A typology of viral ad sharers using sentiment analysis

Viral advertising is the most popular manifestation of viral marketing phenomena. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate sentiment analysis as a promising tool to quantify consumer responses towards branded viral video advertisements and thereupon, propose a sentiment-based typology of viral ad sharers. Results of this experimental study (1) suggest that sentiment-based measures of consumer responses offer better prediction of consumers’ ad sharing intentions compared to the traditional and widely used thought-listing method; and (2) help identify four distinct segments of viral ad sharers (based on the relative strength of ad- and brand-related sentiments), namely: “Active”, “Brand-fanatic”, “Content-hungry”, and “Dormant”, labeled as ABCD typology of viral ad sharers. This study highlights that for creating successful viral campaigns, marketers should consider the distinctive characteristics of these four segments of viral ad sharers (based on their processing of ad content and brand information) to identify the right seeds to initiate a viral campaign.