A Study On The Perception Of Surrogate Advertisement By Indian Audience

Abstract

PURPOSE – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perception of the surrogate
advertisements among the audience in India with respect to different gender, age groups and occupation
and the understanding of the concept of surrogate advertisement among the audience.
METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – The data was gathered by conducting an online survey of 212
respondents across different cities of India through a Google form questionnaire. This primary data was
analyzed using different statistical approach like frequency measurement and chi-square tests using SPSS
software and by development of word cloud using R program.
FINDINGS – The results from the study showed that the Indian audience are aware of the surrogate
advertisement concept and understand the nature of the ads. It was seen that the audience no longer saw
these advertisements as a conflict of ethics. Audience would prefer to continue watching the ads. The
perception towards music in the advertisements varied between both the genders. Based on the
occupations, there was a difference in the perception of the surrogate advertisements as informative. The
paper shows that there is an impact on brand recall by these surrogate advertisements. It can be said that
creativity, tagline and music will have a good impact on the brand recall.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS – The findings of the study will help the brands to come up with different
creative advertisement concepts with a catch tagline and music without worrying much about ethical
issues. The brands may plan a better allocation of funds, since the impact of celebrity is less. The brands
may use both social media and mass media to run these advertisements as this advertising strategy has
great impact on brand recall.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE – There are not much research undertaken on this topic, which would have huge
impact on brand recall. The present study considers the perception of surrogate advertisements with
respect to three different demographic factors while most of the papers consider the general audience.