THAI CONSUMERS’ SKEPTICISM AND ATTITUDES TOWARD CONTENT SEEDING TECHNIQUES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Abstract

Content seeding via social media is one of the most popular marketing tactics in the digital age. However, there are some digital agencies exercising unethical practices by not notifying the contents as the advertisements in order to earn consumer’s attention and content sharing. As such, the purposes of this research were to investigate Thai consumers’ skepticism toward advertising messages created by content seeding techniques, their attitudes toward advertising messages, advertised brands and media organizations that employed content seeding techniques. Specifically, this study also examined the interrelationships among these four variables. A self-administered survey research was conducted. The participants were selected through convenience sampling. Final sample consisted of 400 Thai consumers aged between 18 and 45 years who had social media usage experiences. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results showed that there was a negative relationship between Thai consumers’ skepticism and their attitudes toward advertising messages created by content seeding techniques via social media (p<0.05), as well as a negative relationship between consumers’ skepticism toward advertising messages and attitudes toward advertised brands that employed content seeding techniques (p<0.05). However, there was no relationship between consumers’ skepticism and their attitudes toward media organizations that employed content seeding techniques.