Can you feel the advertisement tonight? The effect of ASMR cues in video advertising on purchase intention

Abstract

ASMR is a sensory response characterized by physical tingles in the head and spine that can be induced by everyday life cues like watching or hearing someone’s hair being brushed. As numerous videos are now deliberately designed to evoke ASMR, brands have also shown interest to include ASMR cues in their advertisements. This paper presents three studies scrutinizing ASMR experiences, both in a non-advertising and advertising context. First, a web-scraping study suggests that ASMR is typically associated with feelings of relaxation. Furthermore, two experiments show the positive influence of embedding ASMR cues in advertisements on consumers’ purchase intentions. A serial mediation analysis demonstrates that this positive effect can be explained by increased feelings of relaxation, which enable a better flow-like experience. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• ASMR
• advertising
• relaxation
• flow state
• purchase intentions

Acknowledgments

The authors greatly acknowledge the help of Nicolas Dewulf in creating the stimuli and collecting the data of Study 2.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura De Kerpel

Laura De Kerpel (PhD, Ghent University) is a doctoral assistant in Business Economics at the Department of Marketing, Innovation, and Organisation at Ghent University, Tweekerkenstraat 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Anneleen Van Kerckhove

Anneleen Van Kerckhove (PhD, Ghent University) is an associate professor of marketing at the Department of Marketing, Innovation, and Organisation, at Ghent University, Tweekerkenstraat 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Tina Tessitore

Tina Tessitore (PhD, Ghent University) is an associate professor of marketing at IÉSEG School of Management, 3 Rue de la Digue, 59000 Lille, France (LEM-CNRS UMR 9221).