Programmatic Advertising: Shaping Consumer Behavior or Invading Consumer Privacy?
Loading...
Date
2016-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Digital advertising is experiencing a disruptive, industry-transforming shift. Everything – from how companies and brands target consumers, record their preferences and behavior, persuade them, and intervene in the consumer decision process – has dramatically changed. Big Data, particularly from consumers’ online behavior, has fueled opportunities for marketers to create optimized campaigns, cost efficiently, and with great precision, through the phenomenon of Programmatic Advertising. Over half of digital media expenditures in 2015 were on programmatic advertising. It is estimated that $17B will be spent on programmatic advertising next year. Despite its current popularity and exponential growth, there has been a lack of systematic research on programmatic advertising. The goals of this research project are to develop a 360- degree understanding of programmatic advertising, its effect on consumer perceptions and behavior, current industry best practices, and, its projected future. Consequently, this project involves multiple phases and research methods – literature review and analysis (phase 1), qualitative research with managers (phase 2), and a field experiment with consumers (phase 3). I have developed four hypotheses. I tested two hypotheses with results from in-depth interviews with industry executives, and two consumer-behavior related hypotheses with data from a field experiment with consumers. Results from the qualitative research validate the enhanced efficiency and accountability of marketing expenditures (H1), and the growing abuse of consumer privacy (H2), due to programmatic advertising. Results from the field experiment indicate that programmatic advertising positively affects purchase intentions of online shoppers to a greater extent compared to other forms of online advertising (H3), and builds more positive
attitudes towards brands (H4). Novel findings from this research have broad implications for consumer behavior researchers, advertising and media executives, and policy makers.
Description
Keywords
Digital Advertising, Programmatic Advertising, Consumer Behavior, Privacy