Customer Attitude towards Online Ads of Smartphone Brands: A Netnographic Analysis of User Generated Comments on YouTube

Today ads are no more one-sided communication but a mixture of online and offline channels developed for the sake of direct interaction with the communities. YouTube in specific and other online video platforms in general have shifted paradigm of TV commercials altogether for many brands.Just like other product brands, smartphone brands have also their presence on social media including YouTube and have their channels at it. The smartphone online ads on YouTube gain millions of views, thousands of likes, and dislikes, comments and replies to these comments.However, these quantitative metrics cannot necessarily be seen as an indicator of effectiveness of online video ads. There is a need to have some qualitative and exploratory evaluations to know about viewer's attitude toward the online brands of smartphones. This netnographic (ethnographic) research study is examining viewers' attitude toward smartphone brands ads. 13 video ads of 4 popular smartphone brands(Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, and Q Mobile) in Pakistan have been taken with 2926 viewer's comments and their replies. The findings are helping in the assessment of viewers (consumers) comments on the basis of cognitive and emotive processing and supportive and antagonistic stance toward online smartphone ads as well as brands. The research outcomes have implications for marketing managers specifically of smartphone brands to use smartphone video ads as a part of their viral marketing campaign. The research paper is also discussing the limitations and future research directions.