Annual Conference 2019

As one of the successful brand activism ad campaigns in recent years, the current study focuses on the Always #LikeAGirl campaign that took on the issue of girls and female empowerment. As a viral video marketing campaign with YouTube as their main vehicle for campaign dissemination, this study examined how Always brand activism campaigns spread on YouTube by conducting a network analysis of YouTube video networks generated by the #LikeAGirl campaign spanning across five campaign periods. Quantifiable data (i.e., views, comments, likes, dislikes, user-generated videos) and structural network patterns show that the Always #LikeAGirl campaign was successful by both standards. Although the follow-up campaign periods were not as successful as the initial campaign launch, the substantial amount of views, comments, likes, and user-generated content showed that the consecutive campaigns still had impact. As shown through the network patterns, the main campaign ads were central in the diffusion of the campaign during the earlier periods of the campaign but that role was passed onto the user-generated contents in the later periods. Implications of the findings and future social network analysis studies in brand advertising and brand activism campaigns are further discussed.