[Podcast] Emotional Response in Viral Advertising: Impact on Viewers’ Attitudes and Sharing Behaviors
11 October, 2024
Keywords: Viral advertising, emotional response, viewer attitudes, sharing behavior
In the context of digital technology, conventional forms of advertising listed as newspapers, banners, flyers, etc. are gradually being replaced by promoting products/brands through viral advertising. This form is not only attractive but also creates strong emotional responses for viewers. These emotions are proved to have impacts on attitudes and behavior of sharing content. In this research, the author from University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) clarified the emotional response of viral advertising viewers to their attitudes towards the brand and their intention to share.

Currently, viral advertising is one of the popular advertising tools chosen by various businesses due to its convenience and speed. The name “viral advertising” aligns with the characteristics and results that businesses demand from this type of advertising. The effectiveness is reflected in the sharing level of consumers with the diversity of others after watching an online advertising video. How do emotions after watching a “Viral advertising” product affect their attitude towards the brand in that advertising video? What emotional factors does “Viral advertising” need to stimulate viewers to voluntarily share with more people? These questions are not only important for marketers but also for brands looking for new ways to attract attention and to create emotional connections with customers.
Viral Advertising
Viral Advertising (Viral marketing) is a marketing strategy in business that uses social networking sites to promote products or to convey messages related to the company’s brand but is popularized by consumers on online websites.
The form of viral advertising develops based on peer-to-peer communication, meaning that viewers tend to voluntarily forward or share the received message to those around them. In addition, the term viral video ad is a form of video advertising posted online. Usually, viewers accept advertising clips that will appear before, after or even while they are watching other content on the Internet. If viral video ads are convincing and attractive enough, they will have a good spreading rate through the sharing behavior of consumers on video-sharing social networking sites.
The motivation for viewers to share a viral advertisement is difficult to measure comprehensively. Despite that fact, it can be stated that the success of a viral advertisement depends on the proactive attitude of viewers to share it with others. Therefore, advertising campaigns should focus on factors that affect viewers’ emotional responses, rather than product promotion.
Emotional reactions to viral advertising
Emotional reactions to viral clips are diverse; even with the same viral clip, viewers can experience different emotional reactions. Types of emotional reactions include joy, humor, sadness, empathy, or even anger and so on. Many people admit that their emotional reactions after watching a viral clip have a great impact on their attitudes toward the brand and their intention to share that viral clip. Specifically, positive emotional reactions often lead to positive attitudes toward the brand and a higher likelihood of viewers clicking the share button after watching, and vice versa.
In addition, successful viral advertising results from its ability to cause strong emotional reactions, listed as joy, emotion, surprise, or even fear. Ads that stimulate strong emotions not only make a first impression but also encourage viewers to share with their friends, family, and social networks. This stems from the desire to share emotional experiences as well as the need to express themselves through content that they find interesting or meaningful.
Recent studies found that ads that evoke positive emotions listed as joy, humor or emotion are more likely to go viral. This is related to social psychology as people tend to share things that they feel add positive value or bring joy to others. Meanwhile, ads that evoke negative emotions, listed as fear or anxiety, are likely to be shared, especially when they are related to important social issues listed as climate change, public health or human rights.
Factors motivating viewers to share viral videos
Unexpectedness: A viral video can become popular thanks to the “wow factor” – the element of surprise in the message. Ads that surprise or upset viewers’ expectations tend to be shared more. This stems from the natural human need to share unexpected things with others to create a connection.
Emotional value: Ads that are emotional or humorous are more likely to go viral because they create a positive feeling, making viewers share to spread that joy or emotional feeling to others. The emotional element of the message will be the point of attracting viewers’ attention; therefore, viral videos often take advantage of strong emotional impacts to attract viewers’ attention.
Socialness and empathy: As ads focus on social issues or stories that can create empathy, they often motivate viewers to share to express their personal views or to encourage others to take positive actions.
Authenticity: Consumers today appreciate authenticity in advertising. Viral advertising content is often successful when it feels “real”, reflecting the personal experiences or real-life situations of viewers. In particular, an important factor that helps ads become viral is the ability to trigger strong emotional responses from viewers, which will increase positive attitudes and trust in the brand appearing in the viral video. A successful viral video can reach thousands or millions of viewers, each of whom shares it with many others, demonstrating the incredible spread of this type of media.
Viral Advertising Influencing Viewers’ Attitudes and Sharing Behavior
Emotional responses not only influence viewers’ attitudes toward an ad but also their decision to share that content. An ad that successfully evokes positive emotions will create a favorable impression of the brand, reinforcing positive consumer attitudes. This often leads to them being willing to share the ad with others, creating a natural ripple effect without the need for large advertising costs.
On the other hand, when an ad fails to create an emotional connection, viewers tend to ignore it or to react negatively. These emotions can lead them to the act of not sharing, or worse, sharing it with negative criticism, affecting the brand’s reputation.
Studies have affirmed that emotional responses act as an important bridge between viewers’ perceptions and actions. When they have a strong emotional experience, their brains create special neural connections that make them more likely to remember the ad and brand. Unexpected or strong emotions create lasting attachments and encourage them to share the ad with their networks.
In addition, specific elements in the ad listed as emotion, emotionally stimulating music, or the presence of unexpected elements can heighten emotional responses. Research confirm that when consumers feel connected to the story or characters in the ad, they are more likely to share it because they feel the content reflects their personal values or self-expression.
The results of the study presented that viewers’ attitudes toward the video, the brand, and their sharing intentions were positive for videos with positive content. Positive responses tended to decrease when the emotional response to the video was neutral or mixed while they became negative for videos that were perceived as upsetting to viewers. Furthermore, the similarity with previous studies on the relationship between emotional response and viewer attitude, namely positive emotional responses, and conversely, negative emotional responses.
Policy implications as emotional responses in viral advertising affecting viewers’ attitudes and sharing intentions
The results of this study help businesses, specifically marketing managers, to conduct research related to the visual, technical, and especially content elements of viral video ads, to build communication/advertising campaigns for brands that achieve positive emotional responses and attitudes from viewers towards the brand. The study brings in three main results:
First, online video ads that produce pleasant emotional responses will positively affect viewers’ attitudes towards the brand and their intention to share it with others.
Second, unpleasant emotional responses to viral video ads will make viewers’ attitudes towards the brand more negative and their intention to share will, therefore, be very low.
Third, with viral video ads that bring a neutral feeling, their impact on viewers’ attitudes, brands, and sharing intentions is only average and relative.
For viral video advertising, in order to achieve high communication efficiency, marketers should focus on emphasizing the content of the message in the advertisement, as well as the way it is conveyed to viewers. These are also the top important factors that strongly impact the emotional response of viewers to that viral video ad. Specifically, advertisements with creative message content, new and unique ways of conveying will bring about a particularly positive attitude and strongly stimulate viewers’ sharing motivation on social networking platforms.
In addition, businesses need to pay attention to building attractive message content that is highly entertaining, bringing positive, fun, pleasant feelings, and keeping up with current trends. Moreover, visual elements such as color, actors and so on and technical elements listed as sound, context, camera angle and so on need to be invested in and refined because beautiful images and harmonious colors have the ability to evoke positive emotions from viewers right from the first seconds and create motivation to keep viewers until the end of the video.
However, advertisers should not overuse attention-grabbing techniques listed as the blatant use of sensational elements, inappropriate images and so on in advertising videos; otherwise, it will be counterproductive and negatively impact viewers’ attitudes. If they are not comfortable with an advertising video on social networks, they will develop a negative attitude that will negatively impact consumers’ purchasing intentions, leading to loss of trust, affecting the brand image.
In addition, emotional responses to viral advertising play an indispensable role in creating positive attitudes and promoting viewers’ sharing behavior. Ads that are able to evoke strong emotions often have higher marketing effectiveness not only help the brand spread strongly but also create deep connections with customers.
In the future, brands need to focus on creating advertisements that are not only creative but also hit consumers’ psychology and emotions. In this way, they not only build loyalty but also create marketing campaigns with strong viral effects, reaching a wider audience without spending a lot of traditional advertising costs.
In short, understanding the emotions that influence consumer behavior will help marketers build more effective advertising strategies, optimize viral effects and create long-term value for the brand.
The full-text article Emotional Response in Viral Advertising: Impact on Viewers’ Attitudes and Sharing Behaviors can be accessed HERE.
Authors: Pham Thi Truc Ly, Dinh Tien Minh, Luong Xuan Hy – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH).
This article is part of the series spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the message “Research Contribution For All”. UEH cordially invites readers to read the next UEH Research Insights issue.
News, photos: The Authors, UEH Department of Communications and Partnerships

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