Patrick De Pelsmacker

Patrick De Pelsmacker
University of Antwerp | UA · Marketing (MKT)

About

235
Publications
141,565
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11,945
Citations

Publications

Publications (235)
Article
This paper explores the influence of different social media platforms’ characteristics for use intensity (i.e., time spent and emotional connectedness), which in turn partially affects the development of consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Using a U.S.-based sample of 939 adult social media users, we tested three serial mediation m...
Article
Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify segments in the Gen Z population (born between 1996 and 2010) in Europe, the USA and Australia, based on brand- and lifestyle-related variables and perceptions about their online activities. This study explores how these segments differ and provide insights into cross-country similarities and differe...
Article
The production and consumption of single-use plastics (SUP) has disastrous consequences for the natural environment. Understanding which consumers are more likely to avoid SUP and why is crucial. Building on a comprehensive action determination model of ecological behavior, this study aims to specify the most relevant drivers and barriers to consum...
Article
Social media are increasingly popular for delivering branded content to consumers worldwide. A central task for researchers is to understand what consumer brand-related motivations and brand appeals drive consumer engagement and benefit brand outcomes across different cultures. Based on the Uses and Gratifications theory, this study explores how in...
Article
Full-text available
In a study with 320 Canadian participants, we explore the effect of perceived physical and non-physical anthropomorphism of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) and the perceived actual and subjective age difference between an individual and this ECA on the ECA’s likeability and credibility. We also explore the effect of likeability and credibili...
Chapter
On social media, sales promotions (monetary incentives, prize promotions, product promotions) are often used to incentivize brand engagement (likes, comments). However, their effectiveness is under-researched. We explore how the textual presentation and the social media type (Facebook, Instagram) affect engagement with different sales promotion typ...
Article
This special issue celebrates the 40th anniversary of the International Journal of Advertising. Nineteen articles from prominent authors cover advertising topics and look at the past, present and most importantly, the future of advertising research, offering extensive suggestions for future research. The issue covers four themes: Looking back at th...
Article
The present research explores readers’ and authors’ general attitudes towards brand placement in fiction. An online survey of Flemish readers (n = 500) and Flemish and Dutch authors (n = 97) measured attitudes towards the use of brand names and the practice of paid brand placement in fiction. Readers also reported their attitudes with regard to pla...
Article
Full-text available
On social networking sites, consumers disclose information about themselves that advertisers use to personalize advertisements. The underlying assumption is that personalized advertisements are more persuasive. However, it is not clear to what extent actual personalization elements (as intended by advertisers) determine consumers’ perceptions of th...
Chapter
Student auxiliary services, such as housing, catering, and social and psychological support, are an important, yet under-researched part of a university’s activities, even though they have an impact on overall student experience and academic performance, as well as on the strategic positioning of a university. The current study develops and empiric...
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Using a previously untested similarity contingency model of country stereotypes, this study assesses the effects of country stereotypes, perceived country similarity, and their interplay on emotion-driven punitive intent toward foreign, wrongdoing companies. In Study 1, positive country stereotypes (warmth, competence) mitigate punitive intent by d...
Article
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Review set valence (the degree of negativity or positivity of a set of online reviews) strongly determines review readers' responses. Previous research has mainly considered the mere number of positive and negative reviews to determine a review set's valence. This paper aims to study how increasing the number of important positive reviews influence...
Article
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This paper aims to better understand the effect of visual attention on the processing of banner and native advertisements on Facebook and consequently on brand recognition and brand attitude. Using an eye-tracking experiment (N = 90), we show that a native advertisement attracts more and longer visual attention (i.e., total fixation duration, fixat...
Article
In a project funded by the European Union, six high-tech innovations were developed to improve the energy-efficiency and sustainability of the greenhouse horticultural industry in the border region Flanders (Belgium) and the Netherlands, in a collaborative effort with various stakeholders. Although there is reason to be optimistic about the feasibi...
Article
The present study is the first to explore the effects of brand placement disclosures in fiction. Prior to reading a short-story featuring an unfamiliar brand, participants were exposed to either a brand-unspecific, brand-specific, or no placement disclosure. A longitudinal design was employed, such that conceptual persuasion knowledge (advertising...
Article
The present research employed a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design to investigate the effects of brand placement modality and frequency on brand attitude in two media, namely a short film or a written text featuring the placed brand. The narrative content and placement scenes were held constant. Modality was manipulated by placing the brand either v...
Article
We study the effect of perceived personalization in advertising on social networking sites (SNSs) on consumer brand responses. In study 1 (N = 202), we test a parallel mediation via perceived personal relevance and intrusiveness on brand attitude (Ab) and click intention (CI). Perceived personalization improves Ab and CI by increasing the perceived...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose This study aims to assess the relative importance of the argument strength, argument sidedness, writing quality, number of arguments, rated review usefulness, summary review rating and number of reviews in determining the perceived usefulness and credibility of an online review. Additionally, the authors use insights from the elaboration li...
Article
Samenvatting Ondersteunende diensten voor studenten (catering, huisvesting, ...) zijn een weinig onderzocht onderdeel van de activiteiten van een universiteit, terwijl ze toch in belangrijke mate bijdragen tot de ervaring van studenten. We ontwikkelen en testen een conceptueel raamwerk om de ervaringen van studenten tijdens hun contacten met een sc...
Article
Using a six-dimension uses and gratifications (U&G) framework, we explore how social media use motivations drive consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs: consumption, contribution, and creation of brand-related content). We examine these relationships for different social media types by drawing on two previously suggested dimensions, nam...
Article
Advertising research is an applied discipline. It should use insights and theories from other disciplines to develop actionable recommendations for contemporary advertising practice, by explaining in a valid way how and why advertising works. I discuss some observations that indicate that part of the current academic advertising literature falls sh...
Article
We investigate the effect of model ethnicity (in-group vs. out-group) in a charity appeal and how this interacts with the scope of the charity (local vs. global) on message recipients’ attitude toward and intention to donate money to the charity. We also test the mediating role of the perceived trustworthiness of the models in the appeal and ad ske...
Article
This study investigates the effects of self-ecotourism personality differences on consumer perceptions of actual, ideal and social self-ecotourism congruity. Additionally, we study the effects of actual, ideal and social self-ecotourism congruity on the willingness to pay more for ecotourism. Finally, our study explores to what extent demographic v...
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Full-text available
As designing with recycled materials is becoming indispensable in the context of a circulareconomy, we argue that understanding how recycled plastics are perceived by stakeholdersinvolved in the front end of the design process, is essential to achieve successful application inpractice, beyond the current concept of surrogates according to industry....
Article
Full-text available
One of the critical decisions in media planning is how to allocate advertising efforts across different media. While studies indicate that marketers can create positive synergy effects by spreading their effort across several media, there is little understanding of how much should be invested in each specific medium to optimize advertising results....
Conference Paper
In a US-sample of Facebook and Instagram users (n = 463), the moderation role of connectedness with the social medium on the relationship between social media use motivations and consumers’ brand-related activities (COBRAs) on social media (consumption, contribution, creation) is studied. Remuneration and Empowerment motivations drive brand-related...
Article
Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of personalization of advertising and adding an advertising cue to advertisements on Facebook, on 9-to-13-year-old children’s awareness of selling intent, attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) and word-of-mouth (WOM) intention. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (personalized ad vs non-p...
Article
Purpose – Past research suggests that heavy media multitaskers (HMMs) perform worse on tasks that require executive control, compared to light media multitaskers (LMMs). This paper aims to investigate whether individual differences between HMMs and LMMs make them respond differently to advertising in a media multitasking context and whether this st...
Article
Contemporary online advertising is characterized by the integration of advertising in other content and brand interactivity. Integrated advertising embeds a persuasive message into informative or entertaining content. Brand interactivity refers to interactions consumers have with brands in advertising messages. A two (integration vs. no integration...
Article
Previous research has consistently found an effect of the valence (positive vs. negative) of electronic word of mouth in general and of word of mouth on a social networking site (sWOM) specifically on consumer responses. The current study investigates how interpersonal and person-to-site relational characteristics (homophily, tie strength, and sour...
Article
Full-text available
This study investigates how the perceived congruity of an in-game advertisement with the game environment and its perceived interactivity affect fantasy game players' perceived ad intrusiveness, narrative realism and, ultimately, their overall attitude toward in-game advertising (IGA). We also show how players' general attitude toward advertising m...
Article
The present study aims to explore the moderating effect of cultural values on responses to male and female gender role stereotyping in advertising. Based on an experiment in Sweden (n = 507) and Germany (n = 506), we test the impact of respondents’ masculinity, power distance, assertiveness values and feminine role orientation on ad attitudes and b...
Article
Full-text available
The present research investigates how brand placement prominence in a fictional text (i.e., a short story) affects placement responses and brand attitude, and whether text language moderates these relationships. A 2 (placement repetition: 2, 11) × 2 (language: native, foreign) between-subjects design was employed, while placement prominence, persua...
Conference Paper
Using an extended seven-components uses and gratification (U&G) framework, this paper studies users’ motivations to use social media, exploring the relation between U&G and different types of consumer-brand engagement on social media. Four types of platforms are analysed using Zhu and Chen's (2015) social media matrix, as the relation between socia...
Article
Microalgae-based food is a source of proteins that, in comparison to meat, offers significant environmental and health-related benefits. A successful market introduction largely depends on consumer acceptance of this food. The current study investigates the motivational drivers and barriers of the adoption of Spirulina (a specific type of micro-alg...
Article
Purpose This study investigates “how” and “when” the stereotypes of competence and warmth that are evoked by a foreign company’s country-of-origin affect blame attributions and/or attitudes toward a company’s products when a company is involved in a product-harm crisis. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 (n=883) analyzes the psychological mecha...
Article
Background: An online interactive information portal is a type of eHealth application in which a group of people with a common interest use social software to gather information and to interact by asking questions and provide information. The present study uses an interactive information portal to explore communication and information needs regardi...
Article
Full-text available
The influence of text valence, star rating and rated usefulness of online reviews on review readers’ impression of the review and their positive word-of-mouth intention is tested in an experimental study (n = 431). In addition, we investigate the moderating role of review readers’ product category involvement and susceptibility to interpersonal inf...
Article
Full-text available
This study proposes a novel methodology, mixture-amount modeling (MAM), to investigate cross-media advertising synergy based on consumers’ media usage. MAM allows to derive optimal media mixes that can be different for different types of media users. The authors provide a proof of concept by analyzing 46,852 responses to 92 beauty care advertising...
Chapter
This chapter investigates how consumers’ brand attitudes are influenced by an advanced form of branded entertainment: the Advertiser-Funded Program. Based on prior work on brand placement, hybrid advertising, and branded entertainment, a model is constructed that captures the interplay of three key determinants of brand attitudes: program liking, v...
Article
Although they are key stakeholders, advertisers’ views on the usage of novel (integrated and/or interactive) advertising toward minors has remained largely unexplored in academic research. This study aims to fill this gap by examining advertising professionals’ opinions about the ethical appropriateness of using novel advertising formats aimed at c...
Article
Personal values, green self-identity and ethical motives have been widely studied as important, but mostly separate, predictors of pro-environmental behaviors. Scholars call for more research on the combined effects of these variables, to explain pro-environmental behavior. In this regard, this study presents a model of electric car adoption intent...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The purpose of this article is to shed light on the boundary conditions of the effect of the valence of word-of-mouth on social networking sites (sWOM) on consumer responses (attitude toward the service provider, purchase intention and positive word-of-mouth intention). Specifically, we examine two moderators: the tone of voice (factual ve...
Article
Full-text available
In order to activate women to participate in breast cancer screening programs, a good understanding is needed of the personal characteristics that influence how women can be activated to search for more information, consult friends and doctors, and participate in breast cancer screening programs. In the current study, we investigate the effect of s...
Article
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Through early diagnosis of symptoms, the Alzheimer’s disease process can be decelerated. The main concern is to encourage the population at risk to take responsible actions at the earliest stage of the onset of the disease. Persuasive communication is essential to achieve this. In an experimental study, the evaluation of awareness messages for earl...
Article
The present research explores how placing a brand name in the dialogue versus the narration of a fictional text (i.e. placement modality) affects brand attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, it studies the moderating role of need for cognition (NFC) and measures brand responses both immediately after exposure and two weeks later. As predicted,...
Article
Purpose This study aims to explore which media 9- and 10-year-old children and 12- and 13-year-old teenagers encounter and which campaign elements (media, spokesperson, appeal and message) are most appreciated by these target groups in awareness campaigns to raise their advertising literacy. Design/methodology/approach The study applies a methodol...
Article
Full-text available
We investigate the moderating role of national openness to foreign markets on consumer responses (attitude to ad, brand and purchase intention) to different degrees of advertising adaptation in Belgium, Iran and India. We operationalize three levels of advertising adaptation (standardization, glocalization and adaptation) by manipulating the model...
Article
We give an overview of the most important decisions to be taken when planning and conducting experimental advertising research. Based on previous research and state-of-the-art academic insights, we discuss good methodological practices with respect to fleshing out the contribution of a study, developing and testing experimental stimuli, selecting a...
Article
The present study aims to explore the relationship between perceived message source (spokesperson) credibility and message compliance in response to a health risk message. Based on an experiment in Ireland (n = 406) and Belgium (n = 410), we test how the relationship between source credibility and message compliance is mediated by perceived threat...
Article
The present study investigates how the perceived congruity (the perceived level of fit between the execution of the in-game ad and the game environment) of in-game advertising (IGA) in fantasy games affects both players’ attitude towards the IGA and their play intention of the fantasy game in which it is embedded, and how these effects are moderate...
Article
This research, based on 20 brand placement campaigns for 17 brands in 11 Belgian entertainment shows, uses the mixture modelling technique to identify the optimal mix of brand placement types in a programme It determines the ideal proportions of prop placements (branded products that are put on display during the programme, without active interacti...
Article
This article investigates the moderating roles of advertising strategy (relational vs. elaborational) and perceived parent brand quality on the influence that parent brand-extension fit exerts on consumer evaluations of both extensions and the parent brand. Two studies manipulate fit in terms of either brand concept consistency or product feature s...
Article
Food safety scandals are recurring events in the food industry worldwide and companies are not immune to these incidents. However, there is a paucity of studies that examine how consumers evaluate and respond to brands involved in food crises and how consumers’ prejudicial views about brands may bias these responses. Following attribution theory, t...
Chapter
Electric cars may be an environmentally-friendly answer to the ecological consequences of personal mobility. Large car brands are preparing to launch an electric car in the near future or they just did (Renault, Opel, Nissan, BMW). A brand is a portfolio of meanings and associations (Guzman et al., 2006). Cars are branded products that evoke all ki...
Chapter
As marketers are looking for new, more effective ways to promote their brand, hybrid advertising formats that merge commercial content with media content (e.g., brand placement) are becoming increasingly important (Pqmedia, 2012; Verhellen et al., 2013). As the practice of hybrid advertising is maturing, branded products are no longer just 'placed'...
Article
The results of two studies reveal that gender plays a moderating role on the effects that the use of probability markers (hedges e.g., possibly, could help; and pledges e.g., definitely, without a doubt) in advertising copy has on consumers’ attitudes towards the brand advertised and purchase intentions. Women, as comprehensive processors, are not...
Article
Full-text available
The current study applied a "mixture-amount modeling" statistical approach-used most often in biology, agriculture, and food science-to measure the impact of advertising effort and allocation across different media. The authors of the current paper believe advertisers can use the mixture-amount model to detect optimal advertising-mix allocation cha...
Article
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the globalization (vs localization) of different cues (advertising copy, brand name, spokesperson, brand logo) influences consumers’ perceived brand globalness. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted conjoint analyses for two products differing in product category involvement (...
Chapter
“The primary international advertising topic over the past five decades is the question of whether, and to what degree, advertising can and should be standardized” or adapted to be effective (Ford et al., 2011, pp. 27). The extent of adaptation of advertisement to the local environment of a society is a critical decision, as it can largely impact t...
Chapter
Full-text available
Advertisers have to decide on the total amount of an advertising campaign budget and how to allocate this budget across media. Despite its relevance to advertisers and media planners, research on the optimal allocation of advertising budgets across different media is lacking(Schultz, Block and Raman, 2012). The present study’s first objective is to...
Article
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The present research investigates how viewers' liking of an advertiser-funded television program (AFP) influences viewers' attitude toward the brand that sponsors the program and its main competitor through a field study at two points in time (Nwave1 = 529 and Nwave2 = 256). An AFP is a television program which is fully sponsored by and built aroun...
Article
Full-text available
In two representative Belgian samples, by means of an online survey, we investigate the effect of self-brand personality differences on car brand evaluation, the evaluation of an eco-friendly branded electric car extension and the evaluation of car brands after electric extension. We show that self-brand personality differences influence the attitu...
Article
Full-text available
We study the impact of perceived personalization on consumer responses to advertising on Facebook, a popular social network site. Based on two experiments, we test a moderated mediation model with perceived relevance as the mediator and respondents' attitude toward Facebook as the moderator of the relationship between perceived personalization on t...
Article
Based on a meta-analysis, this study aims to clarify the influence of online review valence (i.e., whether reviews in a review set are predominantly positive or negative) on various dependent variables, in particular on perceived usefulness of the reviews and on attitudes toward the product. The findings suggest that review valence affects perceive...
Article
Purpose – This study aims to address the credibility effects of refutational versus non-refutational two-sided messages. Additionally, it aims to unravel the moderating role of issue ambivalence and argument type. Design/methodology/approach – A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experimental design (N = 853 adolescents) investigates the effect...
Article
Purpose – Consumers often discuss brands and companies online, but no research details how service providers’ responses to online reviews influence other readers’ perceptions of the reviews and responses. Based on justice theory and the accountability principle, both integrated in equity theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine how service p...
Article
Media multitasking represents an important aspect of the recent evolution in media consumption habits. While some experimental research exists, it has primarily focused on the detrimental effects of multitasking on task performance. We go a step further by examining the impact of media multitasking on information processing style. Study I demonstra...
Article
Full-text available
An Extended Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) is developed that integrates emotions towards car driving and electric cars as well as car driving habits of the DTPB, and is empirically validated in a Belgian sample (n = 1023). Multi-group comparisons explore how the determinants of usage intention are different between groups of consumer...
Article
In a sample of Belgian and Irish participants, we examine the impact of individual differences in uncertainty avoidance, anxiety, and chance belief on the processing of health risk messages. We test a model based on the extended parallel processing model (EPPM) using multigroup comparisons in structural equation modeling (SEM). Groups differing in...
Article
This study proposes a self-identity based eco-friendly intention formation model to assess the effects of green self-identity, care for the environmental consequences of consumption, and green moral obligation, on the attitude toward and the intention to adopt electric cars. The model is empirically validated in three European countries: Denmark, B...
Article
The present study uses Associative Network Theory to construct a model that explains effects of brand placement in movies. Based on a field experiment (n = 167), we investigate the effects of plot connection and prominence on brand attitude, as well as the mediating role of brand-movie fit and the moderating role of brand familiarity. Results show...
Chapter
The responses to three different levels of warmth and three different levels of humor are investigated as well as the moderating role of affect intensity (AI). In general, high levels of humour and warmth seem to be more effective, and generate significantly more positive responses in high than in low AI-respondents.
Chapter
Different major car manufacturers, such as Nissan (Leaf) and Opel (Ampera) have developed fully electric car alternatives that are already for sale. When an established car brand launches an electric variant, it is extending its product line. A brand is a psychological carrier of meaning (e.g. Aaker, 2004; Esch, 2004; Keller, 2008). Car brands carr...
Chapter
This chapter investigates how consumers' brand attitudes are influenced by an advanced form of branded entertainment: the Advertiser-Funded Program. Based on prior work on brand placement, hybrid advertising, and branded entertainment, a model is constructed that captures the interplay of three key determinants of brand attitudes: program liking, v...
Chapter
In this chapter we propose a model in which green self-identity (GSI) is an antecedent of both environmental concern (EC) and moral obligation (MO), which in turn influence the attitude towards electric cars (ATT). GSI is also assumed to have a direct effect on ATT. The attitude towards the electric car then determines the intention to adopt it. Th...
Chapter
Advancing technology and recent developments in communication media have created powerful possibilities for consumers to share their stories and experiences regarding a product or service online. They talk about brands and companies not only in a positive way (“Food and service in this restaurant are just great”) but also in a negative way (“This p...
Chapter
Brand placement, the paid incorporation of brands and products in mass media content (Karrh, 1998), is an increasingly popular marketing communications tool. Previous research into the nature of this phenomenon, has revealed that its effects may vary depending on characteristics of the placement (e.g., Dens et al., 2012), characteristics of the ind...
Chapter
Brand communication through advertising plays an important role in developing strong brands in emerging markets, especially in India. This chapter investigates how ethnocentrism moderates the effects of advertising adaptation levels (globalization, glocalization, and localization) on Indian consumers’ ad evaluation and self-brand congruity. It uses...
Article
This study aims to analyze what drives and prevents the purchasing of eco-friendly products across different consumer groups and develops a conceptual model embracing the positive altruistic (care for the environmental consequences of purchasing), positive ego-centric (green self-identity and moral obligation), and negative ego-centric (perceived p...
Article
This study explores gender role portrayal in advertisements broadcasted on Belgian commercial television. We gathered a sample of 493 commercials (featuring 907 characters) randomly selected out of two periods (January 2002-April 2003, n = 250 and January 2009-April 2010, n = 243) from a database containing all advertisements broadcasted on Belgian...
Article
Full-text available
Emotionally pleasant TV commercials are often preferred over merely factual ones. A large-scale study of Belgian TV ads confirms this notion and shows that such commercials also create more positive feelings toward the advertised brand. Interestingly, these effects depend on neither the level of involvement associated with the product category nor...