and brand attitude were asked in the survey to hide the purpose of the study. After that, the participants answered some questions regarding demographics. The survey is added in appendix B. As part of the experimental manipulation, the participants who were assigned to the sponsored content by paid media first saw the following instructions: “Here you can see a blogpost about Pumpkin Spice Wafels by Kitchenthusiast.
Kitchenthusiast is a platform by the blogger Marianne which shows all kinds of recipes, tips and updates about the kitchen. Marianne was sponsored by KitchenAid to write this blog. Please read the blog carefully and after that answer the questions.” The instructions for participants who saw sponsored content by owned media: “Here you can see a blogpost about Pumpkin Spice Wafels by Kitchenthusiast. Kitchenthusiast is a platform of the brand
written by Marianne. Please read the blog carefully and after that answer the questions.” The instructions for participants who saw the sponsored content by earned media: “Here you can see a blogpost about Pumpkin Spice Wafels by Kitchenthusiast. Kitchenthusiast is a platform by the blogger Marianne which shows all kinds of recipes, tips and updates about the kitchen. Marianne is a fan of KitchenAid and likes to write about it. KitchenAid did not sponsor this blog. Please read the blog carefully and after that answer the questions.” The participants in the control group received the following instructions: “Here you can see a blogpost about Pumpkin Spice Wafels by Kitchenthusiast. Kitchenthusiast is a platform which shows all kinds of recipes, tips and updates about the kitchen. This blog is written by Marianne. Please read the blog carefully and after that answer the questions”. The participants could look at the blog for as long as they wanted.
Independent variable
Stimulus material. The stimulus material of this experiment was a blog regarding the KitchenAid Waffle maker. The blog is added in appendix C. The blog was a real blog from the blog platform of KitchenAid called the Kitchenthusiast. Kitchenthusiast is a blog which shows all the sponsored blogposts of KitchenAid, this means that all these blogs are also seen on the writers’ own blogs as paid sponsored content. The blog was translated into Dutch, since all of the respondents were Dutch. In that way it would be easier for them to read the blog and it also to keep their attention. The blog is about Pumpkin spice waffles, how these were made with the Waffle maker and the recipe. It starts with an introduction about what the blogger likes for breakfast and then comes to the point where she mentions the KitchenAid Waffle maker and she has a positive attitude towards the machine. After that she gives the recipe for the waffles. The recipe consists out of the ingredients and also the instructions for the baking, in which she again mentions the Waffle maker and also another product of KitchenAid, the mixer. The KitchenAid Waffle maker was chosen as a product since it is a
search good. This means that the product attributes are accessible and clear before purchase (Huang et al., 2009). Therefore, these products can be described observationally and they work the same for everyone. Blogs and recommendations regarding these types of products are more liked and credible than recommendations for experience goods (Lu, Chang & Chang, 2014). The source of the blog will keep the name Kitchenthusiast, since it is unlikely that the participants know this blog and the name is related to the topic of the blog. The source name will be the same for all four conditions, only the source description will differ. The blog will be the exact same for all conditions.
Measures
WOM intentions. The variable word-of-mouth intention was measured through three items adapted from Hutter and Hoffmann (2014). They were measured using a 7-point Likert scale (very unlikely – very likely): “I will recommend this brand to my friends”, “It is likely that I will tell my friends about this brand” and “I will tell other people about this brand”. A principal components analysis showed that the items all loaded on one factor that proved to be reliable and the items had a very strong connection (EV = 2.51; R² = .84; α= .90; M = 2.67,
SD = 1.43).
Persuasion knowledge. The variable persuasion knowledge was measured using a 7 point Likert scale, measuring 4 items (disagree – agree): “This blog is a commercial”, “This blog feels like an advertisement”, “This blog promotes the brand KitchenAid”, and “This blog is sponsored by KitchenAid”. A principal components analysis showed that the four items formed a single unidimensional scale. All loaded on one factor that proved to be very reliable and the items had a very strong connection (EV = 3.13; R² = .78; α= .90; M = 5.22, SD = 1.46).
Filler and control questions. Some filler questions were asked to cover up the actual purpose of the study. These were questions regarding brand attitude, the writing style of the blog and the attitude towards the blog.
Several control variables were measured to control for factors that might influence the outcome of this study. This consisted of questions regarding the thoroughly reading of the blog and demographic questions. These control and filler questions can be found in Appendix D. The demographics consisted out of the variables age, gender, nationality and educational level.
Manipulation check. Several manipulation check questions were asked to see whether the results truly rely on the difference in the independent variable and whether the manipulation of the stimulus material was successful. To see whether the participants know whether it was a paid, owned or earned medium the question “Do you think the source was paid to write this blog?” was asked. To see whether the participants paid attention to the source, the question: “Who is the source of this blog?” was asked. To test if the manipulation was still authentic the next question was asked: “Do you think this is an authentic example of a blog?” To see whether the participants know the blog the next question was asked: “Do you know the blog Kitchenthusiast?” To test whether the participant figured out the actual purpose of the study the next question was asked: “What do you think is the purpose of this study?”
Results Preparatory analyses
To test whether the various groups of participants differed from each other regarding background variables, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. It was found that the four groups of participants did not differ with regard to gender (F (3, 140) = .69, p = .558), age (F (3, 138) = .94, p = .425), education (F (3, 140) = 2.12, p = .100) and whether the
participants had a Facebook-account (F (3, 142) = .70, p = .556). This means that the effects found in this research only rely on the difference in POEM and not on other background variables.
Several manipulation checks were included to see whether the stimulus material was reliable and only differed on the level of the independent variable. It was found that the participants had a neutral opinion on whether this was an authentic example of a blog and this did not differ for the different conditions (M = 3.84, SD = 1.61, p =.500). The authenticity might have been neutral since the text was copied from an actual blog, but the style was adapted to the online experiment, so it was not possible for the respondents to open the blog in a web browser. Just a few participants were acquainted with the blog of Kitchenthusiast before and this did not differ for the different conditions (M = 1.12, SD = .51, p =.672).
Descriptive analyses were performed to control for the manipulation questions. It was found that the respondents did not do well on these manipulation checks. Table 1 shows an overview of the results of the question whether the source was paid to write the blog. As can be seen, most of the respondents thought the source was paid to write the blog, also when this was not the case. However, it is understandable that the owned media group might have been a bit confused, since the owned media source is also paid to write the blog.
Table 1. Overview manipulation check 1
Note. The green numbers are the correct answers.
The question who the source of the blog was, was also not answered correctly by most respondents. Table 2 shows an overview from the answers to this question. As can be seen, most participants did not answer the question, or they answered it incorrectly. From the control group, most respondent answered that KitchenAid was the source. This is remarkable, since in the previous question they answered that the source was paid and the blog was not owned by KitchenAid. Since these two manipulation questions did not meet the expectations, they can influence the outcome of the experiment.
Earned sponsored content (%) Owned sponsored content (%) Paid sponsored content (%) Control group (%) Was the source paid to
write this blog?
Yes 44.7 64.7 80.6 50
No 47.4 17.6 9.7 17.9
Table 2. Overview manipulation check 2
Note. The green numbers are the correct answers.
Hypotheses testing
This paper examined the difference in WOM intentions of the consumers caused by sponsored content on POEM and mediated by persuasion knowledge.
Direct effect. The first hypothesis addressed the direct effect between POEM on consumers’ word-of-mouth intentions. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test this effect since the independent variable is categorical. It was found that the different sources did not cause a difference in effect on WOM intentions (F (3, 142) = .04, p = .988, ƞ²p
= .00). Using the Macro for SPSS MEDIATE by Hayes (2014), the groups of POEM and the control group were dummy coded. The control group was coded as the reference group. In this way all individual effects of POEM on WOM intentions were shown when they were compared to the control group. It was found that neither earned media (b = -.16, p = .629), nor owned media (b = .15, p = .669) and paid media (b = .07, p = .829) differed significantly from the control group in their effect on WOM intentions. Therefore hypothesis 1 which stated that
Earned sponsored content (N) Owned sponsored content (N) Paid sponsored content (N) Control group (N)
Who is the source of this blog? KitchenAid 7 11 10 12 Marianne (writer) 11 7 7 4 No response/ wrong response 20 16 14 12
earned sponsored content would result in highest WOM intentions, followed by owned and paid sponsored content, was not supported.
Persuasion knowledge mediation. Hypothesis 2 , which stated that sponsored content by paid media would result in highest activated persuasion knowledge, followed by sponsored content by owned media and at last sponsored content by earned, was analyzed using an ANOVA and MEDIATE by Hayes (2014). A significant effect was found for the overall effect of POEM on persuasion knowledge (F (3, 142) = .5.82, p < .001, ƞ²p = .11). This
means that hypothesis 2, was supported. Sponsored content by paid media resulted in higher persuasion knowledge (M = 5.69, SD = 1.12) than sponsored content by owned media (M = 5.53, SD = 1.27), the control group (M = 5.30, SD = 1.49) and sponsored content by earned media (M = 4.49, SD = 1.61). MEDIATE (Hayes, 2014) again showed the effects all
categories had compared to the control group (earned media b = -.81, p = .014; owned media
b = .23, p = .492; paid media b = .39, p = .245). This shows that only earned media resulted in
significantly lower activation of persuasion knowledge in comparison with the control group. Since the control group resulted in lower persuasion knowledge than owned and paid media, it can be concluded that earned media also differed significantly from these other two media.
Hypothesis 3 which predicted a negative relation between persuasion knowledge and WOM intentions was also supported. MEDIATE (Hayes, 2014) found an overall negative effect between the activation of persuasion knowledge and WOM intentions (b = .25; t = -3.01, p = .003). This means that the WOM intentions of the consumers were significantly influenced by the persuasion knowledge.
By means of MEDIATE by Hayes (2014) , an indirect effect of source on WOM intentions via persuasion knowledge was found for earned sponsored content (b = .21, 95% CI [0.05, .47]. However, this was not found for paid (b = -.06, 95% CI [-.30, .08] and owned sponsored content (b = -.10, 95% CI [-.35, .03]. This means that earned media differs
significantly from paid and owned media and can cause a mediating effect for persuasion knowledge on WOM intentions.
Figure 2 shows an overview of the results of this study.
Figure 2 Results of conceptual model
Discussion and conclusion
This study addressed the effects of sponsored content in the form of blogs by paid, owned and earned media. This was examined according to three aims. First, it was aimed to see the effects of sponsored blogs on WOM intentions. Second, it was aimed to gain insight into the differences in effect on WOM intentions, caused by POEM. Third, it was aimed to measure the effect persuasion knowledge had as a mediator.
The results showed that POEM do not have a direct effect on word-of-mouth
intentions, which means that hypothesis 1 was not supported. An effect was found for POEM on the activation of persuasion knowledge, which showed that paid media resulted in highest activated persuasion knowledge, followed by owned media and earned media. This supported hypothesis 2. Especially earned media differed significantly from the other sources and control group. Persuasion knowledge also showed a negative relation with WOM intentions, which means that when the activated persuasion knowledge was high, the WOM intentions were low. This effect supported hypothesis 3. It could be concluded that a mediating effect
was found for the activation of persuasion knowledge. This means that when consumers’ persuasion knowledge is activated the least, this will result in the highest WOM intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications
Hypothesis 1 was rejected, which meant that there was no direct effect between WOM intentions and POEM, this brought a new finding to this field of research. The direct effect between sponsored content by POEM and WOM intentions was not researched before. The lack of effect could be because the effect of paid, owned and earned media might not differ from each other in sponsored content in general, or only in this particular study. The source description might not have been clear enough, as was also found in the manipulation check, which could mean that the participants were not influenced by the different sources and therefore their WOM intentions were similar to each other. It would be interesting for this field of research to see whether this effect is only found for sponsored blogs, or also for other sponsored content. In that way a general statement about sponsored content can be made.
The fact that hypothesis 2 was supported, which means that paid media resulted in highest use of persuasion knowledge, followed by owned and earned media, can be connected to the findings of Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015). They found that a paid source resulted in higher use of persuasion knowledge than the brand itself as a source (owned media). The high levels of persuasion knowledge also indicated that although sponsored blogs are a relatively new form of persuasion, consumers already know what they are and use their persuasion knowledge to cope with these persuasion attempts. This can cause a discussion with the persuasion knowledge model of Friestad and Wright (1994), which stated that newer forms of persuasion result in less activation of the persuasion knowledge of the consumers. It can therefore also be suggested that sponsored content in blogs is perhaps not as new as it was expected to be.
The finding for hypothesis 2 gave a new insight for the research field of
communications and sponsored content. It can be concluded that previous findings of other social media are also relevant for sponsored blogs and this study added to these findings by comparing three instead of two different sources, out of which could be concluded that earned media differs from paid and owned media.
The findings of hypothesis 3 are in line with previous research. Boerman and Willemsen (2015) and Boerman and Kruikemeier (2015) also found that persuasion
knowledge decreased WOM intentions which was similar to the findings in this paper. It can therefore be concluded that not only for sponsored content on other social media such as Twitter and Facebook but also for sponsored blogs, persuasion knowledge can affect the WOM intentions of the consumers. This study reconfirms that persuasion knowledge affects the effectiveness of persuasion attempts, not only the attitude towards the message and brand but thus also the word-of-mouth intentions of the consumers. In this way it can be suggested that persuasion knowledge does not only have an effect on affective outcomes but also on behavioral outcomes.
The results suggest that the independent variable POEM can only influence WOM intentions via the activation of persuasion knowledge. This means that it is important for brands to stop the activation of persuasion knowledge in order to increase WOM intentions. When brands want to increase their consumers’ word-of-mouth intentions it appears not to be useful to only look at the direct effect of the source. Brands should look for a source which activates persuasion knowledge the least. According to this study that source is earned media. When choosing between owned and paid media brands can better use their own assets than paying a third party to promote their sponsored content.
Limitations and future research
This research has several limitations. First, the manipulation of the stimulus material was not perfect since participants did not pay enough attention to the source description. It was found that a great number of participants (N = 57) did not read the source description thoroughly enough and were therefore removed from the sample. This might have happened because the introductory text was too long and the participants might have skipped these texts to the point where they saw the blogpost.
The second limitation is that most participants answered the manipulation questions regarding the source incorrectly. This means that although they read the source description they still did not know correctly who the source of the blogpost was. Many participants saw for example owned media as paid media. A reason for the mistaking of the source might be that they did not read the descriptive text thoroughly enough, or that it was not clear enough. Since just a descriptive text about the source was not sufficient, it is suggested that in future studies the source should again be mentioned in the blog and needs to show its differences repeatedly. Another explanation might be that the participants did not believe the descriptive text and concluded who the source was on their own intuition. This would suggest that earned and owned media are often seen as paid media by consumers. This limitation might have influenced the results of this study and it is therefore suggested to repeat this study but adapt the manipulation.
This study already gives useful implications for the field of research of communication and sponsored content but still more aspects of the covered concepts need to be examined. In future research the manipulation of different sources should not only to be manipulated as a descriptive text and also should not be placed after a long introductory text. It would be better if the source is also shown in the blogpost of the sponsored content. In that way the
the descriptive text is placed after a long introductory text, the participants lose their interest and do not pay enough attention for the manipulation to work.
A follow up study could also focus on a different type of blog, for example a video blog. This might show different results since the sponsored content will be interpreted differently. Another idea for future research is to examine how consumers see the source of the sponsored content, in a qualitative study, and also examine the credibility of the source. In this study a large number of participants thought the source was paid to write the blog, also when this was not the case. It would also be interesting to see if consumers think this of all sponsored content.
Conclusion
Altogether this study provided some important findings and implications about POEM, persuasion knowledge and word-of-mouth intentions. It can be concluded that when brands want to increase their consumers’ WOM intentions, they should choose a source which does not activate the persuasion knowledge of the consumers. According to this study that source should be earned media. This paper provided new insights into the research of
sponsored content and especially sponsored blogs. The mediation effect that was found was in line with previous studies about other sponsored content and it could therefore be concluded that sponsored blogs function the same as other social media sponsored content.
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Appendix A. Introduction text experiment
Hierbij wil ik je uitnodigen om deel te nemen aan een onderzoek dat wordt uitgevoerd onder verantwoordelijkheid van de Graduate School of Communication, onderdeel van de Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Het onderzoek waar ik je medewerking voor wil vragen gaat over het taalgebruik en de schrijfstijl van blogs. In deze online survey zal een blog te zien zijn waarna er enkele vragen worden gesteld over de blog en de schrijver. Aan dit onderzoek kunnen enkel Nederlands sprekenden deelnemen. Het doel van dit onderzoek is om meer kennis te vergaren over het gebruik en de waardering van blogs. Dit onderzoek duurt ongeveer 10 - 15 minuten.
Omdat dit onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd onder de verantwoordelijkheid van ASCoR, Universiteit van Amsterdam, heb je de garantie dat:
1) Je anonimiteit is gewaarborgd en dat je antwoorden of gegevens onder geen enkele voorwaarde aan derden worden verstrekt, tenzij je hiervoor van te voren uitdrukkelijke toestemming hebt verleend.
2) Je zonder opgaaf van redenen kunt weigeren mee te doen aan het onderzoek of je deelname voortijdig kunt afbreken. Ook kun je achteraf (binnen 24 uur na deelname) je toestemming
intrekken voor het gebruik van je antwoorden of gegevens voor het onderzoek. 3) Deelname aan het onderzoek geen noemenswaardige risico’s of ongemakken met zich meebrengt, geen moedwillige misleiding plaatsvindt, en je niet met
expliciet aanstootgevend materiaal zult worden geconfronteerd.
4) Je uiterlijk vijf maanden na afloop van het onderzoek de beschikking kunt krijgen over een onderzoeksrapportage waarin de algemene resultaten van het onderzoek
worden toegelicht.
Voor meer informatie over dit onderzoek en de uitnodiging tot deelname kun je te allen tijde contact opnemen met de projectleider Joyce Engels, joyce.engels2@student.uva.nl. Ook wanneer je graag de resultaten van dit onderzoek wil ontvangen kun je contact opnemen met Joyce Engels.
Mochten er naar aanleiding van je deelname aan dit onderzoek klachten of opmerkingen bij je zijn, dan kun je contact opnemen met het lid van de Commissie Ethiek van de
afdeling Communicatiewetenschap, per adres: ASCoR secretariaat, Commissie Ethiek, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Postbus 15793, 1001 NG Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680; ascor‐ secr‐fmg@uva.nl. Een vertrouwelijke behandeling van je klacht of opmerking is daarbij gewaarborgd. Ik hoop je hiermee voldoende te hebben geïnformeerd en dank je bij voorbaat hartelijk voor je deelname aan dit onderzoek dat voor mij van grote waarde is.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Joyce Engels
Ik verklaar hierbij op voor mij duidelijke wijze te zijn ingelicht over de aard en methode van het onderzoek, zoals uiteengezet in de uitnodigingsmail voor dit onderzoek.
Ik stem geheel vrijwillig in met deelname aan dit onderzoek. Ik behoud daarbij het recht deze instemming weer in te trekken zonder dat ik daarvoor een reden hoef op te geven. Ik besef dat ik op elk moment mag stoppen met het onderzoek.
Als mijn onderzoeksresultaten worden gebruikt in wetenschappelijke publicaties, of op een andere manier openbaar worden gemaakt, dan zal dit volledig geanonimiseerd gebeuren. Mijn persoonsgegevens worden niet door derden ingezien zonder mijn uitdrukkelijke toestemming.
Als ik meer informatie wil, nu of in de toekomst, dan kan ik me wenden tot Joyce Engels, joyce.engels2@student.uva.nl. Voor eventuele klachten over dit onderzoek kan ik me wenden tot het lid van de Commissie Ethiek namens ASCoR, per adres: ASCoR secretariaat,
Commissie Ethiek, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680; ascor‐secr‐fmg@uva.nl.
o ik begrijp de bovenstaande tekst en ga akkoord met deelname aan het onderzoek
B. Survey
Zeer
onwaarschijnlijk Neutraal
Zeer waarschijnlijk Ik zal het merk KitchenAid
aanbevelen aan mijn vrienden Ik zal mijn vrienden vertellen over het merk KitchenAid Ik zal andere mensen vertellen over het merk KitchenAid Ik zal deze blog delen op mijn
Facebookpagina
Ik zal het merk Kitchen Aid
liken op Facebook
Ik vind het merk KitchenAid:
Niet aantrekkelijk Aantrekkelijk Slecht Goed Niet aangenaam Aangenaam Niet gunstig Gunstig Niet leuk Leuk Zeer onwaarschijnlijk Neutraal Zeer waarschijnlijk In welke mate denk je dat
deze blog is geschreven om te overtuigen? In welke mate denk je dat deze blog is geschreven om producten te verkopen?
Geef aan in welke mate je het eens bent met de volgende uitspraken
Zeer
oneens Neutraal Zeer eens
De blogpost voelt als een
advertentie
De blogpost promoot het merk
Kitchen Aid
Deze blogpost is reclame
Deze blogpost is gesponsord door
Kitchen Aid
Zeer
onwaarschijnlijk Neutraal
Zeer waarschijnlijk Zou je gebruik willen
maken van het KitchenAid Wafelijzer?
Zeer
onwaarschijnlijk Neutraal
Zeer waarschijnlijk Zou je het KitchenAid
Wafelijzer kopen?
Hoeveel ben je bereid voor het KitchenAid Wafelijzer te betalen? €0 - €200
Hoe deskundig is de schrijver van deze blog over het onderwerp van de blog?
Niet deskundig
Deskundig
In welke mate is de schrijver van deze blog een expert over het onderwerp van de blog?
Geen expert
Expert
Hoe betrouwbaar is de schrijver van deze blog?
Niet betrouwbaar
Betrouwbaar
Hoe deugdelijk is de schrijver van deze blog?
Niet deugdelijk
Deugdelijk
Denk je dat de schrijver van deze blog is betaald door KitchenAid om deze blog te schrijven? Ja
Nee
KitchenAid beheert deze blog Wie is de bron van deze blog? ……
In hoeverre vind je dit een autentiek voorbeeld van een blog?
Niet autentiek
Autentiek
In hoeverre was je al bekend met de blog Kitchenthusiast?
Niet bekend
Bekend
Ik vind deze blog
Moeilijk om te lezen
Makkelijk om te lezen
Onaangenaam om te
lezen Aangenaam om te lezen
Ik vind deze blog
Niet aantrekkelijk Aantrekkelijk Slecht Goed Niet aangenaam Aangenaam
Niet gunstig
Gunstig
Niet leuk
Leuk
Hoevaak per maand lees je een blog? ……….. Heb je een Facebookaccount?
Ja Nee
Hoevaak per week gebruik je Facebook?
Hoevaak per maand deel je een post op Facebook?
Wat is volgens jou het doel van dit onderzoek? ……… Wat is je leeftijd?
Wat is je geslacht? Man
Vrouw
Wat is je nationaliteit?
Wat is je hoogst behaalde niveau van educatie? Lagere school Middelbare school MBO HBO WO PhD
C. Stimulus material blog
Pumpkin spice wafels!
Het is weer volop herfst en dat heeft zijn voordelen! Wakker worden in het weekend in een warm, comfortabel bed met de geur van een net gemaakt ontbijtje is altijd welkom. Ik kan er de hele week naar uitkijken. Mijn favoriete ontbijtje bestaat toch wel uit wafels, en vooral pompoen wafels!
De geur van kaneel, kruidnagel, piment en nootmuskaat stralen een gevoel van warmte door het hele huis. Daarnaast maakt de nootachtige geur van geroosterde pecannoten en ahornsiroop het nog beter. De geur van dit recept lokt je al meteen de keuken in.
Vroeger zou ik deze heerlijke geuren alleen kunnen ervaren in een restaurant of bed & breakfast, maar nu kan ik hem ook thuis ervaren door mijn nieuwe KitchenAid Wafelijzer. Er zijn zo veel wafel opties die ik nu kan maken, van de klassieke wafel naar chocolate chip. Er zijn mogelijkheden voor het ontbijt, diner én dessert. Maar vandaag maakte ik het
heerlijke recept Pumpkin Spice Wafels met Maple slagroom. Laten we beginnen!
Ingrediënten Voor Maple slagroom
• 2 kopjes room
• 1/2 kopje ahornsiroop
Voor pumpkin spice wafels
• 2 kopjes bloem • 2 tl bakpoeder • 2 tl kaneel • 1/2 tl piment • 1/2 tl bakpoeder • 1/2 tl kruidnagels • 1/2 tl nootmuskaat • 1/4 tl zout • 3 grote eieren
• 1/4 kopje bruine suiker
• 1 1/4 kopjes melk
• 1 kop ingeblikte pompoenpuree
• 4 eetlepels ongezouten boter, gesmolten en afgekoeld
• 1/2 kopje gehakte pecannoten, geroosterd (optioneel)
Bereiding
Plaats de slagroom en siroop in een grote kom bevestigd aan een KitchenAid Mixer. Klop het mengsel tot het stijf wordt. Doe de maple slagroom in een andere kom en koel het tot de wafels klaar zijn.
Zet ondertussen het KitchenAid wafelijzer aan en spray de boven- en onderkant van de wafel roosters in met meel. Verhit het wafelijzer tot de meter “ready” aangeeft.
Meng in een middelgrote kom, de bloem, het bakpoeder, kaneel, piment, kruidnagel, nootmuskaat en zout en zet het apart. Klop in de KitchenAid Mixer de eieren op de laagste snelheid tot het mengsel begint te schuimen. Meng het met de bruine suiker, melk, pompoen en boter. Voeg dan voorzichtig het bloemmengsel toe.
Wanneer het wafelijzer klaar is voor gebruik, giet 1 kopje beslag op één zijde van het wafel rooster. Gebruik de achterkant van een spatel of lepel om het beslag gelijkmatig te verdelen. Laat het mengsel daarna bakken voor 5 – 6 minuten. Herhaal dit tot al het beslag is opgebruikt. Laat hierna de wafels nog 1 – 2 minuten afkoelen op een rooster. Daarna kun je heerlijk smullen van je wafels met maple slagroom! (tip: bestrooi de wafel ook nog met wat geroosterde pecannoten!)
D. Filler and control questions Filler questions:
The writing style of the blog was measured by asking two questions: “I found this blog…” easy to read / uneasy to read, pleasant to read/ unpleasant to read.
The attitude towards the blog was measured by using the same scales as for brand attitude by Spears and Singh (2004). This was a 7 point Likert scale measuring “This blog is”: unappealing/ appealing, bad/ good, unpleasant /pleasant, unfavorable /favorable and unlikable / likable.
Brand attitude was measured according to the scales of Spears and Singh (2004) by means of a 7 point Likert scale: unappealing/ appealing, bad/ good, unpleasant /pleasant, unfavorable /favorable and unlikable / likable.
Control questions:
Whether the participants read the blog thoroughly was measured by measuring the time they spend reading the blog.
