Social TV, Advertising, and Sales: Are Social Shows Good for Advertisers?

Television viewers are increasingly engaging in media-multitasking while watching programming. One prevalent multiscreen activity is the simultaneous consumption of television alongside social media chatter about the programming, an activity referred to as “social TV.” Although online interactions with programming can result in a more engaged and committed audience, social TV activities may distract media multitaskers from advertisements. These competing outcomes of social TV raise the question: are programs with high online social TV activity, so called “social shows,” good for advertisers? In this research, we empirically examine this question by exploring the relationship among television advertising, social TV, online traffic, and online sales. Specifically, we investigate how the volume of program-related online chatter is related to online shopping behavior at retailers that advertise during the programs. We find that advertisements that air in programs with more social TV activity see increased ad responsiveness in terms of subsequent online shopping behavior. This result varies with the mood of the advertisement, with more affective advertisements—in particular, funny and emotional advertisements—seeing the largest increases in online shopping activity. Our results shed light on how advertisers can encourage online shopping activity on their websites in the age of multiscreen consumers.

Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1139.