The Agency in Cyberspace: A Content Analysis of Ad Agency Homepages
Year: 2012
Type: preprint
Abstract: The Internet is changing the nature of marketing communications. Through the Internet, buyers have real-time access to businesses across the world. Interestingly, in spite of a number of studies that investigate the Internet's impact on advertising messages, to date, no one has examined the Internet's impact on the advertising agency. In this study, we begin to fill this “gap” in the literature. We conducted a content analysis of advertising agency homepage to determine how agencies use the web to communicate with current and potential customers. Specifically, we examine two broad questions: 1) what percentage of leading U.S. advertising agencies have a web presence?, and 2) for what purposes do ad agencies use their homepages? To answer the second question, we investigate three specific aspects of the homepage: a) communication strategy, b) interactivity, and c) the degree to which the homepage lists firm credentials.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: R. Zachary Finney, Richard D. Parker, Angeline Close Scheinbaum, Robert A. Orwig
Institutions: Clemson University, The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2271611190