Research on the Matching Effect of Social Media Advertising Appeal and Narrative Person: Evidence from China

Abstract

The burgeoning landscape of social media advertising also faces a myriad of challenges. This study aims to explore the interactive effect of advertising appeal (abstract vs. concrete) and narrative person (first-person vs. third-person) on consumer attitudes towards social media advertising. Based on the construal level theory, this study uses secondary data and two experiments to investigate the interactive effect between advertising appeal and narrative person in social media advertising and the moderated mediating role of information processing fluency. The result reveals that a harmonious match between advertising appeal and narrative person enhances consumer fluency in processing advertising information, thereby improving consumer attitudes towards advertising. Specifically, for advertisements with concrete appeal, first-person narratives are more conducive to enhancing consumer attitudes towards advertising. Conversely, for advertisements with abstract appeal, third-person narratives are more advantageous. This study provides theoretical insights into social media advertising narration, with practical implications for marketers to advance social media advertising design.

1. Introduction

The exponential growth of social media advertising in the mobile internet era has firmly established it as the predominant mode of online advertisement distribution [1,2,3]. However, despite its widespread adoption, persistent challenges related to inadequate dissemination effects are evident, particularly in terms of brief browsing durations and low click-through rates, as well as the accompanying sluggish consumer advertising attitudes [4,5,6]. Consequently, improving consumer attitudes towards advertising and enhancing the effectiveness of social media advertisement dissemination has emerged as a critical issue within both academic and industrial circles [7,8].

Prior research in social media advertising has uncovered the interactive effect between the advertising appeals and the product types, consumer demographics [9,10,11], social media platforms, and brand characteristics [12,13] during the persuasion process, which leads to enhanced consumer attitudes. However, the current research focused solely on the alignment between the advertising element of advertising appeal and non-advertising elements like product, platform, and consumer, while neglecting the alignment effect among various advertising inner elements. To achieve excellent consumer attitudes towards advertising, it is imperative to not only select suitable advertising appeal but also ensure the integration of various advertising elements [14,15]. Advertising narrative person, an important variable in advertising elements, also holds a pivotal role in ascertaining consumer attitude [15,16]. The majority of current studies examine how the narrative person directly impacts consumers’ brand attitude [17], but they seldom explore whether the narrative person alters the impact of other advertising elements on consumers’ attitude. In social media advertising, how to match different advertising elements to promote consumer attitudes towards advertising is an important problem to be solved urgently [15]. Consequently, this study endeavors to examine the optimal alignment of advertising appeal with narrative person to boost consumer attitudes towards social media advertising, which helps fill the gaps in existing research on this issue.

This study classifies social media advertising appeals into abstract and concrete categories, and narrative person into first-person and third-person narratives, drawing on construal level theory [18]. Consumers’ psychological distances when processing information can be influenced by various advertising appeals and narrative person [13,19], leading to different levels of construal. When consumers interpret information at the same level, they are likely to have a smooth processing experience, which in turn enhances their attitudes towards advertising [20,21]. Therefore, this study holds that in social media advertising, advertising appeal and narrative person have an interactive effect on consumer attitudes towards advertising, and information processing fluency serves as the mediating role in this relationship. When it comes to concrete appeal, the use of the first-person tends to result in more favorable consumer attitudes towards advertising. On the other hand, for abstract appeal, employing the third-person is more likely to lead to positive consumer attitudes towards advertising.

We corroborated pertinent hypotheses through an application of real social media data analytics and two experiments. Study 1 preliminarily investigates the interactive effects of advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitudes towards advertising by scrutinizing secondary data. Study 2 manipulates advertising appeal and narrative person in custom designed experimental materials to further verify the interactive effects of advertising appeal and narrative person. Study 3 demonstrates the mediation effect of information processing fluency.

This study offers three contributions. First, it focuses research on the match of advertising appeal and narrative person in social media advertising, addressing gaps in the understanding of how alignment with advertising elements shapes consumer attitudes. Second, it elucidates the moderated mediating role of information processing fluency in the relationship between advertising appeal, narrative person, and advertising attitudes, and the internal influencing mechanism is revealed based on the construal level theory. Last, the research introduces construal level theory to social media advertising, providing a new framework for analyzing its effects on consumer processing and attitudes.

2. Theoretical Basis and Research Hypothesis

2.1. Social Media Advertising Appeal

The influence of social media advertising appeals on consumers’ perceptions and evaluations of advertised products is significant, shaping their attitudes towards both the advertisements and the promoted products [22,23,24]. A distinction between two primary types of advertisements can be made based on the level of abstractness of the information conveyed: abstract appeal and concrete appeal [25], and the level of abstraction used in advertising copy, determines whether an appeal is abstract or concrete [26]. Abstract appeal indirectly communicates information, focusing primarily on the “why” aspect—delivering macro-level abstract information to underscore the value proposition and the broader purpose of using a specific product [27]. In contrast, concrete appeal provides detailed information about product usability, goal achievement, and value propositions, typically presenting precise technical specifications or detailed features while directly addressing the “how-to” aspects [27,28]. A concrete advertisement provides detailed information tailored to the consumers’ needs, while an abstract advertisement conveys a less precise message, allowing for more construal by the recipient. Research shows that concrete advertising slogans are effective in improving advertising memory, while abstract advertising slogans are more successful in influencing intention to take action [19].

According to research by Kim et al. [25], the influence of advertising appeal on consumer attitudes is significantly shaped by both product attributes and consumer characteristics. Specifically, consumers exposed to abstract appeal in advertisements exhibit greater persuasiveness, especially those who engage in abstract thinking. Furthermore, when the appeal of an advertisement is congruent with the product’s attribute dimension, consumers are inclined to form a more positive attitude towards that particular product [29]. Additionally, situational factors are critical in shaping consumer responses to appeals. Notably, in densely populated social contexts, the use of concrete appeals in advertising campaigns has been found to garner a more favorable consumer response [30]. In destination advertising, concrete slogans increase the willingness of tourists to visit warm cities, and abstract slogans increase the willingness of tourists to visit competent cities [31].

Prior research has predominantly concentrated on product attributes, consumer characteristics, and advertising environments when assessing the influence of abstract or concrete appeal, frequently neglecting certain facets of advertising presentation and the potential synergies between different appeal types [9,10,11]. Within the domain of social media advertising, components such as narrative text, visual effects, brand identity, and promotional strategies are recognized to wield a considerable impact on the attitude of advertising [15,32,33,34]. This study endeavors to ascertain whether the integration of these elements with various appeal types engenders more propitious outcomes. Moreover, it aims to clarify under what conditions abstract appeals align more closely with consumer preferences as opposed to scenarios where concrete appeals are more efficacious. By embracing a narrative-centric approach in this scholarly pursuit, this study examines the interactive dynamics between advertisers’ narrative techniques and appeal strategy to gauge their cumulative effect on consumer attitudes towards social media advertising.

2.2. Narrative Person

The narrative person, a grammatical category encompassing pronouns, is crucial in articulating the dynamics and relationships among narrative entities. As delineated by Bal [35], the narrative person is divided into three principal categories: first-person, second-person, and third-person, each fulfilling unique narrative roles. The first-person narrative employs pronouns such as ‘I’ or ‘we’ to narrate personal experiences or impart self-referential information. Conversely, second-person narration, as explored by Chang et al. [36], uses pronouns like ‘you’ to depict events from the narrator’s viewpoint while actively involving the audience in the story. Moreover, third-person narration requires the narrator to adopt an impartial stance, serving as a detached observer who chronicles the experiences of others through dialogue. These diverse narrative persons are instrumental in crafting the tone, viewpoint, and verisimilitude of the storytelling process [37].

There is a certain matching between the use of personal pronouns and consumers’ mode of thinking. When the first-person narrative is used in marketing communication, consumers with an implemental mindset would have a more favorable product attitude [17]. In social media advertising, the presence or absence of personal pronouns will affect consumer engagement. At the same time, personal pronouns have different roles for different types of consumer engagement (e.g., likes, comments), and these effects will change accordingly in increasingly differentiated brand types and product types [38].

This study divides narrators into two types: first-person and third-person viewpoints. It seeks to explore how the narrative person influences the impact of message appeals on consumer attitudes towards advertising. Prior scholarly work underscores the importance of employing both first-person and third-person narratives for great consumer attitude [35]. First-person narration accentuates personal experiences and authentic emotions, thereby establishing credibility within the narrative and enhancing the connection between the audience and the depicted events [36]. Conversely, third-person narration offers an impartial presentation of information, enabling a more complex, detailed, and accurate portrayal of events [39]. Although it may introduce a greater distance between the audience and the narrative events, the third-person narrative provides a more objective and exhaustive depiction of the content [36].

2.3. Construal Level Theory

The attribute representation of a product is transformed into advertisement content at different levels of abstraction [40], influencing consumers’ perceptions [41]. The level of information abstraction corresponds to the level of construal by consumers. Higher levels of construal tend to focus on abstract, structured, core concepts, while lower levels lean towards concrete, unorganized, superficial aspects [42]. An individual’s construal level changes with psychological distance. When the described content is closer in time and space to the self, individuals are more likely to adopt a low construal level. Conversely, when the content is distant in time, space, and social context, individuals are more inclined to adopt a high construal level [43,44]. These shifts in construal levels impact judgment, prediction, evaluation, and other cognitive activities [3]. Alignment between an individual’s construal level and the subject leads to a more positive attitude.

On one hand, in the realm of advertising marketing, employing first-person narrative pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘we’ engenders a sense of closeness, which is more specific and contextual [37], indicative of a more low level of construal [36].Concrete appeals in advertisements provide detailed information, such as explicit technical specifications and elaborate features, to highlight products [45]. When presented with explicit information in a concrete manner, consumers are prone to a more direct construal [46]. Therefore, when social media advertising adopts first-person narration and concrete appeal, consumers’ construal is at a similarly low level in the face of these two elements.

On the other hand, abstract appeals in advertising messages are recognized for communicating at a macro level, providing more generic information [12] and assessing products in a holistic manner using abstract language and minimizing focus on specific product details [25]. Thus, within the context of social media advertising, consumers are inclined to process ambiguous information presented abstractly with a higher level of construal [13]. Due to the distancing effect, third-person narratives distinguish themselves by introducing intermediary roles between brands and consumers [37], fostering a sense of distance, as emphasized by Quach et al. [39], leading to a more removed level of construal. Consumers’ cognition of abstract appeal or third-person narratives in social media advertisements is at a relatively high level of construal.

Previous research has shown that the match between advertising elements and consumer psychological cognition produces a more favorable attitude towards the advertising [47]. According to the above elaboration, in social media advertisements, concrete appeal and first-person narration correspond to consumers’ low level of construal, while abstract appeal and third-person narration correspond to consumers’ high level of construal. Therefore, we propose that when the narrative person and advertising appeal of social media advertising are congruent with construal levels, consumers generally demonstrate more favorable attitudes towards the advertising.

We formally state these ideas in the following hypotheses.

H1. 

Advertising appeal and narrative person have an interactive effect on consumer attitudes towards advertising in social media advertising:

H1a. 

Within concrete appeal (vs. abstract appeal) advertising, employing first-person narrative (vs. third-person narrative) could bolster consumer attitudes towards advertising.

H1b. 

Within abstract appeal (vs. concrete appeal) advertising, employing third-person narrative (vs. first-person narrative) could bolster consumer attitudes towards advertising.

2.4. Moderated Mediating Effect of Information Processing Fluency

The concept of information processing fluency denotes the ease with which individuals perceive and assimilate information. It is broadly acknowledged as a pivotal element influencing the assessment of informational entities [21,48,49,50]. When information is assimilated with ease, it may inadvertently elicit positive affective responses in individuals. These responses are subsequently ascribed to the informational entities themselves, culminating in enhanced predilections for such entities [20,51,52].

In the context of social media advertising, the alignment between the narrative person and the appeal of the information presented plays a crucial role in shaping consumers’ construal levels and their overall information processing experience. When social media advertising incorporates abstract appeal, third-person narration has been found to maintain consumers’ construal at a higher level compared to first-person narration, facilitating smoother information processing. Conversely, when figurative appeal is used, employing first-person narrative can enhance consumers’ information processing experience. This suggests that a harmonious relationship between the narrator’s person and the content appeal can lead to consistent construal levels across different elements of an advertisement, resulting in a seamless information processing experience.

Previous research has shown that smooth information processing experiences elicit positive emotions in individuals and lead to better attitudes toward the object of information processing [20,53]. In social media advertising, the matching of advertisement appeal and narrative person brings smooth information processing and potentially increases consumer receptivity towards it. Therefore, we posit that aligning the advertising appeal with the narrative person in social media advertising can enhance consumers’ attitudes towards advertising by improving their information processing fluency, with information processing fluency serving as a mediating factor in this relationship.

We formally state these ideas in the following hypotheses.

H2. 

The interaction effect between advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitude is mediated by information processing fluency:

H2a. 

For first-person narratives (vs. third-person narratives), concrete appeal (vs. abstract appeal) will produce higher consumer attitudes towards social media advertising through the mediating effect of information processing fluency.

H2b. 

For third-person narratives (vs. first -person narratives), abstract appeal (vs. concrete appeal) will produce higher consumer attitudes towards social media advertising through the mediating effect of information processing fluency.

Drawing upon the hypothetical frameworks, we have formulated our research model, as illustrated in Figure 1. In this research, we explored the interaction of advertising appeal (concrete appeal vs. abstract appeal) and narrative person (first-person narrative vs. third-person narrative) on consumer attitudes towards advertising in social media advertising, and the mediating role of information processing fluency.

2.5. Overview of the Studies

We tested these hypotheses in three studies. In study 1, based on real secondary data, we provided evidence on the impact of the interaction between advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer brand attitudes and preliminarily verified hypothesis H1. In the remaining studies, we manipulated advertising appeal and narrative person through advertising content and examined hypotheses in laboratory settings. Study 2 established the basic main effects of different matches between advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitudes towards advertising by using a fictitious brand and provided corroboration for hypothesis H1, H1a, and H1b. In study 3, we chose different stimulus materials than study 2, repeated the validation of hypothesis H1, H1a, and H1b, and tested the moderated mediating role of information processing fluency, and verified hypothesis H2, H2a, and H2b.

3. Study 1: Field Evidence from Sina Weibo Data

Study 1 aimed to provide field evidence for interactive effects of advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitudes towards advertising (hypothesis H1). We employed text mining to analyze the social media advertising content posted on official brand accounts on Sina Weibo. We then encoded each piece of social media advertising published by the brands, focusing on elements such as the advertising appeal, narrative person, and the number of likes and shares received. Our hypothesis suggests that when brands use concrete appeals (vs. abstract appeals) and first-person narrative (vs. third-person) in social media advertising, consumers will interact better.

3.1. Sample and Data Collection

“Sina Weibo”, a prominent social media platform in China [54], was selected as the data source for this study. Renowned for its wide coverage and active user base, Sina Weibo has become a significant channel for brands to engage and interact with consumers through advertising. This research extracted Micro-blog data from 21 official brand accounts on Weibo, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Nongfu Spring, and Chow Tai Fook, from 1 January 2023 to 31 June 2023.

Initially, relevant Chinese brands were obtained through lists such as “China’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands of 2022”. We excluded brands from banking, finance, steel, and other industries, because Weibo is not an important channel for these to business industries to communicate with their customers, as well as brands from content platforms such as Tik Tok and Kuaishou, because these content platforms can use their own platforms to interact with consumers without using other social media. A total of 24 brands remained. Subsequently, brands without official Weibo accounts, those with low interaction frequency, and those with weak relevance between official Weibo content and the brand were removed, leaving 21 brands including Huawei, Xiaomi, and Nongfu Spring, among others, for data crawling.

By encoding narrative person and advertising appeal in these Sina Weibo accounts’ content, a total of 7746 Micro-blogs featuring first- or third-person narratives and concrete or abstract appeal were collected.

3.2. Measures

Independent variables. In every social media advertising information crawled, advertising appeal and narrative person are independent variables of the study. We identified the type of advertising appeal (abstract vs. concrete) and the type of narrative person (third-person vs. first-person) and encoded the two variables. According to the degree of abstraction of microblog advertisement content and the degree of ambiguity of information presentation [19,28], we coded each microblog advertisement, and the abstract appeal code was 0, and the concrete appeal code was 1. For narrative person, we directly judge according to the personal pronoun appearing in the advertisement. If there is no personal pronoun or no obvious person, the data are removed, and the third-person code was 0, and the first-person code was 1.

Dependent variables. We obtained the number of likes of each social media advertising as a reflection of consumer attitudes towards advertising, because this is real interaction data from users, which represents the positive attitude of consumers towards advertising [55]. In order to increase the robustness of the study, we also chose the number of social media ads shared as the dependent variable to display consumer advertising attitudes again.

Due to significant disparities between mean and maximum values of likes, shares, comments, and account followers, natural logarithms of likes, shares, comments, and account followers were taken to enhance the robustness of results.

3.3. Modeling Approach

To test hypotheses 1, regression models are constructed [56,57,58,59]. In this study, the units of analysis are specific social media advertisement texts posted by various brand accounts, along with corresponding consumer attitude data in terms of the number of likes and shares each advertisement receives. Given this approach, it is anticipated that random effects will arise in the analysis. Therefore, a Mixed Effects Model is employed for analysis. Firstly, the relationship between variables is illustrated in Formula (1):

$${Attitude}_i={\beta }_{0i}+{\beta }_1{appeal}_i+{{\beta }_{2}narrative}_i+{\beta }_3{appeal}_i\times {narrative}_i+{\beta }_4\sum Controls+{\epsilon }_i$$

(1)

The fixed effects are defined in Formula (2):

$${Attitude}_i={\beta }_1{appeal}_i+{{\beta }_{2}narrative}_i+{\beta }_3{appeal}_i\times {narrative}_i+{\beta }_4\sum Controls+{\epsilon }_i$$

(2)

And the random effects are detailed in Formula (3):

$${\beta }_{0i}={\gamma }_0+{\gamma }_1{brand}_j+{\sigma }_j$$

(3)

where ${\epsilon }_i$ and ${\sigma }_j$ represent the error terms of fixed effect model and random effect model, respectively. In the fixed effects model, “${appeal}_i$” refers to advertising appeal (concrete = 1 vs. abstract = 0), “${narrative}_i$” refers to advertising narrative person (first-person narrative = 1 vs. third-person narrative = 0), “${Attitude}_i$” refers to consumers’ attitudes towards social media advertisements, measured by the number of likes and shares each advertisement receives, and “Controls” refers to the control variables, including the brand account followers and the comments of advertising content. In the random effect model, “${brand}_j$” refers to the jth official brand account in Sina Weibo.

3.4. Results

This study employed the Stata 14.0 software package to construct the mixed-effects model, with the regression outcomes delineated in

Table 1. The interactive effect of advertising appeal and narrative person based on the secondary data.

DV	Ln Number of Likes		Ln Number of Shares
	Model 1		Model 2
	β	SE	β	SE
Fixed effect
Advertising appeal	0.113 ***	0.032	−0.046 *	0.028
Narrative person	0.019	0.028	−0.057 **	0.024
Interaction term (Advertising appeal × Narrative person)	0.099 ***	0.033	0.101 ***	0.028
constant	−2.944	1.814	−0.344	0.616
Control variable
Ln comments	0.877 ***	0.006	0.012 **	0.005
Ln followers	0.279 **	0.125	0.068	0.042
Random effect
Residual	0.690	0.011	0.509	0.008
LR test vs. linear model	1341.08		296.22
AIC	5863.23		6520.66

Note. N = 7745; SE = Standard errors; * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01; Advertising appeal: 0 = concrete appeal, 1 = abstract appeal; Narrative person: 0 = first-person, 1 = third-person.

. The findings suggest that the effect of the interaction term (advertising appeal x narrative person) on advertising attitude (i.e., the number of likes) is significant (Model 1, β = 0.099, SE = 0.033, p < 0.01). Thus, the current study’s results provide initial evidence that the interaction between social media advertising appeal and narrative person indeed influences consumer attitudes towards advertising. Hypothesis 1 is validated preliminarily. Robustness Check. To reinforce the robustness of the testing, the number of shares was utilized as the dependent variable to measure the consumer advertising attitude. The robustness check reveals that the interaction term of advertising appeal and narrative person significantly affects advertising attitude (i.e., the number of shares) (Model 2, β = 0.101, SE = 0.028, p < 0.01). The results offer preliminary corroboration for hypothesis H1 again.

The findings from Study 1 offer preliminary field evidence of an interaction between advertisement appeal and narrative perspective on consumer advertising attitudes, as measured by the number of likes and shares. However, since the data from Sina Weibo can only provide correlational evidence, subsequent studies employed experimental manipulations to deliver direct evidence in support of our proposed hypotheses. (see Table 1)

4. Study 2: Experimental Study of Interactive Effect

Study 2 employed a 2 × 2 between subjects design to test hypothesis H1, H1a, and H1b. In Study 2, we presented a new, fictitious milk brand ““ZHENKE Milk” to exclude the interference of prior knowledge and preference on the brands. Study 2 manipulated advertising appeal and narrative person through social media advertising which contained different advertising discourse.

4.1. Sample

A cohort of 198 participants (108 male, M_age = 30.76, ranging from 18 to 59 years) from Credamo engaged in the study, allocated to conditions via a 2 (advertising appeal: concrete appeal vs. abstract appeal) × 2 (narrative person: third-person vs. first-person) between-subjects experimental design.

4.2. Stimuli

Participants evaluated an online advertisement for milk, premised on the notion that the messages tested are representative of those found in social media environments. For the abstract appeal and first-person condition, the discourse was “Listening to the serenade of the pasture, selecting beauty to achieve purity, rich like the rhythm of the sun, pure as morning dew, my good life starts with a glass of milk”. For the abstract appeal and third-person condition, the discourse was “Listening to the serenade of the pasture, selecting beauty to achieve purity, rich like the rhythm of the sun, pure as morning dew, his good life starts with a glass of milk”. For the concrete appeal and first-person condition, the discourse was “Selected Holstein cows, refined management and intensive ranching, high-quality milk protein 3.6 g/100 mL, over 105 monitoring measures ensure high quality, my good life starts with a glass of milk”. For the concrete appeal and third-person condition, the discourse was “Selected Holstein cows, refined management and intensive ranching, high-quality milk protein 3.6 g/100 mL, over 105 monitoring measures ensure high quality, his good life starts with a glass of milk”. The advertising image was the same for all four groups.

4.3. Measures

Participants were then asked a series of questions. To measure advertising appeal perception, they answered the manipulation check questions about abstract and concrete appeal: “I think this ad presents clear information”, “I think this ad presents vague information”, “This is an abstract appeal (i.e., describes the features of the advertise product in a general and vague way)”, and “This is a concrete appeal (i.e., describes the advertise product of origin in a specific and detailed way)” (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree; α = 0.91; adapted from Wang et al. [60]). Next, we measured consumer attitude towards advertising by the three following statements: “This ad is appealing”, “This ad is satisfactory”, and “I like this ad” (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree; α = 0.84; adapted from Xuan [61]). Further, we also examined the participants’ brand attitudes by asking them to rate the four following statements: “I like this brand very much”, “I’m very interested in the brand”, “This brand is very appealing to me”, and “This brand is very desirable to have” (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree; α = 0.94; adapted from Kokkinaki and Lunt [62]).

4.4. Results

After considering the interference of brand knowledge, preference, and brand attitude, the results of study 2 provide support for the interactive effect (H1, H1a, H1b) of advertising appeal and narrative person in social media advertising.

4.4.1. Manipulation Check

Upon initial inspection, no significant variations in gender, age, or educational background were found among participants in each experimental group [63,64,65,66]. Subsequently, the ANOVA analysis of participants’ inclinations towards the experimental materials (i.e., images and language) did not uncover any notable distinctions across the diverse groups. Notably, the ANOVA examination conducted on the manipulation of advertising information appeal revealed that participants in the concrete condition (M concrete = 5.83, SD = 0.94) exhibited higher ratings for concrete advertising information in comparison to those in the abstract condition (M_abstract = 2.68, SD = 0.85; F(1,195) = 605.11, p < 0.001). Conversely, participants in the abstract condition (M_abstract = 5.64, SD = 0.69) demonstrated higher ratings for abstract advertising information than those in the concrete condition (M_concrete = 2.31, SD = 1.04; F(1,195) = 693.00, p < 0.001). Consequently, the manipulation carried out in Study 2 was deemed successful.

4.4.2. Hypothesis Test

To explore the impact of the match between advertising information appeal and narrative person on participants’ attitudes towards advertising, a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted with advertising attitude as the dependent variable and advertising appeals and narrative person as independent variables, focusing on the interactive effect. The results revealed a significant interactive effect between advertising appeal and narrative person on participants’ attitudes towards the advertisements (F(1,195) = 61.93, p < 0.001), providing support for hypothesis H1. Subsequent pairwise comparisons demonstrated that participants had more positive attitudes towards first-person narration advertisements using concrete appeal (M_concrete = 5.84, SD = 0.59; M_abstract = 5.12, SD = 0.69; F(1,96) = 30.43, p < 0.001), thus confirming hypothesis H1a. Conversely, for third-person narration advertisements employing abstract appeal, participants exhibited more favorable attitudes (M_abstract = 5.95, SD = 0.34; M_concrete = 5.38, SD = 0.61; F(1,98) = 32.65, p < 0.001), providing support for hypothesis H1b. The specific results are illustrated in Figure 2.

5. Study 3: Experimental Study of Moderated Mediating Effect

Study 3 delves into the mediating role of information processing fluency (hypothesis H2, H2a, and H2b), building upon the affirmed interactive effects. In the study, we manipulated the advertising appeal and narrative person through advertising discourse and used the same advertising pictures in different experimental groups. The structure of Study 3 mirrored that of Study 2, with the exception that mobile phones served as the stimuli. In experiment 2, milk, being a common and rapidly consumed product, is associated with consumers having certain habits and fixed needs. But mobile phones, as a kind of durable consumer goods, may make consumers more cautious and more involved in making relevant judgments. This setup not only helped us explore the psychological mechanism of this effect but also ensured the robustness of the experimental results.

5.1. Sample

In Study 3, a total of 188 participants (88 male, M_age = 32.15, ranging from 18 to 69) were engaged. We randomly assigned participants to a 2 (advertising appeal: abstract appeal vs. concrete appeal) × 2 (narrative person: third-person vs. first-person) between-subjects experimental design.

5.2. Stimuli

They were presented with an ad image and discourse about a new brand (OMI Phone) promotion on Weibo. For the abstract appeal and first-person condition, the discourse was “Power and speed surpass earthly limits, inscribed with endless stories and dreams, myriad colors interweaved and fused, capturing every soul-stirring moment, create a close dialogue between me and the world”. For the abstract appeal and third-person condition, the discourse was “Power and speed surpass earthly limits, inscribed with endless stories and dreams, myriad colors interweaved and fused, capturing every soul-stirring moment, create a close dialogue between him and the world”. For the concrete appeal and first-person condition, the discourse was “Employs a second-generation flagship processor, UFS4.0 + FB0 innovative storage, 2K hyper-sense screen, 522 PPI, 32 MP front ultra-clear camera, the world is at my fingertips”. For the concrete appeal and third-person condition, the discourse was “Employs a second-generation flagship processor, UFS4.0 + FB0 innovative storage, 2K hyper-sense screen, 522 PPI, 32 MP front ultra-clear camera, the world is at his fingertips”.

5.3. Measures

Next, we measured advertising appeal and consumer attitudes towards advertising similar to prior study. Then participants were asked to answer another three-item question about processing fluency: “The advertising is easy to understand for me”, “The advertising is easy to process for me” and “I think the message of the advertising is clear and flowing” (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree; α = 0.73; adapted from Lee and Aaker [67]). To rule out possible alternative mediating explanations, consistent with measures of cognitive fluency, participants filled out four five-point semantic-differential items about self-relevance (α = 0.88;adapted from Wojciech and Marciniak [68]).

5.4. Results

The results of Study 3 indicate that information processing fluency plays a moderated mediating effect in the interaction between advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitude towards advertising in social media advertising (H2). Specifically, when the abstract appeal is combined with the third-person narrative, and the concrete appeal is combined with the first-person narrative, the information processing fluency of consumers is improved, and they have a better advertising attitude.

5.4.1. Manipulation Check

Firstly, the study found no significant differences among participants in terms of gender, age, and education level within each experimental group. Secondly, ANOVA analysis of participants’ preferences for experimental material images and language showed no significant differences between different groups. Then, participants across conditions assessed the level of abstraction in advertising appeal. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the manipulation, with the perceived abstract appeal being significantly higher in the abstract condition compared to the concrete condition (M_abstract = 5.36, SD = 1.45; M_concrete = 2.32, SD = 1.19; F(1,184) = 241.98, p < 0.001), and the perceived concrete appeal significantly higher in the concrete condition compared to the abstract condition (M_concrete = 5.98, SD = 0.91; M_abstract = 2.93, SD = 1.55; F(1,184) = 264.54, p < 0.001).

5.4.2. Hypothesis Test

Interactive effect. A two-way ANOVA was utilized to explore the congruence between the presentation format of advertising appeal and narrative person on participants’ attitudes towards advertising. The analysis revealed a significant interactive effect (F(1,184) = 29.16, p < 0.001), supporting Hypothesis 1. Contrast analyses indicated that for first-person narratives, participants had more positive attitudes towards advertising with concrete appeal (M_concrete =5.94, SD = 0.64; M_abstract =5.38, SD = 0.47; F(1,93) = 23.10, p < 0.001), confirming Hypothesis 1a. For third-person narratives, more favorable attitudes were observed towards advertising with abstract appeal (M_abstract = 5.81, SD = 0.49; M_concrete = 5.47, SD = 0.65; F(1,90) = 8.18, p < 0.01), thus supporting Hypothesis 1b. These findings are depicted in Figure 3.

Moderated mediation effect. To assess the mediating role of the information processing fluency in the interaction effect between narrative person and advertising appeal on consumer attitude, we conducted a moderated mediation analysis using a Hayes (2017) PROCESS [69] model (Model 8 with a sample size of 5000 and a confidence interval of 95%) in which advertising appeal (abstract appeal and concrete appeal) served as the independent variable, narrative person (first-person and third-person) served as the moderating variable, and information processing fluency as the mediating variable. This analysis revealed that the index of moderated mediation for information processing fluency did not include 0 (LLCI = 0.0643, ULCI = 0.3940, effect coefficient = −0.2078), indicating that the advertising appeal → information processing fluency → consumer attitudes towards advertising path is moderated by narrative person. Thus, hypothesis 2 was supported.

When the advertising narrative was in the first-person, the mediating effect of information processing fluency did not include 0 (LLCI = 0.0378, ULCI = 0.2343, effect coefficient = 0.1208), demonstrating that the use of concrete advertising appeal (as opposed to abstract advertising appeal) is likely to enhance consumers’ information processing fluency to a greater extent, thereby positively influencing consumer attitudes towards advertising. Thus, hypothesis H2a was supported. Similarly, when the advertising narrative was in the third-person, the mediating effect of information processing fluency did not include 0 (LLCI = −0.2094, ULCI = −0.0032, effect coefficient = −0.0871), demonstrating that the use of abstract advertising appeal (as opposed to concrete advertising appeal) is likely to enhance consumers’ information processing fluency to a greater extent, thereby positively influencing consumer attitudes towards advertising. Thus, hypothesis H2b was supported.

6. Conclusions and Discussion

Based on construal level theory, this paper examines the interactive effect of advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitudes towards advertising across secondary data and two experiments. The results indicate that when utilizing concrete appeal, first-person narratives are more efficacious than third-person narratives in fostering positive attitudes towards advertising. In contrast, with abstract appeal, third-person narratives are more effective than first-person narratives in engendering favorable attitudes. Notably, consumer information processing fluency is instrumental in mediating this interplay. Specifically, when there is congruence between concrete appeal and first-person narratives or abstract appeal and third-person narratives (i.e., low levels of explanation with proximate psychological distances or high levels of explanation with remote psychological distances), consumers exhibit improved information processing fluency, resulting in more favorable evaluations of the advertisements. The results of hypothesis testing are shown in

Table 2. Summary of hypotheses testing results.

Hypothesis	Studies	Result
H1. Advertising appeal and narrative person have an interactive effect on consumer attitudes towards advertising in social media advertising:	Study 1, 2 and 3	Supported
H1a. Within concrete appeal (vs. abstract appeal) advertising, employing first-person narrative (vs. third-person narrative) could bolster consumer attitudes towards advertising.	Study 2 and 3	Supported
H1b. Within abstract appeal (vs. concrete appeal) advertising, employing third-person narrative (vs. first-person narrative) could bolster consumer attitudes towards advertising.	Study 2 and 3	Supported
H2. The interaction effect between advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitude is mediated by information processing fluency:	Study 3	Supported
H2a. For first-person narratives (vs. third-person narratives), concrete appeal (vs. abstract appeal) will produce higher consumer attitudes towards social media advertising through the mediating effect of information processing fluency.	Study 3	Supported
H2b. For third-person narratives (vs. first -person narratives), abstract appeal (vs. concrete appeal) will produce higher consumer attitudes towards social media advertising through the mediating effect of information processing fluency.	Study 3	Supported

.

6.1. Theoretical Contribution

This study probes the influence of advertising appeal on consumer attitudes towards advertising, drawing upon construal level theory. We provide three contributions to the related research fields.

First, our research furthers the knowledge of how a combination of different elements in advertising affects consumer attitudes in social media advertising. In the past, inquiry into advertising appeals has fixated on external, non-advertising elements such as product attributes [11,29] and consumer characteristics [30], overlooking the critical role of aligning these variables in advertising elements with advertising appeal in molding consumer attitudes. Moreover, there remains an absence of exhaustive scrutiny into the contexts where narrative person is applicable, especially concerning its effects on other communicative variables [14]. Therefore this study seeks to identify how match between narrative person and advertising appeal affects consumer attitudes towards advertising, filling the gap in the original exploration of interactions between different elements in social media advertising.

Second, this paper aims to elucidate the moderated mediating effect of information processing fluency in the relationship between advertising appeal and narrative person on advertising attitudes. Based on the construal level theory, our research shows that when the advertising appeal matches the narrative person in social media advertising, the consistency of consumers’ explanatory level for different elements of the advertising improves their information processing fluency, thus clarifying the internal mechanism of the interaction between advertising appeal and narrative person on consumer attitudes towards advertising.

Furthermore, we incorporate the construal level theory into the realm of social media advertising research, offering a novel theoretical framework for analyzing the impact of social media advertising. By leveraging construal level theory, researchers can delve deeper into how consumers process advertising information within the social media context and how this processing influences their advertising attitudes.

6.2. Managerial Implications

Beyond the theoretical insights, our research also has important practical implications for markets. In the realm of advertising, the strategic selection of content plays a pivotal role in shaping consumer attitudes towards advertising. With increasing social media marketing budgets, firms need strategies to improve the effectiveness of their social media advertising design. The findings of this study suggest that the advertising design team can select the appropriate narrative person strategy according to the characteristics of the advertisement appeal and the target audience, so as to enhance consumers’ identification and preference for the brand. Specifically, the strategic use of first-person narratives in advertisements featuring concrete appeals can serve to enhance consumer advertising attitudes. Conversely, in instances where advertisements are characterized by abstract appeals, the adoption of third-person narratives emerges as a more advantageous strategy.

Additionally, this research pinpoints information processing fluency as a pivotal mediator in the dynamic between advertising narrative person strategies and advertising appeals. When making advertisements, marketers should pay attention to the matching of advertising information at the explanatory level, so as to give full play to the interaction between advertising variables such as advertising appeal and narrative person, so as to improve their information processing fluency and finally improve their advertising attitude.

Finally, the joint consideration of different elements within advertising can enable more enterprises and advertisers to pay attention to the matching and interaction between elements and guide advertising manufacturers and agencies to strengthen the combination of more detailed and fine-grained advertising elements in advertising design, so as to better use advertising to enhance consumers’ positive attitudes and behaviors.

6.3. Limitations and Future Research

This study’s initial focus on the congruence between advertising appeal and narrative person, grounded in the construal level theory, reveals a need for further exploration. There exists the potential for matching relationships in additional dimensions. For instance, when identical messages are conveyed, the dichotomy of positive versus negative formats may yield divergent outcomes [22]. Future inquiries should probe these alternative dimensions of congruence between advertising appeal and narrative person, thereby enriching the depth of extant theoretical frameworks and their implications for consumer behavior.

The current investigation centers on first-person and third-person narrative within advertising narratives, omitting the second-person narrative. Given its direct communicative nature, the second-person narrative could significantly impact consumer emotional resonance and brand identification via its dialogic narrative [70]. Subsequent studies are encouraged to expand the research scope to encompass the second-person narrative within advertising narratives and assess its influence on consumer attitudes.

Regarding methodology, this study did not account for the placement of narrative person pronouns in subject or object positions, an aspect ripe for further categorization and analysis [36]. Additionally, the employed method for gauging attitudes towards advertising was relatively basic, relying solely on scales. Future research should integrate more sophisticated methodologies and more objective data [71], thus enhancing the validity of this study’s findings.

Furthermore, existing research delineates a distinct correlation between product attributes and appeal strategies [72], intimating that product attributes may steer the congruence between appeal and narrative person. By delving into these aspects, further research can attempt to integrate insights about advertising appeal and narrative person with established theoretical structures, explore the boundaries of this effect, and foster a holistic comprehension of the intricate dynamics among diverse variables and contextual factors in advertising [72,73].

Lastly, our research data are derived from Chinese context, which may pose certain limitations on the applicability of our findings [74]. To enhance the external validity of the research conclusions, future studies could attempt to collect data from a broader array of countries and regions, thereby fostering a more comprehensive understanding and generalizability of the results.