[Podcast] Advertising Evaluation on Tiktok Platform

According to the surveys of TikTok users in Ho Chi Minh City, the relationship between social presence, immersion, ad engagement and TikTok and Tiktok evaluation is assessed based on approaching the SOR model, the author group from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) has provided specific analysis of these relationships. From this foundation, the implications have been proposed for applying the development of short-form video communication tools in implementing product development strategies, branding, retail/service experiences using Tiktok means of communication.

Short-form video has been playing an increasingly important role in information search

27% of online viewers watch more than 10 hours of online video weekly and online video viewers account for 83.3% of Internet users in the United States while the proportion was as high as 92% in China. In addition to YouTube video platforms, the market share of mobile-based short video applications is growing rapidly listed as TikTok gaining popularity due to its ability to provide for easy creation and sharing of short-form videos, including elements listed as music, animation and visual effects. Short-form video source TikTok plays an increasingly important role in people’ search and viewing of information. However, the amount of the current researches on the role of video-based social media as advertising channels is insufficient. Cowan & Ketron (2019) identified two aspects of immersion and social presence as important aspects for virtual reality applications and suggested future research should be considered to help developers exploring marketing and proactively shape long-term products while creating value with consumers and promoting interaction between consumers and brands, products, and services.

Stimulus – Process (Organism) – Response = (S-O-R) Model

In this study, with the Stimulus – Organism – Response (S-O-R) Model approach, immersion and social presence are considered as 02 factors to determine stimulation and its role in driving customer engagement with advertising is limited. This has implications for product development, branding, retail/service experiences, adoption of new technology (Tiktok advertising) as suggested by Cowan & Ketron (2019). Because user engagement is a top priority for product and service designers, understanding the mechanisms that contribute to TikTok’s success can provide useful guidance for designers and developers to practice in the short video industry. Therefore, the authors propose that users’ engagement with TikTok ads will affect the evaluation of that ad; concurrently, considering whether advertising stimuli (listed as immersion and social presence) can explain the positive evaluation of advertising through user engagement and interaction with Tiktok ads. The authors hope that this result will contribute in a novel way to the study of unique advertising phenomena and provide new insights into engagement and positive evaluation of advertising that attracts more users and clients.

Feasibility and attraction of using Tiktok short videos as advertising and especially evaluating Tiktok short video content

This study also finds that user experience can significantly predict advertising ratings in adoption and continued use of TikTok short videos that help engage users and collect advertising rating information. Of the two types of stimuli mentioned in the study, social presence in terms of credibility had a greater influence on perceived advertising engagement (enjoyment, negative emotions related to the platform, playtime, stimulation, identification, hands-on use, social interaction, theme). In terms of the context of Tiktok short-form video advertising, it is the interaction with immersive features easily enables users to trigger a state of consciousness in which they are fully engaged, stimulating the user and evoking a positive emotional response regarding the feeling of enjoyment, fun, reality, and interaction with each appropriate topic.

During the process of watching TikTok ads, based on the influence mechanism of reinforcement, users feel more and more excited, conveying social presence through searching, super-speed dubbing and live streaming, recommending the videos because they feel the presence of others, they are more motivated to watch TikTok ads multiple times to maintain a positive emotional state. These findings are consistent with the results of Tian et al. (2022), Song et al. (2021), who found that the interaction with immersive features, social features that enhance users’ sense of belonging and connection plays an essential role in regulating emotions and increasing the user’s sensory abilities.

Additionally, in using TikTok advertising, active user engagement related to immersion and awareness of social presence can help drive the evaluation of TikTok short videos as an advertising source. Positive effects of user engagement on user ad evaluations of Entertainment, Platform-Related Negative Emotions, Playtime, Arousal, Identification, Actual Use, Social Interaction and Theme are also consistent with those findings from the previous work. From an SOR perspective, the authors’ research results suggest that two stimulation possibilities are offered by the TikTok app – namely immersion, the senses engaging in a lifelike, display-like virtual world – can affect user experience as found in the previous researches that can boost positive ad reviews. The second is that the user’s cognitive and affective experiences can enhance the usability and the sociability of the artifact and the user’s motivation to interact with it. In this study, social media presence was shown to be significantly enhanced by the increased interaction between characters in the video and users interacting with each other while watching TikTok.

Furthermore, the authors found that social presence is more positively related to advertising evaluation than immersion through ad engagement. This finding contrasts with that of the previous researches that explore how immersion more than social presence influences short-form video addiction.

Therefore, on the foundation of the S-O-R framework, the study examines the attributes of the Tiktok advertising application as a stimulus that promotes consumer interaction and engagement, thereby, leading to the positive evaluation behavior towards TikTok advertising.

Theoretical contributions of the study

Additional theoretical development of the underlying dimensions leads to the engagement of short-form video Tiktok advertising short-form video platforms. The mediating role of ad engagement in relationships ranging from immersion-specific stimuli and social presence to customer engagement processes and customer ad evaluation.

These empirical findings not only further validate the application of SOR theory to the important field of exploding short-form video advertising but also contribute to a deeper understanding of the processes that create engagement and effective in advertising. In terms of the context of Tiktok advertising, immersion and social presence influence online engagement and positive evaluation of the customer/user’s online experience.

This study contributes to the literature by focusing on the emerging short video Tiktok and evaluating the feasibility of Tiktok providing an advertising information channel for users using TikTok as well as for an effective advertising channel for marketers. town.

The authors’ research shows that immersion and social presence are key predictors of user ad viewing behavior engaged through the ad evaluation stage.

Practical contribution of the research

First, exploiting TikTok has become an effective advertising tool for businesses to increase the experience value for users that can stimulate their awareness with advertisements and positively evaluate ads. Therefore, to increase advertising engagement, companies present realistic characters with content that stimulates the senses listed as themselves interacting with other individuals in the advertising space on short TikTok videos and enhance a more unique virtual space for users to immerse themselves in. To increase interest leading to increased social presence of users, marketers set up open spaces with sounds and images that stimulate users’ senses to increase interactivity, their feelings and empathy (through feeling, hearing, seeing) towards other social actors in the same space.

Second, the study finds that users’ immersion in TikTok videos impacts their engagement although the impact is not strong. Therefore, the application of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) can help companies create a virtual space that is a real environment close to the reality or may be different from the reality but appropriate to the needs and desires of the target audience that the advertisement is targeting. This will help users who aim to immerse themselves in that world and strongly interact or make purchasing decisions.

Please refer to the full article: Stimulents in advertising on Tiktok: approaching SOR model HERE. 

Author group: Dr. Trương Thị Hoàng Oanh; Dr. Hồ Xuân Hướng; MSc. Võ Thanh Trúc; MSc. Nguyễn Trung Tiến; Asoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Nhật Hạnh, University of Economics Hồ Chí Minh City (UEH).

This is an article in the series of articles spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the “Research Contribution For All – Nghiên Cứu Vì Cộng Đồng” message, UEH cordially invites dear readers to look forward to the upcoming UEH Research Insights No. #109.

News & photos: Group Author, UEH Department of Marketing & Communication