Find the latest and most impactful research on consumer attitudes and behavior, including drivers and trends, here. All the research listed comes from the ARF or one of its subsidiaries: The Journal of Advertising Research (JAR), the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) or the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). Feel free to bookmark this page, as it will be updated periodically.
Livestreaming is rapidly transforming e-commerce, but which strategy works best—brand-led sessions or influencer promotions? This study of 163 apparel brands reveals that in-house livestreaming delivers more consistent sales boosts than most influencer collaborations, offering key insights for marketers navigating the live commerce boom.
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Digital marketing’s fast pace allows for unprecedented testing of what drives ad success. This study combines human coding and machine learning across over 2,300 food, beverage and restaurant video ads, to reveal how sensory cues like “crunch sounds” and human interaction can significantly boost brand awareness, consideration and purchase intent—while some commonly used tactics, surprisingly, fall flat.
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Binge-watching dramatically reshapes how consumers respond to advertising on video-on-demand platforms. Drawing on psychological reactance theory, this study reveals that binge-watchers perceive ads as more intrusive and irritating, harming platform loyalty and boosting ad avoidance—unless the ad is highly likeable, which can soften negative reactions and protect platform engagement.
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This research explores the downstream and upstream effects of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) gift subscriptions compared to personal subscriptions in the context of live streaming. It reveals that C2C subscriptions significantly enhance customer lifetime value by encouraging more tips and comments and highlights the importance of creator performance quality in driving subscription behaviors.
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The household is a crucial unit of consumption that involves joint decision-making. While many studies have focused on individual-level advertising impacts, the interactions among household members have been largely overlooked. This study investigates a dyad-exposure advertising method that targets both spouses as decision-makers in purchasing household products. The findings reveal that dyad exposure significantly increases conversion rates by stimulating intra-couple interaction.
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This study explores how mega- and micro-influencers manage authenticity in their sponsored content based on social network theory, which argues that individuals, groups and organizations are embedded within webs of social relations and interactions that impact their beliefs and actions. It compares their strategies and engagement rates, providing insights into the effectiveness of different influencer types.
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This study investigates the relationship between consuming live-streamed content and engaging with a specific video game. It finds that live-streamed content significantly increases gameplay, with the effect varying by user loyalty to different types of streamer channels. The findings are crucial for firms allocating sponsorship resources.
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The shift from traditional media to digital platforms has made YouTube a key player in content consumption. This study evaluates the effectiveness of YouTube's popular advertising formats—skippable ads, non-skippable ads and brand placements—within infotainment videos. Findings suggest that skippable ads and brand placements are perceived as less intrusive, while non-skippable ads enhance brand recall. Combining skippable ads with brand placements yields comparable results to non-skippable ads alone. Brand placements alone foster more positive brand attitudes compared to other ad types. The study provides valuable insights for marketers on the cost-benefit tradeoffs of different YouTube advertising formats, emphasizing the importance of aligning promotional tools with campaign objectives.
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This study explores how dialect wording in advertisements can enhance consumer recall and deepen brand connections. By examining six studies conducted in China, the research demonstrates that dialect advertisements evoke a stronger feeling of groundedness, leading to better recall compared to standard Mandarin ads. The findings are supported by both adjusted recognition scores and eye-tracking data. The study also identifies boundary conditions such as bicultural identity integration, traveler versus settler orientation, and brand characteristics (warm versus competent) that influence the effectiveness of dialect advertising. These insights provide valuable guidance for marketers in choosing the appropriate advertising language to enhance consumer engagement and memory.
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The ARF's 7th Annual Privacy Study surveyed 1,242 American consumers to understand their attitudes towards online privacy, data sharing and trust in institutions. This impactful perennial survey for the first time this year even gauged people’s feelings on AI. The study revealed a decline in perceived knowledge about online privacy, with only 40% of respondents feeling well-informed, down from 46% in 2023. Trust in media and brands also declined, particularly among younger demographics, while medical and financial institutions retained higher trust levels.
The study also highlighted increased resistance to data collection, even when tied to personalization or improved ad experiences. Consumers showed a growing aversion to sharing sensitive information and a heightened sensitivity to data breaches. Emerging concerns about AI and its impact on privacy were also noted, with AI platforms ranking among the least trusted institutions.
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