Abstract

Covid-19 (an acronym for the coronavirus disease of 2019) has revised how businesses the world over act, including how they engage their targets. As audiences battle the barrage of Covid-19 information already fighting for their attention, the boundaries of the already complex task of catching and retaining their attention is being re-defined. A cursory observation would show that, during the pandemic, brand advertising has evolved. Promotional messages deployed during the pandemic, particularly at its onset and during peak times, often include references to the pandemic either by way of providing education or solidarising with consumers. How well is this strategy in advertising messaging fitted to audience desires and to what extent does it dis/encourage audience engagement? This article reports on a study that was informed by approach–avoidance theory and explored audience expectations of and responses to advertising messages during the Covid-19 pandemic. Survey data from a sample of advertising audiences in Ghana served as the basis of the exploration. It found that the audience deemed it appropriate for brands to include pandemic information in their advertising and were unreceptive to advertisements (hereafter ads) that have a self-serving (i.e. focused only on the brand) ethos. There were, however, nuances to preference levels towards different themes of pandemic message infusions. These, along with their theoretical implications are discussed in the article.

摘要

Covid-19（2019 年冠状病毒病的首字母缩写词）修改了全球企业的行为方式，包括他们如何参与目标。随着观众与已经在争夺他们注意力的大量 Covid-19 信息作斗争，吸引和保持他们注意力的已经很复杂的任务的界限正在被重新定义。粗略的观察表明，在大流行期间，品牌广告已经发生了变化。在大流行期间部署的促销信息，尤其是在大流行期间和高峰时期，通常包括通过提供教育或与消费者团结的方式提及大流行。这种广告信息策略在多大程度上符合观众的需求，它在多大程度上阻碍/鼓励了观众的参与？本文报道了一项研究，该研究以接近-回避理论为依据，并探讨了 Covid-19 大流行期间受众对广告信息的期望和反应。来自加纳广告受众样本的调查数据作为探索的基础。它发现，受众认为品牌在其广告中包含流行病信息是合适的，并且不接受具有自我服务（即仅关注品牌）精神的广告（以下简称广告）。然而，对流行病信息注入的不同主题的偏好水平存在细微差别。本文讨论了这些以及它们的理论含义。