Ad generation modalities and response to in-app advertising – an experimental study

Purpose The widespread use of mobile apps in marketing has resulted in in-app advertising to promote products and services. Research on in-app advertising has focused on several dimensions but not on the modality of ad generation. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and memes as advertisements has paved the way for multiple ways to create them. This study aims to understand the effect of various advertisement generation modalities on an individual’s trust, attitude toward the advertisement, subjective norms, intentions and use of a particular product. Design/methodology/approach Using the theoretical lens of reasoned action and trust, the authors explored through an experimental study (five treatments-AI-generated ad and meme, human-created ad and meme and user-generated meme, and ( n = 300) the consumer’s intention to purchase a fictitious shampoo brand based on in-app advertising. The respondents were exposed to one of the treatments without knowledge of the ad generation modality. Findings Trust differed significantly across all the experimental conditions. Furthermore, the authors observe that the theory of reasoned action holds for all advertising generation modalities. Originality/value The use of AI in advertising is increasing exponentially, and brands are using AI-generated content to engage with their audiences on various platforms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to attempt to understand the effects of various ad generation modalities on the trust, attitude and behavior of individuals. Furthermore, this study examines both AI and human-created memes and their effects. The authors suggest optimizing the prompt engineering to develop AI-generated images.