UNDERSTANDING IMPACT OF MEDIA ENGAGEMENT ON ADVERTISING ACCEPTANCE AND VALUE WITHIN MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORK IN INDIAN MILLENNIALS

Abstract

Social Networking sites have changed the face of advertising and media consumption massively. Even within them, Mobile Social Network or MSN’s are the latest mode of Social Media consumption that is taking over the social media sites. This study takes a conceptual model developed earlier by Linwan Wu, 2016 and applies it to the millennial populace of India. The target group was selected because they are among the highest users of MSNs in the world. The model aims to check the antecedents of MSN engagement and test the relationship between MSN engagement and advertising effectiveness. The relevant data was collected using an online survey and the results showed a significant difference from the prior study. Though Utilitarian motivation still shows a significant effect on Media Engagement, the other antecedents seemed to have stopped having an effect altogether. Additionaly, the study also shows that in the target group, the engagement with media has no effect in advertising acceptance nor on the value gained from advertising. However, perceived value of advertisement and its acceptance still hold a close relation which presents an opportunity for future researches into the reason, ie, what other factors affect engagement, acceptance and ultimately, the perceived value of ads on mobile social networks.