Movies and MySpace:

The Effectiveness of Official Websites vs. Online Promotional

Contests

Emily Mabry, LSU

Dr. Lance Porter, LSU

AEJMC ConferenceAugust 5-8, 2009

Research Significance

• Little research examining effects of Internet movie promotions

• Research on advertising using social networks is mostly descriptive

• Study will bridge gaps in research by examining effectiveness of specific online promotional tactics

Study Overview• Comparison of survey results from

– an official movie site

– a movie contest promotion within in a MySpace page

Hypotheses• Hypothesis 1a. Users with more positive

attitudes toward the official movie website will have more positive intent to purchase.

• Hypothesis 1b. Users with more positive attitudes toward the official movie website will have more positive opening weekend behavior.

• Hypothesis 2a. Users with more positive attitudes toward the MySpace promotional page will have more positive intent to purchase.

• Hypothesis 2b. Users with more positive attitudes toward the MySpace promotional page will have more positive opening weekend behavior.

Research Questions

• Research Question 1. Exposure to which site is more effective in positively influencing opening weekend behavior and intent to purchase?

• Research Question 2: Do respondents like the official website or the MySpace promotional page more?

• Research Question 3: What effects will the MySpace promotion have on frequent moviegoers’ intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior compared to the effects of the official movie website?

Research Questions cont.

• Research Question 4a: How do user demographics of official website respondents differ in regards to intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior?

• Research Question 4b: How do user demographics of the MySpace promotional page respondents differ in regards to intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior?

Methodology• Voluntary online survey on two sites

• 31-question survey to measure:

– Attitude toward the site (Chen and Wells, 1999)

– Rating of site (Jee and Lee, 2002)

– Online usage

– Intent to Purchase

– Opening Weekend Behavior

Sample

Total: 13,803

MySpace: 951

Official site: 12,852

Age

Race

Gender

Official Site Results• Hypothesis 1a. Those who liked the

official site more than average intend more to go on opening weekend (M=4.4) than those who liked the official site less than average (M=3.95, F (1, 11,390) = 506.4, p < .01).

• Hypothesis 1b. Those who liked the official site more than the average scored higher on intent to purchase (M= 4.72) than those who liked the official site less than average (M=4.3, F (1, 11390) = 504.1, p <.01).

MySpace Page Results• Hypothesis 2a. Those who liked the

MySpace promotion page more than average planning to go more on opening weekend (M=4.15) than those who liked the MySpace page less than average (M=3.58, F (1, 535) = 31, p < .01).

• Hypothesis 2b. Those who liked the website more than the average scored higher on intent to purchase (M=4.68) than those who liked the MySpace page less than average (M= 4.05, F (1, 535) = 42.7, p <.01).

Comparison Results• Research Question 1: The official movie site

influences intent to purchase more (M=4.21) than the MySpace promotional site (M=3.86, F (1, 11927) = 54, p < .01).

• The official movie site influences opening weekend behavior more (M=4.54) than the MySpace promotional site (M=4.36, F (1, 11927) = 15.9, p < .01).

• Research Question 2: To the website liking index - respondents significantly like the official movie site more (M=.006) than the MySpace promotional site (M= -.09, F (1, 13731)= 8.3, p < .01

Frequent Moviegoer Results

• Research Question 3: Frequent Movie goers

– No significant effect on opening weekend behavior

– Frequent moviegoers indicated higher levels of intent to purchase (M=5.18) on the MySpace page than on the the official site (M=4.81, F (1, 4263) = 34.5, p <.01).

Discussion• Overall positive attitudes toward the sites

produced more favorable intent to purchase and movie opening weekend behavior.

• The official website was more effective than the MySpace promotional page at increasing intent to see and attendance on opening weekend.

• However, the means of both sites were high, showing that overall both the official website and MySpace page were effective at influencing intent to purchase and opening weekend behavior.

Limitations

• No survey measure to determine if respondents went to both the official website and the MySpace promotional page

• Differences in interest levels of site visitors may have slightly skewed the results

– Official movie site visitors have high involvement and interest in the film

– MySpace respondents may stumble across page

• Difference between intent and actual behavior

Questions?

Lance Porter, Ph.D.email: lporter@lsu.edu

Emily Mabryemail: emabry1@tigers.lsu.edu