Movies and MySpace: The Effectiveness of Official Web Sites versus Online Promotional Contests

Emily Mabry and Lance Porter

Louisiana State University

Abstract

Few studies have examined the effects of Internet promotions within social networking sites. This study uses a comparison of online survey results from an official movie site and a movie contest promotion within a MySpace site to examine the effectiveness of the two online promotional tactics. Results indicate that overall the official Web site was more effective than the MySpace promotional page at increasing intent to see the movie. However, on the basis of the findings, the authors believe the most effective campaign would use both an official Web site and a social networking site. This study suggests additional research to explore the effectiveness of advertising messages on social network platforms and understand how users interact and respond to messages within these social communities.

Keywords: movie marketing, social media, online promotion, Internet marketing

Introduction

With the growth in online advertising, there are now numerous ways to reach consumers using promotional tactics. However, many of these new tactics, such as advertising within a social network, have not been empirically examined. Existing promotions research has examined traditional forms of advertising promotions. More recent literature explores the effects of Web sites and Web site interactivity on consumers. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of promotions on Web sites and social networks.

Because consumer usage of social media platforms has substantially increased, this study focuses on an important area of research for academics and professionals (Cooke and Buckley 2008). Although some previous research has examined social networking sites (Cooke and Buckley 2008; Kuhn and Burns 2008), the work to date remains mostly descriptive. This lack of research demands further inquiry into the effectiveness of online promotional tactics using social networks.

This study examines the promotional effectiveness of official Web sites and the social networking platform MySpace. Using the marketing planning model (Zufryden 1996) as a basis for exploring consumer purchase decisions, we investigate the effectiveness of an online contest placed on a social network. Using an online, Web-based survey, we compare levels of intent to see a film.

Literature Review

This study examines a relatively new online advertising tactic: the use of social network platforms for promotional messages. First, we examine past movie marketing literature to provide a foundation for our analysis of a new movie marketing tactic. Second, because this study analyzes an online promotional contest, we review past literature involving traditional promotional contests and their effectiveness. Third, we analyze existing promotional research on the use of Web sites and social networks. We also include literature examining the influence of Web site interactivity on consumers.

Movie Marketing

Past research on movie marketing has mostly focused on the effect of promotions on box office revenue (Cooper-Martin 1992; Hu, Li, and Nelson 2005; Zufryden 1996, 2000). Cooper-Martin (1992) examines the issue when studying movies as experiential sources. She classifies information sources as experiential or nonexperiential, with experiential sources portraying a similar experience for the consumer as the product. Results indicate subjects found experiential sources to be more useful and credible than nonexperiential sources. Because movies are experiential sources, it would be logical to use an experiential promotional tactic. Although Cooper-Martin (1992) did not directly reference Web sites in her study, based on technological advances and the nature of the Internet, we can infer that Web sites are also experiential sources.

Zufryden (1996, 2000) initially developed the marketing planning model in 1996 to explain the effects of advertising on overall box office revenue. This model provides the foundation for our analysis of the effectiveness of official Web sites and social network platforms for movie promotions. The model involves three stages: Advertising increases awareness of a new film, awareness affects intent to see the film, and intent to see the new film affects the purchase of movie tickets and overall box office revenue. Other variables may also influence the process, including word of mouth, advertising saturation, memory decay, film characteristics, and distribution level and timing of film release.

Zufryden (1996) developed the model using Lavidge and Steiner's (1961) hierarchy of effects, which describes the process consumers go through when making purchase decisions. By functioning through cognitive, affective, and conative behavioral dimensions, consumers engage in the following process when making purchase decisions: awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase. According to Lavidge and Steiner (1961), different advertising tactics address the various stages of the hierarchy, thereby stimulating progression to the final purchase stage. Zufryden's marketing planning model (1996) relates the hierarchy to the consumer decision process when selecting films to attend.

The Internet provides a newer vehicle to reach consumers and earn movie sales. Zufryden (2000) reports a relatively important and statistically significant relationship between Web site traffic and box office revenue. Although other variables such as film rating, time from film release, production budget, and seasonality also influenced revenue, Zufryden finds that Web sites could be effective at promoting movies by increasing and maintaining awareness. In addition, Hu, Li, and Nelson (2005) find, through a survey of college-aged moviegoers, that Web sites were one of the most effective forms of movie advertising, ranked second only to television commercials. To gain insight into online movie marketing tactics, we first review literature about traditional promotional tactics.

Traditional Promotions: Contests and Sweepstakes

Many advertisers use games, such as contests or sweepstakes, to aid in promotional efforts. Past research has indicated that these tactics are effective at increasing awareness and short-term purchase intentions (Prendergast, Shi, and Cheung 2005; Wakefield and Barnes 1996). Ward and Hill (1991) create a model describing the causes and consequences of promotional game participation depending on extrinsic and intrinsic values.

Using the stages in Lavidge and Steiner's (1961) hierarchy of effects model-cognition, affection, and conation-Ward and Hill (1991) show how personal characteristics (e.g., demographics, personality, beliefs, past experiences with promotional games) influence a person's extrinsic and intrinsic desire to participate. This desire ultimately determines whether the person participates in a promotional game in the future. For their study, Ward and Hill included as extrinsic values the perceived odds of winning and the perceived value of the prize. In contrast, the intrinsic values were the psychological consequences of participating, such as perceived fun and interest. Understanding why people participate is important to marketers when deciding which promotions to implement.

Wakefield and Barnes (1996) also create a model of sales promotion of leisure services based on hedonic consumption. According to Wakefield and Barnes's (1996) study, games, contests, and sweepstakes represent an added value to people seeking leisure services. They also find that these people are most likely to be involved in hedonic consumption. Respondents' variety-seeking tendency, loyalty to the service provider, and perceived quality of the service environment affected their promotion proneness and perceived value of the service, which in turn affected repatronage intent. Consumers attracted to sales promotions were less likely to be loyal customers and more likely to use the leisure service infrequently.

This study identifies a set of consumers who are attracted to promotions. However, it also indicates that the use of promotional tactics may result in disloyal consumers who only choose a product or service if a promotion is offered. The results of this analysis send a warning to marketers about overusing promotions, because they may decrease loyalty to a brand.

Hightower, Brady, and Baker (2002) develop Wakefield and Barnes's (1996) hedonic consumption model further in their examination of the effect of the service environment on behavioral intention at minor league baseball games. The analysis of baseball games provides a similar consumer situation to moviegoing, because the promotion is focused on motivating consumers to attend an event. Results from this study indicate that the "servicescape," or service environment, significantly influences behavioral intention.

In a similar study examining grocery store promotions, Prendergast, Shi, and Cheung (2005) conducted a survey of 206 supermarket shoppers. Their results indicate that sweepstakes and contests are not effective in generating behavioral consumer responses, compared with traditional price reduction promotional tactics. This study provides additional understanding of consumer motivations and the effectiveness of contest promotions.

Existing literature involving contests and promotions seems to indicate that they should be used to incite short-term behavior, which is the goal of movie marketers. With an understanding of why consumers choose to participate in contest promotions and what influences them to attend continuously, marketers can better understand when to use this promotional tactic effectively. This section thus provides the theoretical foundation for promotional contests; the following sections analyze how promotions change when transferred to the Internet.

Online Promotion

Existing literature on commercial Web sites reveals various assumptions about the effectiveness of online advertising. Dou and Krishnamurthy (2007) compare Web sites of product and service brands through a content analysis of 219 brand Web sites. Their results indicated that accounting firms (service) used their Web sites for corporate-image building and as information sources, whereas drinks and candies firms (product) used Web sites to build customer relationships through interactivity. Although this descriptive study only examined two product categories and collected no direct consumer attitudes, the results show how product and service Web sites are currently being used. However, the study does not indicate whether consumers respond positively to these strategies.

Additional research has proven Web sites to be an effective means to interact with consumers and receive valuable feedback. In a theoretical essay, Faber, Lee, and Nan (2004) suggest that people process Web sites centrally due to the high level of involvement participants employ when using the Internet. Moreover, online users identify product information by attributes, as opposed to the brands they use in traditional media (Faber, Lee, and Nan 2004). In laboratory experiments conducted in Thailand and Taiwan, Chen and colleagues (2009) find that high levels of product involvement lead to more favorable attitudes toward the product's Web site.

Measuring consumer response has become an important task for online marketers to quantify the effectiveness of promotions better. Chen and Wells (1999) first address the need to measure consumer reactions to Web sites operationally. Using judged ratings for 120 Web sites, the researchers created a scale to measure attitude toward a Web site, based on the attitude toward ad scale. The scale, quantifying the variables of entertainment, informativeness, and organization, provides a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of Web sites. Results of the study indicate that subjects prefer Web sites that are organized, engaging, and relevant. This research provides background about Web sites that serve commercial purposes and how consumers respond to them.

Web Site Interactivity

Research regarding Web site interactivity further examines the interaction between the user and the message source. Kiousis's (2002) study is an attempt to create a definition of interactivity, including theory from communication and noncommunication literature. The final definition involves three variables: technological structure of media used (speed, range, timing flexibility, and sensory complexity), characteristics of communication settings (third-order dependency and sensory complexity), and individual perceptions (proximity, perceived speed, sensory activation, and teleprescence).

Most interactivity research has focused on those individual perceptions, and previous research has identified a need to measure perceived interactivity, recognizing that consumers perceive sources differently on the basis of individual differences (Jee and Lee 2002; McMillan and Hwang 2002). In an experimental design, Jee and Lee (2002) find that need for cognition predicts perceived interactivity and attitude toward the site predicts purchase intention.

Analyzing the impact of interactivity on consumer perception further, Chen, Griffith, and Shen (2005) conduct an experiment in which they randomly assign subjects to Web sites with high, medium, and low interactivity. They find people with greater amounts of perceived interactivity have higher levels of trust and understanding of the Web site. These researchers also find the relationship affects subjects' offline purchase intentions positively (Chen, Griffith, and Shen 2005). However, because of the nature of the Web sites tested, the results may be applicable only to the retail apparel industry.

Further building on Web interactivity research, McMillan and Hwang (2002) develop a multistage measure of perceived interactivity based on the direction of communication, user control, and time. Using an experimental design, the researchers randomly assigned subjects to Web sites with low and high levels of interactivity. Results indicate that perceived interactivity may be influential for consumer perception and behavior.

Using previous research about perceived interactivity (Jee and Lee 2002; McMillan and Hwang 2002), Wu (2005) conducted an experiment of 157 students to measure the effects of perceived and actual interactivity on attitude toward the site. Both actual and perceived interactivity positively affect attitude toward the site. The study further stresses the importance of using measures of both forms of Web site interactivity. Furthermore, prior studies on Web site interactivity provide a foundation for understanding consumer motivations for interacting with online promotions.

Promotion on Social Networks

Social networks are an increasingly powerful force in mediated communication. However, research conducted to date has been primarily descriptive. Goldsborough (2009) examined several media trends that the JWT advertising agency reported in its annual forecast. One of the foremost conclusions is the predicted decline of e-mail usage, which JWT attributes to younger people's preference for text messaging and communicating through social networks. In addition, the agency cites the increasing number of social networking sites, introduction of professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn, and increase in micro-blogging using programs such as Twitter.

The evolution of social networks allows for personalized interactions between advertisers and consumers. Although social networks were first adopted by teenagers, a growing population of 25- to 34-year-olds and white collar professionals use them, which demonstrates the applicability of social networks to everyday life (Kim 2008). This growing trend has vast implications for advertisers and executives. With the recent growth of consumer-generated media and the increasing popularity of social networking sites (Cheong and Morrison 2008), advertisers are seeking ways to exploit this new medium.

In predicting that Web 2.0 and the Internet would be the marketing tactics of the future, Cooke and Buckley (2008) identify several trends regarding the growing use of online social networks: the increase in the open source movement through shared intellectual property, the emergence of Web 2.0, and an increase in the number of online social networks and user-generated content (UGC).

Daugherty, Eastin, and Bright (2008) investigate consumers' motivations for creating social networks. Implementing an exploratory study with an online survey, they analyze user attitudes with regard to UGC and find that consumers increase the amount of their social media usage as their attitudes toward social media improve.

The study implications suggest that advertisers should focus on creating positive interactions between consumers and social networks to improve attitudes toward social media. With a positive attitude, consumers will be more likely to interact with social media and create their own content within the network. Such highly involved interactions between users and the company should provide positive brand experiences that may lead to sales.

With advances in Internet capabilities and social networking sites, Internet users are engaging in more consumer-to-consumer content sharing. This development has led to the creation of personalized content recommendations through sites. Applying the information overload and users and gratifications theory, Liang, Lai, and Ku (2006) conclude that personalized content services increase user satisfaction when used appropriately. They suggest providing content recommendations when users need specific information, as opposed to when consumers look at general Web sites.

Existing research involving advertising and social networks remains mostly descriptive and has focused on impression management, friendship performance, networks and network structure, online/offline connections, and privacy issues (boyd and Ellison 2007). Little research has directly examined how advertisers use social networks for promotional purposes. This area of research requires further examination to understand the effectiveness of social media programs on consumers and their attitudes.

Some businesses create profiles and brand their products in an effort to reach consumers (Kuhn and Burns 2008). Within MySpace, Kuhn and Burns (2008) find that brands present advertising, multimedia content, and other features to allow consumer interactions with brands. Many companies also connect offline and online promotions through these branded profiles, including exclusive online promotional offers to increase profile traffic.

Social networks differ from traditional Web sites in the way consumers interact with them, creating a distinct new area of research. As consumer habits change, there is growing need to understand how consumers interact on these social platforms. One related area of research involves word of mouth on the Internet, also known as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), which is often facilitated through the use of social networks.

Social networks differ from traditional Web sites because they function by connecting individual people. This creation of additional communication channels allows messages to spread quickly by word of mouth on the Web. Social networks' ability to foster communication makes them unique platforms for promotions such as contests.

Social network platforms foster the exchange of word-of-mouth messages by creating a virtual community for consumers to interact with one another (Goldenburg, Libai, and Muller 2001). This environment creates social relationships "when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace" (Rheingold 1993, p. 5). Advertisers have the opportunity to use this eWOM to their advantage to increase the persuasiveness of their messages and reach more people.

To understand the effectiveness of eWOM, Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels (2009) compare it with traditional marketing vehicles when examining efforts to increase the number of users on a social networking site. Overall, they find that eWOM is more effective, with larger and longer effects than traditional marketing. This study is also a clear example of ways to quantify eWOM efforts; the researchers track eWOM through the online record of outgoing eWOM messages. This technique to measure online advertising efforts could prove useful to marketers.

Previous work has examined the effectiveness of movie marketing, traditional contest promotional research, and online promotional research. In addition to Web sites, social networks provide unique platforms for promotions because of their ability to foster eWOM communications. However, few studies have examined the effects of online promotional contests or promotional contests within social networking sites. This study examines and compares the effectiveness of exposure to a branded Web site and a contest hosted on a social networking site on users' intent to see the film and motivation to see the film on opening weekend.

Research Questions

According to the marketing planning model (Zufryden 1996), advertising increases awareness of a film and ultimately should influence the subject's intent to see the film. Furthermore, according to the hedonic consumption model, people seeking leisure services to fulfill hedonic needs are not loyal to the service but use the promotion to make short-term purchase decisions (Wakefield and Barnes 1996). Because moviegoing is a low-involvement experience with low associated costs, movie marketers are interested in influencing consumers' short-term behavior to see the film in the movie theater.

Because there is little research examining the effectiveness of social network platforms, we propose the following research question:

Adopting Chen and Wells's (1999) scale measuring attitude toward the site with the understanding that attitude toward the site is a significant indicator of purchase intention (Jee and Lee, 2002), we also propose:

Movie marketers commonly target frequent moviegoers for marketing campaigns. Due to the lack of relevant information on this population, we question:

We are also interested in discovering the differences between users who went to the official movie Web site as opposed to the MySpace promotional page. Therefore, we suggest the following research question:

Methodology

To analyze the effects of the MySpace promotional page and the official movie Web site, we gathered survey data from a voluntary online survey posted on the official Disney High School Musical 3: Senior Year Web site and High School Musical 3: Senior Year contest MySpace page. A movie's official site is the main site created by the production company, which includes official information and trailers to promote the movie. The promotion on the MySpace page involved a "High School Spirit Contest," displayed on the High School Musical MySpace fan page. Contest participants could enroll for a chance to win a trip for their senior class to Walt Disney World or Disneyland. The online survey appeared at the bottom of both sites. Visitors to either site could take the survey by clicking on a button labeled "Take the HSM3 survey."

Instrument

The online survey contained 31 questions. Respondents answered questions based on a series of statements, similar to those Chen and Wells (1999) used to measure attitude toward the site. Respondents rated their agreement, on five-point Likert scales from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," with the following statements: "This Web site makes it easy for me to build a connection with the movie," "I would like to visit this Web site again in the future," "I'm satisfied with the service provided by this Web site," "I feel comfortable surfing this Web site," and "I feel surfing this Web site is a good way for me to spend my time." They also indicated, "Compared with other movie Web sites, I would rate this one as," on a five-point scale from "one of the best" to "one of the worst."

The next section asked respondents to rate the Web site on a series of 15 descriptive terms using a five-point scale from "not at all applies" to "very much applies," adapted from Jee and Lee (2002). Three open-ended questions prompted respondents to respond to what they liked and disliked about the site and why they came to the site. To measure online usage, we asked respondents how often they visit "this site," "Disney.com," and "other official movie sites." To gauge which sites respondents were arriving from, we asked "How did you find the site?" To understand interest levels, we asked, "How important are official movie sites in your decision to see a movie in a theater?" using a five-point scale from "very important" to "unimportant."

According to industry standards established by the National Research Group, a frequent moviegoer attends 12 or more movies a year. To measure the moviegoing frequency of respondents, we asked the following questions: "How many times have you been to the movies at a theater in the past 2 months?" "How many times have you been to the movies at a theater in the past 12 months?" and "How often do you see movies during the first week or 10 days after they open?"

To measure behavioral intent, we asked, "Do you plan to see this movie in the theater?" using a six-point scale from "definitely" to "definitely not" and "I have already seen this film." Although it is only an intention measure, it is the most adequate measure for behavior in the survey. To measure whether they would see the movie on opening weekend, we asked, "When do you plan on seeing this movie?" using a six-point scale with the following options: "opening weekend in a theater," "within the first two weeks of release in a theater," "in a theater at a later date," "I'm going to wait to see it on Video/DVD," and "I don't plan to see it at all."  This question gauged how soon after the movie's opening they would see the film, indicating how important the film was to them. We identify this behavioral intent as opening weekend behavior, an intent that is important to movie marketers due to the emphasis on opening weekend sales.

We measured online usage with the following questions: "How often do you play online games?" "How much time did you spend online yesterday?" "How often do you go online?" and "How often do you use your mobile phone to access the Internet?" Finally, the respondents answered demographic information, including if they were "visiting with their child."

Sample

The sample included voluntary survey respondents from both the official movie Web site and the MySpace promotional page. With a total of 13,803 respondents overall, 12,852 responded to the official movie Web site, and 951 responded to the MySpace promotional site. People responded to the surveys from July 22, 2008, to November 10, 2008.

Results

Demographics

The demographics of respondents from the official movie Web site and the MySpace promotional site varied slightly. Gender and ethnicity percentages were similar, but the ages of the respondents varied (see Table 1).

Table 1. Sample Demographics from Official Web Site and MySpace Page

  Official Web Site (N = 12,852) MySpace Page (N = 951)
Male 18% 17%
Female 82% 83%
     
Caucasian 50% 49%
African-American 6.3% 9.5%
Latino 8% 18%
Asian 16.6% 12.4%
Native American 1.5% 2.7%
Other 17.6% 8.5%
     
Less than 13 years of age 34.8% 10.5%
13-16 years of age 46.2% 55%
17-20 years of age 7.4% 25.1%
21-24 years of age 3.2% 5%
25-34 years of age 3.6% 2.2%
35-44 years of age 2.9% 1.1%
45-49 years of age 0.7% 0.1%
Greater than 49 years of age 1.3% 1.1%

Constructing the Web Liking Index

We constructed the Web site liking index from a scale of six measures adopted from Chen and Wells (1999) to measure attitude toward the site. A factor analysis of the six items measuring attitude using a Varimax rotation resulted in the creation of one factor. We labeled this factor "Web Site Liking" (Cronbach's α = .91).

Results of Tests of Research Questions

RQ1 asked which site more strongly influenced respondents' intent to see the film. To measure this behavioral intent, we first filtered out all respondents who had already seen the movie, to prevent the users' opinions of the movie from influencing their opinion of the sites. Next, we controlled for users' prior interest in the film by controlling for searcher type. Users indicated how they found each site in the survey. We labeled as "searchers" those who directly typed in the Web address, bookmarked the site, used a search engine, or searched within MySpace; their purposeful search indicates their prior interest in the film. We labeled other users "surfers," that is, those who stumbled on either site by chance, indicating a lower prior interest than searchers'.

We ran a multiple regression on responses to the item "Do you plan to see this film?" against the data source, controlling for searcher type. Data source indicated whether the user took the survey at the official Web site or the MySpace site. The overall multiple regression explained .3% of the variance and yielded significant results (R2 = .003; F = 20.43, p = .00). Data source was the most influential predictor (β = .150, p = .001). With MySpace coded as 0 and the official site coded as 1, the beta indicates that the official site was more effective at influencing intent to see the film (see Table 2).

Table 2. Multiple Regression of Data Source to Predict Intent to See the Film

  Degrees of Freedom Sum of Squares Mean Square F p
Regression 2 42.038 21.02 20.43 .00
Residual 11926 12271.56 1.03    

 

Predictors b SEb Beta T SigT
Data source .150 .045 .031 3.33 .001
Searcher type -.097 .019 -.046 -5.032 .000
Notes: Multiple R = .058. R2 = .003. Standard error = 1.014.

RQ2 asked which site the respondents liked more, controlling for prior interest by controlling for searcher type. A multiple regression on the constructed Web site liking index and data source, controlling for searcher type, explained .4% of the variance and yielded significant results (R2 = .004; F = 24.93, p = .00). Data source was the most influential predictor (β = .227, p = .000), indicating respondents liked the official site more than the MySpace site (see Table 3).

Table 3. Multiple Regression of Data Source to Predict Web Site Liking

  Degrees of Freedom Sum of Squares Mean Square F p
Regression 2 49.744 24.87 24.93 .00
Residual 11892 11865.77 .99    

 

Predictors b SEb Beta T SigT
Data source .227 .046 .046 4.97 .000
Searcher type -.084 .019 -.041 -4.42 .000
Notes: Multiple R = .065. R2 = .004. Standard error = .998.

RQ3 asked which site more strongly influenced frequent moviegoers' intent to see the film. We first filtered all users who saw fewer than 12 movies a year. We also controlled for prior interest by controlling for searcher type in a similar manner as for RQ1.

For only frequent moviegoers, we ran a multiple regression on responses to the item "Do you plan to see this film?" against the data source, controlling for searcher type. The overall multiple regression explained .7% of the variance and yielded significant results (R2 = .007; F = 44.46, p = .00). Data source was the most influential predictor (β = .316, p = .000), indicating that the official site is more effective at influencing frequent moviegoers' intent to see the film (Table 4).

Table 4. Multiple Regression of Data Source to Predict Frequent Moviegoers' Intent to See the Film

  Degrees of Freedom Sum of Squares Mean Square F p
Regression 2 102.134 51.07 44.46 .00
Residual 11926 13699.48 1.15    

 

Predictors B SEb Beta T SigT
Data source .316 .048 .061 6.63 .000
Searcher type -.119 .020 -.054 -5.89 .000
Notes: Multiple R = .086. R2 = .007. Standard error = 1.072.

RQ4 asked how the user demographics of respondents of the official movie Web site differed with regard to intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) of "When do you plan to see this film?" and "Do you plan to see this film?" indicated no significant relationship with gender. However, ANOVAs of "When do you plan to see this film?" (Table 5) and "Do you plan to see this film?" (Table 6) indicated significant relationships with age. The ANOVA using Tukey follow-up comparisons also indicated that all of the age groups were more likely to see the movie than those older than 49 years of age (see Table 7). Also for the official Web site, the ANOVA using Tukey follow-up comparisons indicated significant relationships with age and opening weekend behavior. The analysis indicated all age groups planned to see the film sooner than those older than 49 years of age (see Table 8).

Table 5. Summary of ANOVA for Web Site Respondents' Ages and Intent to Purchase

    Sum of Squares Degrees of Freedom Mean Square F
Between groups 142.607 7 20.372 18.442
Within groups 14168.787 12826 1.105   
Total 14311.394 12833      
*p < .01.

Table 6. Summary of ANOVA for Web Site Respondents' Ages and Opening Weekend Behavior

    Sum of Squares Degrees of Freedom Mean Square F
Between groups 182.569 7 26.081 24.214
Within groups 13814.924 12826 1.077   
Total 13997.493 12833      
*p < .01.

Table 7. Tukey HSD Comparison for Web Site Respondents' Ages and Intent to Purchase

           95% Confidence Interval
(I) Age (J) Age Mean Difference (I - J) Standard Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
Less than 13 years Older than 49 years .649* .084 .39 .90
           
13-16 Less than 13 years .127* 0.21 .06 .19
    Older than 49 years .775* .084 .52 1.03
           
17-20 Less than 13 years .130* .038 .02 .24
    Older than 49 years .779* .89 .51 1.05
           
21-24 Less than 13 years .166* .054 .00 .33
  Older than 49 years .815* .098 .52 1.11
           
25-34 Less than 13 years .177* .051 .02 .33
  Older than 49 years .826* .096 .54 1.12
           
35-44 Less than 13 years .198* .056 .03 .37
  Older than 49 years .847* .099 .55 1.15
           
45-49 Older than 49 years .769* .140 .34 1.19
*p < .05.

Table 8. Tukey HSD Comparison for Web Site Respondents' Ages and Opening Weekend Behavior

           95% Confidence Interval
(I) Age (J) Age Mean Difference (I - J) Standard Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
Less than 13 years Older than 49 years .685* .083 .43 .94
           
13-16 Less than 13 years .143* .021 .08 .21
    Older than 49 years .828* .083 .58 1.08
           
17-20 Less than 13 years .162* .037 .05 .27
    Older than 49 years .847* .088 .58 1.11
           
21-24 Less than 13 years .193* .054 .03 .36
  Older than 49 years .878* .096 .59 1.17
           
25-34 Less than 13 years .212* .051 .06 .37
  Older than 49 years .897* .095 .61 1.18
           
35-44 Less than 13 years .294* .056 .13 .46
  Older than 49 years .979* .097 .68 1.27
           
45-49 Older than 49 years .873* .138 .45 1.29
*p < .05.

RQ4b examined how the user demographics of respondents from the MySpace promotional page differed with regard to intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior. The ANOVAs of "When do you plan to see this film?" and "Do you plan to see this film?" indicated no significant relationship with gender, nor did an ANOVA of "Do you plan to see this film?" indicate a significant relationship with age.

However, an ANOVA of "When do you plan to see this film?" indicated a significant relationship with age (see Table 9). The ANOVA using Tukey follow-up comparisons for "When do you plan to see this film?" indicated one significant relationship between age and opening weekend behavior for the MySpace promotional page: Respondents aged 17-20 years planned to see the film sooner than those younger than 13 years of age (see Table 10).

Table 9. Summary of ANOVA for MySpace Respondents Ages and Opening Weekend Behavior

    Sum of Squares Degrees of Freedom Mean Square F
Between groups 19.189 6 3.198 2.688
Within groups 111.419 934 1.190   
Total 1130.608 940      
*p < .01. 

Table 10. Tukey HSD Comparison for MySpace Respondents Ages and Opening Weekend Behavior

           95% Confidence Interval
(I) Age (J) Age Mean Difference (I - J) Standard Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
17-20 years Less than 13 years .451* .131 .07 .84
           
*p < .05. 

Discussion

Analyses of the survey data from the official movie Web site and the MySpace page mostly reinforce existing literature about Web site interactivity. The results from this study indicate that the official site is more effective in positively influencing intent to see the film. When interpreting this finding, it is important to remember the functional differences between an official Web site and a MySpace page. Overall, the Web site had more content and opportunities for interaction. Therefore, this finding reinforces existing literature, which states that increased interactivity positively affects purchase intentions (Chen, Griffith, and Shen, 2005).

The results from RQ1 and RQ2 also reinforce previous research from Jee and Lee (2002), which states that attitude toward the site positively influences purchases intention. Results from RQ2 indicate that respondents liked the official Web site more than the MySpace promotional page. Because the Web site liking scale is based on the values of entertainment, informativeness, and organization (Chen and Wells 1999), this finding emphasizes the importance of Web site design and ease of use. Furthermore, on the basis of Jee and Lee's (2002) findings, it is logical that because the respondents liked the official Web site more, they were also more likely to also have a stronger intent to see the film, as indicated in RQ1.

This study also sought to study frequent moviegoers because this population is especially important to movie marketers. Among frequent moviegoers, results indicated that the official site was more effective at influencing intent to see the film. This finding is important, because this population has a greater interest in movies than the general population and therefore likely interacts with movie Web sites on a more regular basis, which would enable them to be more critical in their evaluation of the site. Because we controlled for prior interest, this finding further illustrates that the official Web site was a more effective marketing tool in this campaign.

Although the majority of our findings indicate that the official site was a superior marketing tool, we believe these results should be interpreted with an understanding of the differences between official Web sites and social networking sites. There is still much ambiguity about how to use the Internet and social networking platforms for marketing purposes. This study highlights the ways in which an official Web site can be an effective marketing tool. However, we do not want to mislead readers to believe that social networking platforms are not effective platforms.

These results of this study could be influenced by the nature of MySpace and its limited capacity to host interactive content. Whereas the official Web site was effective at influencing intent to see the film, we believe the MySpace page could have been effective at generating awareness and encouraging the spread of awareness through its network of users, a capacity the official Web site does not possess. Overall, we believe there are possibilities for successful campaigns on social networking platforms; however, marketers must understand the nature of social networks and create campaign goals that leverage the attributes of those platforms.

Additional results from the study indicate no significant relationship between gender and intent to purchase or opening weekend behavior for either site. The results were most likely influenced by the overwhelming majority of female respondents, due to the nature of the particular movie. Furthermore, for the official movie Web site, age had a significant relationship with intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior. We found an interesting pattern of significant relationships within age groups. For the official Web site, all of the age groups were more likely to see the movie than were respondents older than 49 years of age. A similar pattern emerged for official Web site respondents' opening weekend behavior. We found that all the age groups planned to see the film sooner than those older than 49 years of age, and all the age groups except 45-49 and older than 49 years planned to see the film sooner than respondents less than 13 years of age.

This finding is understandable, considering the nature of the movie and the infrequent moviegoing behavior of older people. Furthermore, all age groups except those older than 45 years were more likely to see the movie than respondents younger than 13 years. Although Disney normally targets this demographic, the High School Musical series is designed for older teenagers, which accounts for this result.

The demographics of respondents from the official Web site and the MySpace promotional page were similar except for age. The majority of official Web site respondents were younger than MySpace respondents. We believe the difference in sample age percentages resulted from the typical users who access Disney.com movie sites and those who access MySpace. Disney.com generally attracts younger audiences due to the nature of their films, whereas MySpace is generally a social networking tool used by slightly older people.

Practical Implications

Overall, this study offers an attempt to examine the use of promotional content on a social networking site to understand how advertisers can use this new platform more effectively. Because of the MySpace pages' inferior ability to influence intent to see the film, marketers should not use a social networking page as their only online tactic. However, they also should not discount social networking sites' potential for advertising. It is apparent that official Web sites effectively influence intent to see the film. However, we believe social networks can be used in conjunction with an official Web site to increase awareness of the film and drive traffic to the official Web site, which can then influence users' purchase intentions.

Web sites are ideal for hosting content and interactive features, but they do not have the sharing capabilities and channels of communication available on a social network. Therefore, marketers should use the attributes of each site for separate goals. Using a Web site exclusively prevents the spread of additional communications about the film throughout the user's social network, which can only be achieved on a social networking site such as MySpace. However, only using a social networking site can be an ineffective use of the Internet, as evidenced by the findings of this study.

Limitations and Recommendations

This study is one of the first to examine the use of a promotional contest within a social networking site. However, it suffers from some limitations. First, we did not include a survey measure to determine if respondents went to both the official Web site and the MySpace promotional page. This limitation kept us from analyzing the effects of exposure to both sites. Further research should examine the effectiveness of exposure to both promotional sites.

Another limitation involved the use of the voluntary survey, because people who take a survey without incentive usually differ from the general public. Furthermore, because both sets of data came from a survey instrument, there are methodological concerns about the internal and external validity of the results. However, this study provided the unique opportunity to study data previously concealed for private corporate usage. Therefore, we believe the potential benefits of the analysis outweigh validity concerns.

Finally, the survey could only measure behavioral intent, which can differ vastly from actual behavior. Although the marketing planning model (Zufryden 1996) suggests intent to purchase leads to purchase of tickets and increases in box office revenue, the process is not guaranteed. The results of this study only provide an understanding of what the user intends to do.

Further research should explore the effects of advertising on the Internet beyond official movie Web sites and promotions within social networking sites. Researchers should also choose different methods to analyze this issue, such as experimental design and content analysis. By contributing to the limited research available, researchers can examine and understand the implications and effectiveness of advertising on social networks. This increase in research has positive implications for both academics and practitioners.

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About the Authors

Emily Mabry is a masters' student in the mass communication program at Louisiana State University. Her main research interests include advertising effectiveness, new media, and social networks. She plans to pursue a career in marketing upon graduation in May 2010. E-Mail: emabry1@gmail.com.

Lance Porter (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is the Advertising Area Head in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. He has focused on digital media since 1995, when he built his first commercial Web site. His research focuses on how digital media affect communication and culture. He holds a joint appointment with the Center for Computation and Technology. E-Mail: lporter@lsu.edu.