Download 2016 Sport Marketing Association Conference (SMA XIV

2016 Sport Marketing Association Conference (SMA XIV)
Fear of Missing Out on Ephemeral Social Media
Lane T. Wakefield, Texas A&M University
Gregg Bennett, Texas A&M University
Thursday, November 3, 2016
9:00-9:25 AM, Monument
25-minute oral presentation
(including questions)
Ephemeral social media provides a novel communication channel to sport marketers. Snapchat, the market leader in
ephemeral social media with a recent valuation of $16 billion (Picker & Frier, 2015), differentiates its platform from
non-ephemeral competitors with its self-destruct feature. Direct messages, or “snaps”, have a predetermined time
limit of 1-10 seconds once the recipient opens the message. Snaps sent to a “story” are available for a period of 24
hours. All professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS have Snapchat accounts (Mason, 2015) which
use the disappearing feature to create exclusive content. It has been suggested that exclusive content can be effective
(Thompson, Martin, Gee, & Eagleman, 2014) and makes fans feel special (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). While
reasoning suggests that ephemeral social media may be an effective tool to increase engagement between fans and
teams, there is limited empirical evidence evaluating this phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to
investigate “why” fans may choose to engage with teams in social media and, in particular, ephemeral social media.
One explanation for increased engagement with social media content may be an individual’s “fear of missing out”
(FOMO). FOMO occurs when someone fears that they may miss out on gratifying experiences of others
(Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013). Those experiencing FOMO are prone to constant checking of
social media accounts in order to observe what others may be doing at a particular point in time. This recently
investigated construct from the psychology literature may be observed in consumers’ information processing of
branded social media accounts. In particular, the ephemeral nature of Snapchat content may exacerbate consumer
FOMO and lead to increased opt-in and decreased opt-out behaviors (i.e. add or remove a friend).
The opt-in and opt-out nomenclature is prevalent in permission marketing literature. Permission marketing requires
a consumer to allow, or give permission to, a brand to send them content directly. Consumers are likely to opt-in or
opt-out for a variety of reasons. For example, a consumer may make opt-out or opt-in decisions based on a brand’s
relevance (Bamba & Barnes, 1997; Krishnamurthy, 2001; Tezinde, Smith, & Murphy, 2002), trustworthiness
(Jayawardhena, Kuckertz, Karjaluoto, & Kautonen, 2009; Persuad & Azhar, 2012) or ability to reduce costs (Godin,
1999). Consumers deciding whether to opt-in or out in a social media environment may behave differently than in
traditional permission marketing contexts, like e-mail or SMS texting. Behavior is not consistent across online
environments (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011) and inclinations towards brands offering a service (e.g. social
media content) tend to fluctuate (Chandler & Lusch, 2015). FOMO is a construct unique to the social media
environment and warrants further investigation as to its potential role in consumer behavior in permission
marketing.
Sport marketers interested in developing and sustaining a Snapchat audience have three practical challenges. First,
advertising on Snapchat can be very expensive (Sloane, 2015). Second, extant research indicates individuals using
Snapchat primarily consume content from close friends and family members (Piwek & Joinson, 2016) rather than
brands. Third, content on Snapchat is not shared like other social media. Brands do not receive the organic exposure
to friends of friends that is available when content is shared, or re-posted, on traditional social media sites like
Twitter and Facebook. Respectively, these challenges in paid, owned and earned media (for a review, see Stephen &
Galak, 2012) are likely to force sport marketers lacking expansive budgets to focus on developing owned media to
reach fans in Snapchat.
Emerging permission marketing research suggests consumers that perceive high marketing intensity (i.e. those that
feel they receive too many messages) are less likely to opt-in and quick to opt-out in an e-mail context (Kumar,
Zhang, & Luo, 2014). However, for those experiencing FOMO in the social media context, the reverse effect is
expected to be driven by the FOMO phenomenon.
Indianapolis, IN
November 2-4, 2016
2016 Sport Marketing Association Conference (SMA XIV)
The following encompass the hypothesized effects of the relationship between FOMO, marketing intensity and the
opt-in or opt-out behavior.
H1a: The greater the FOMO, the greater the likelihood of opt-in.
H1b: The greater the FOMO, the lower the likelihood of opt-out.
H2a: The greater the marketing intensity, the greater the likelihood of opt-in.
H2b: The greater the marketing intensity, the greater the likelihood of opt-out.
H3: The positive relationship between FOMO and opt-in will be amplified by marketing intensity.
H4: The negative relationship between FOMO and opt-out will be amplified by marketing intensity.
A panel of M-turk participants will be recruited as a subject pool to take an online survey. A 2 social media medium
(ephemeral/non-ephemeral) x 3 marketing intensity (low/medium/high) between-subjects experimental design will
be implemented in order to test the hypotheses. Prior to the manipulations, consumer FOMO will be measured
using the FOMO scale presented in the literature (Przybylski et al., 2013). Marketing intensity and social media
medium will be manipulated by placing participants into a hypothetical scenario in which their favorite brands (given
by the participant) are posting content on a weekly (low), daily (medium), or multiple times per day (high) basis in
either Facebook or Snapchat. Once given the treatments, participants will respond with their likelihood of opt-in
and opt-out behavior.
Results are forthcoming and will be given at the presentation. This study makes contributions to the literature on
permission marketing and social media. First, there has not been a focus on social media (ephemeral or nonephemeral) as a permission marketing context. In addition, findings from the initial investigation about FOMO
suggest an increase in desire for social information provided by social media (Przybylski, 2013) and further
investigation may have new insights for sport marketers and academicians. Marketing managers can benefit from
understanding the effect of FOMO in social media. Rather than mimicking the frequency of messaging in non-social
contexts, more messages may provide a greater increased engagement in social media. For marketing researchers,
insights may lead to further theory development surrounding the FOMO construct and ephemeral social media
related to marketing communications. The lack of attention to these areas provides an opportunity for fruitful
research that benefits both practitioners and researchers.
References
Bamba, F., & Barnes, S. J. (2007). SMS advertising, permission and the consumer: a study. Business Process
Management Journal, 13(6), 815-829.
Chandler, J. D., & Lusch, R. F. (2015). Service systems a broadened framework and research agenda on value
propositions, engagement, and service experience. Journal of Service Research, 18(1), 6-22.
Godin, S. (1999). Permission marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers. New York:
Simon and Schuster.
Hanna, R., Rohm, A., & Crittenden, V. L. (2011). We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem.
Business Horizons, 54(3), 265-273.
Jayawardhena, C., Kuckertz, A., Karjaluoto, H., & Kautonen, T. (2009). Antecedents to permission based mobile
marketing: an initial examination. European Journal of Marketing, 43(3/4), 473-499.
Krishnamurthy, S. (2001). A comprehensive analysis of permission marketing. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, 6(2).
Indianapolis, IN
November 2-4, 2016
2016 Sport Marketing Association Conference (SMA XIV)
Kumar, V., Zhang, X., & Luo, A. (2014). Modeling customer opt-in and opt-out in a permission-based marketing
context. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(4), 403-419.
Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business
horizons, 52(4), 357-365.
Mason, J. (2015). Sports teams on Snapchat. Retrieved from http://jeffwmason.com/sports-teams-on-snapchat/
Persuad, A., & Azhar, I. (2012). Innovative mobile marketing via smartphones: Are consumers ready? Marketing
Intelligence & Planning, 30(4), 418-443.
Picker, L., & Frier, S. (2015). Snapchat said to be valued at $16 billion in new fundraising. Retrieved from
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-29/snapchat-said-to-be-valued-at-16-billion-in-newfundraising
Piwek, L., & Joinson, A. (2016). What do they snapchat about? Patterns of use in time-limited instant messaging
service. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 358-367.
Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral
correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1841-1848.
Sloane, G. (2015). Snapchat is asking brands for $750,000 to advertise and won’t budge. Adweek. Retrieved from
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/snapchat-asks-brands-750000-advertise-and-wont-budge-162359
Stephen, A. T., & Galak, J. (2012). The effects of traditional and social earned media on sales: A study of a
microlending marketplace. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(5), 624-639.
Tezinde, T., Smith, B., & Murphy, J. (2002). Getting permission: Exploring factors affecting permission marketing.
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(4), 28-36.
Thompson, A. J., Martin, A. J., Gee, S., & Eagleman, A. N. (2014). Examining the development of a social media
strategy for a national sport organization: A case study of Tennis New Zealand. Journal of Applied Sport
Management, 6(2), 42-63.
Indianapolis, IN
November 2-4, 2016