Effects of Likeability Dynamics on Consumers' Intention to Share Online Video Advertisements

• The dynamic nature of video advertisements leads to variations of consumers' likeability during the progression of the advertisement.
• Likeability at the beginning and the end of the video enhances consumer intention to share the video advertisement, but the ending effect is of greater relevance.
• The peak likeability and variance in likeability evaluations (the rollercoaster effect) drive viral success.
• The moment-to-moment effects are mediated by the overall liking for an online video advertisement.
• The beginning, end and peak effect influence the viral potential even after controlling for the overall liking, whereas the direct peak and the rollercoaster effects are suppressed by the overall liking.

Understanding how consumer evaluations of online advertisements affect their intention to share advertising content online is essential for successful viral advertising. This article examines consumer decisions whether or not to share video advertisements, in particular the role of their moment-to-moment likeability of the online ad. The study uses a theoretical memory-based framework of temporal sequence effects and unique data for 120 advertisements and more than 43,000 consumer evaluations. The authors find that high likeability at the beginning and the end of a video advertisement is important, though consistent with the memory-based framework, the ending effect is greater. A linear trend in likeability does not influence viral potential, but variance in likeability evaluations (the rollercoaster effect) has positive effects on an advertisement's virality. The moment-to-moment effects are mediated by the overall liking for an online video advertisement. Interestingly, the beginning, end and peak effects influence the viral potential even after controlling for the overall liking. The difference of the peak moment becomes important only when controlling for the overall liking, whereas the direct peak and the rollercoaster effects are suppressed by the overall liking.