How user generated content impacts ad effectiveness: Lessons from tourism industry
(A2021-94034)

AUTHORS

Svetlana Bialkova, Liverpool Business School

ABSTRACT

The user-generated content (UGC) has been recognised as efficient advertising tool in tourism and hospitality industry, a vehicle for brand conversations and consumer insights. However, the big amount of data is a challenge to understand the cross-platform dynamics of UGC, and thus, calling for further investigation on how to efficiently integrate various platforms to boost the ad success. The current paper addresses this issue, providing a cross-platform tracking in real time to an advertisement promoting to visit a country. We analysed the reaction to the ad, respectively, one day, week, and a month after the ad launch. The ad generated extreme attention and UGC. Results are summarised in a hybrid architecture, combining netnographics and web analytics. The outcomes could be employed to boost the efficiency of ad campaigns in tourism sector and beyond, in building up a strong brand reputation and equity.