Older adult's response to social media ADS

Abstract

Despite the fast growth of social media advertising and its global impact on the consumption behaviour of young adults, little is known about the performance of social media ads among older adults. According to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, people of different ages prioritize different types of goals. In view of this, this dissertation investigates differences in responses to affective and rational social media ads among older adults (60+) by experimentally exposing them to advertising in Facebook about a social (hedonic) app. Results reveal that affective ad appeals have a more positive impact on older adults’ responses to social media ads than rational ones. Therefore, it can be concluded that older adults are indeed more responsive to social media ads focused on attaining emotional meaning in life than those offering solutions to practical (e.g., informational) needs. Among these, women seem to be even more prone to ads based on affective appeal than men. Therefore, a higher success rate in terms of engagement will be obtained by targeting women with affective ad appeals.

Date of Award	18 Jul 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Isabel de Almeida Costa (Supervisor)