TY - JOUR
T1 - Public Referral, Viral Campaign, and Celebrity Participation
T2 - A Social Network Analysis of the Ice Bucket Challenge on YouTube
AU - Kwon, Kyounghee
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 American Academy of Advertising.
PY - 2019/5/4
Y1 - 2019/5/4
N2 - Public referral is a viral campaign strategy that takes advantage of the existence of networked culture in social media. The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge is an exemplary instance of a public referral–based campaign, the success of which can be partly attributed to the voluntary engagement of celebrity communities. This study views celebrities as social actors and explores the ways in which celebrities’ public referral networks grew during the Ice Bucket Challenge. Findings suggest that celebrities engaged in the campaign based on restrictive social networking rules. Also, the referral network grew through homophily, wherein sociodemographic similarities played an important role in celebrities’ referral decision making. This article contends that understanding whom people select to pass along the campaign message should be as important as understanding why people share the message.
AB - Public referral is a viral campaign strategy that takes advantage of the existence of networked culture in social media. The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge is an exemplary instance of a public referral–based campaign, the success of which can be partly attributed to the voluntary engagement of celebrity communities. This study views celebrities as social actors and explores the ways in which celebrities’ public referral networks grew during the Ice Bucket Challenge. Findings suggest that celebrities engaged in the campaign based on restrictive social networking rules. Also, the referral network grew through homophily, wherein sociodemographic similarities played an important role in celebrities’ referral decision making. This article contends that understanding whom people select to pass along the campaign message should be as important as understanding why people share the message.
KW - Ice Bucket Challenge
KW - Viral campaign
KW - celebrity sponsorship
KW - electronic word of mouth
KW - homophily
KW - public referral
KW - social media campaign
KW - social network analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062374603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85062374603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15252019.2018.1561342
DO - 10.1080/15252019.2018.1561342
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85062374603
SN - 1525-2019
VL - 19
SP - 87
EP - 99
JO - Journal of Interactive Advertising
JF - Journal of Interactive Advertising
IS - 2
ER -