World Media Economics and Management Conference 2016

Branded entertainment describes an advertising technique whereby advertising messages are integrated into entertainment content. It has become increasingly popular, especially on YouTube where celebrity YouTubers are part of the promotional videos. Despite the high relevance attributed to branded entertainment on YouTube in practice, there are as yet no empirical studies on the subject. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that contribute to the success of a branded entertainment video. It examines whether, to what extent, and how branded entertainment is an effective means of advertising communication in regard to affecting brand attitude. The hypothesis model is based on the attitude toward the ad model and extended in order to reflect the possible effect emanating from a celebrity endorsement. Further, the moderating influence of product involvement on attitude formation is examined. The study uses a structural equation model, which is estimated via partial least squares based on an online survey with 348 respondents. The factors considered were able to explain 81% of the variance of the attitude toward the video and 70% of the variance of brand attitude. The results indicate that there was a high persistence in brand attitude. For participants with low product involvement, there was a greater effect of attitude toward the video on brand attitude than for the highly involved. Of the factors modifiable in the context of the video, the positive perception of the video due to an appealing design and the likeability of the endorser were the most important determinants of success.