A common theme among some of this weeks articles was that technology has opened the doors for many new types of advertisements. As discussed in (Taylor et al., 2011), Social Networking Sites provide ample opportunities for advertisers, and Wilken and Sinclair (2009) discussed how mobile technology also represents an arena of seemingly untapped advertising opportunities. Although companies would be able to reach many people at one time with these technologies, there appears to be a problem. The problem is that advertisers and other stakeholders do not want to scare off users by over advertising, or crossing some boundary and violating the privacy of the users. Personally, I don’t really care too much about the ads on Facebook. For the most part, I just tune them out. However, I am against receiving advertisements on my mobile device. I guess that I have had some ads sent to my phone before, but as Wilken and Sinclair (2009) put it, mobile media advertising is still “waiting for the kiss of life.” If mobile advertising never receives this awakening, that would be okay with me!

Kolsaker and Drakatos (2009) had an interesting take on studying mobile advertising. They looked at “the influence of emotional attachment to mobile devices on consumer receptiveness” to mobile advertising (Kolsaker and Drakatos, 2009). Their findings indicate that individuals who hold a greater emotional attachment to their mobile devices are more likely to be receptive to mobile ads, but that in general, this form of advertisement irritates individuals. This article also introduced me to an interesting study by Henley (2003) that categorized mobile device users into three groups. Users can be classified as “‘Connected but Unattached’ who use devices mainly for calls and little else; ‘Prosthetics’ who remember life before mobile devices and consider them to be an extension of self, used mainly for administration and organizing; and ‘Cyborgs’ who cannot imagine life without their mobile device (Kolsaker and Drakatos, 2009).”

The Muntinga et al. (2011) article interviewed individuals in an attempt to uncover the antecedents of consumer online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Just like the (Taylor et al., 2011) article, Muntinga et al. utilized the uses and gratifications approach to study the topic at hand. Within this approach, I am most interested in the personal identity motivation. It was interesting to see how this motivation may specifically lead individuals to contribute or make their own brand-related content. This is a great insight for marketers since as discussed in the Paek et al. (2011) article, user generated content can impact attitudes. The Paek et al (2011) article looked at public service announcements (PSA) and the impact of producer type on attitudes, issue importance, and behavioral intention. Their discussion of ELM was also important in this context. According to ELM, individuals low in involvement are more likely to attend to source characteristics, while individuals high in involvement are more likely to attend to message claims. The ELM makes it clear that a marketer must know his or her audience before attempting to communicate a persuasive message.

Henley Management College. 2003. People discover the joy of text. Summit (no. 8), http://www.henleymc.ac.uk/henleymc03.nsf/files/SummitIssue8.pdf/$FILE/SummitIssue8.pdf (accessedAugust 18, 2008).

Kolsaker, A., & Drakatos, N. (2009). Mobile advertising: The influence of emotional attachment to mobile devices on consumer receptiveness. Journal of Marketing Communications, 15, 267-280.

Muntinga, D. G., Moorman, M., & Smit, E. G. (2011). Introducing COBRAs: Exploring motivations for brand-related social media use. International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), 13-46.

Paek, H.-J., Hove, T., Jeong, H. J., & Kim, M. (2011). Peer or expert? The persuasive impact of YouTube public service announcement producers. International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), 161- 188.

Taylor, D. G., Lewin, J. E., & Strutton, D. (2011). Friends, fans, and followers: Do ads work on social networks? Journal of Advertising Research, 51(1), 258-275.

Wilken, R., & Sinclair, J. (2009). ‘Waiting for the kiss of life’: Mobile media and advertising. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 15, 427-445.