Factors Influence Purchase Intention in Marketing Communication-An Experimental Investigation of Human Images in digital display advertising

Abstract: With the number of digital display advertisements increasing, consumers have become accustomed to ignoring or skipping internet ads. Previous research has investigated the use of different types of human images (like celebrities and social media influencers) in advertising to improve advertising effectiveness. However, existing studies neglect the role of normal people and examine the presence of human images in advertising in general. This study aims to contribute new knowledge about marketing communication. Using the AIDA model and the theory of planned behaviour, the study proposes a new model to explore factors that could influence consumers’ purchase intention. The analysis confirms that there is a significant interaction effect between ‘attention’, ‘interest’, ‘attitude’, and ‘social norm’ with purchase intention. Additionally, an AB testing experiment approach is applied to test the effect of human images on consumers' purchase intention. The experiment suggests that human images appearing in advertising will positively influence the above four factors as well as consumers’ purchase intention. The result from the experiment also provides evidence that for consumers who can identify the social media influencer shown in the ad, ads that include social media influencer images could lead consumers to generate higher purchase intent than ads that include normal human images.