The effect of viral ads on social media on brand awareness

The communication, which is one of the media that is most affected by the developments in the Internet and technology today, continues to experience change and transformation with all of its branches. The fact that the Internet occupies an important position in communication media, and that the advertisements constitute a communication instrument have paved the way for the advertisers to adopt the new types of marketing policies. At this point, the viral advertisements have separated from the conventional types of advertisements available on the media, and they have become a new type of advertisement with its own different form and content structure. As a method of the viral marketing, the viral advertisements intend to increase the awareness of the brand and to carry out the marketing activities under the current market conditions, based on the principle of word-of-mouth advertising. There are many factors among the reasons for preference of the viral advertisement practices that are highly demanded by the advertisers. One of the most important of such factors is a technical development of the viral advertisements as initiated by the users and spread to other users. Accordingly, this study focuses on investigation of the levels of impact of the contents of the viral advertisements, as produced on the Internet and social media environments, on the awareness of the brands.