Viral Video Ads: Examining Motivation Triggers to Sharing

Advertisers need a better understanding of online video sharing to design strategies for creating viral advertising. Previous studies have focused on users' deeper psychological motivations for sharing online ads. This research focuses on implications of psychological motivations for content strategy. Employing an online study with millennials, it identifies significant triggers for eliciting virality for video ads (i.e., appear ahead of trends, stimulate discussion, elicit strong reactions, make a statement of uniqueness, and share positive emotions etc.). Managerial implications for applying these triggers to the content of video ads to elicit higher levels of sharing are included.