Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: We know little about how social media alcohol marketing is utilized for alcohol promotion in different national contexts. There does not appear to be any academic work on online exposure to alcohol marketing via social media in India, and most of the limited researc...

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Main Authors: Gupta, H., Lam, Tina, Pettigrew, Simone, Tait, Robert
Format: Journal Article
Published: BioMed Central Ltd 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/65825
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author Gupta, H.
Lam, Tina
Pettigrew, Simone
Tait, Robert
author_facet Gupta, H.
Lam, Tina
Pettigrew, Simone
Tait, Robert
author_sort Gupta, H.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2018 The Author(s). Background: We know little about how social media alcohol marketing is utilized for alcohol promotion in different national contexts. There does not appear to be any academic work on online exposure to alcohol marketing via social media in India, and most of the limited research in Australia has focused on Facebook. Hence, the present study extends previous research by investigating alcohol promotion conducted on an under-researched form of social media (YouTube) in two contrasting geographic contexts. This study examines and compares the types of strategies used by marketers on Indian and Australian alcohol brands with the greatest YouTube presence, and the extent to which users engage with these strategies. Methods: The 10 alcohol brands per country with the greatest YouTube presence were identified based on the number of 'subscriptions'. The number of videos, views per video, and the type of content within the videos were collected for each brand. The data were analyzed using an inductive coding approach, using NVivo 10. Results: The targeted brands had gathered 98,881 subscriptions (Indian brands: n = 13,868; Australian brands: n = 85,013). The type of marketing strategies utilized by brands were a mix of those that differed by country (e.g. sexually suggestive content in India and posts related to the brand's tradition or heritage in Australia) and generic approaches (e.g. encouraging time- and event-specific drinking; demonstrations of food/cocktail recipes; camaraderie; competitions and prize draws; and brand sponsorship at music, sports, and fashion events). Conclusions: This cross-national comparison demonstrates that YouTube provides alcohol marketers with an advertising platform where they utilize tailored marketing approaches to cater to specific national contexts and develop content on the cultural meanings users invoke in their interactions with these strategies. Those exposed to alcohol marketing on YouTube are likely to include those under the legal drinking age.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-658252021-01-13T03:09:38Z Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts Gupta, H. Lam, Tina Pettigrew, Simone Tait, Robert © 2018 The Author(s). Background: We know little about how social media alcohol marketing is utilized for alcohol promotion in different national contexts. There does not appear to be any academic work on online exposure to alcohol marketing via social media in India, and most of the limited research in Australia has focused on Facebook. Hence, the present study extends previous research by investigating alcohol promotion conducted on an under-researched form of social media (YouTube) in two contrasting geographic contexts. This study examines and compares the types of strategies used by marketers on Indian and Australian alcohol brands with the greatest YouTube presence, and the extent to which users engage with these strategies. Methods: The 10 alcohol brands per country with the greatest YouTube presence were identified based on the number of 'subscriptions'. The number of videos, views per video, and the type of content within the videos were collected for each brand. The data were analyzed using an inductive coding approach, using NVivo 10. Results: The targeted brands had gathered 98,881 subscriptions (Indian brands: n = 13,868; Australian brands: n = 85,013). The type of marketing strategies utilized by brands were a mix of those that differed by country (e.g. sexually suggestive content in India and posts related to the brand's tradition or heritage in Australia) and generic approaches (e.g. encouraging time- and event-specific drinking; demonstrations of food/cocktail recipes; camaraderie; competitions and prize draws; and brand sponsorship at music, sports, and fashion events). Conclusions: This cross-national comparison demonstrates that YouTube provides alcohol marketers with an advertising platform where they utilize tailored marketing approaches to cater to specific national contexts and develop content on the cultural meanings users invoke in their interactions with these strategies. Those exposed to alcohol marketing on YouTube are likely to include those under the legal drinking age. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/65825 10.1186/s12889-018-5035-3 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ BioMed Central Ltd fulltext
spellingShingle Gupta, H.
Lam, Tina
Pettigrew, Simone
Tait, Robert
Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
title Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
title_full Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
title_fullStr Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
title_full_unstemmed Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
title_short Alcohol marketing on YouTube: Exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
title_sort alcohol marketing on youtube: exploratory analysis of content adaptation to enhance user engagement in different national contexts
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/65825