Dataset Information

Exposure to digital marketing enhances young adults' interest in energy drinks: An exploratory investigation.

ABSTRACT: Young adults experience faster weight gain and consume more unhealthy food than any other age groups. The impact of online food marketing on "digital native" young adults is unclear. This study examined the effects of online marketing on young adults' consumption behaviours, using energy drinks as a case example. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion was used as the theoretical basis. A pre-test post-test experimental research design was adopted using mixed-methods. Participants (aged 18-24) were randomly assigned to control or experimental groups (N = 30 each). Experimental group participants' attitudes towards and intended purchase and consumption of energy drinks were examined via surveys and semi-structured interviews after their exposure to two popular energy drink brands' websites and social media sites (exposure time 8 minutes). Exposure to digital marketing contents of energy drinks improved the experimental group participants' attitudes towards and purchase and consumption intention of energy drinks. This study indicates the influential power of unhealthy online marketing on cognitively mature young adults. This study draws public health attentions to young adults, who to date have been less of a focus of researchers but are influenced by online food advertising.

SUBMITTER: Buchanan L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5289551 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Exposure to digital marketing enhances young adults' interest in energy drinks: An exploratory investigation.

Buchanan Limin L Kelly Bridget B Yeatman Heather H

PloS one 20170202 2

Young adults experience faster weight gain and consume more unhealthy food than any other age groups. The impact of online food marketing on "digital native" young adults is unclear. This study examined the effects of online marketing on young adults' consumption behaviours, using energy drinks as a case example. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion was used as the theoretical basis. A pre-test post-test experimental research design was adopted using mixed-methods. Participants (aged 1 ...[more]

PMID: 28152016

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Energy drink consumption has increased dramatically among young Canadians, with anecdotal evidence of adverse health effects. There is a lack of population-based studies to examine the prevalence of adverse events from energy drinks, particularly among young people. The current study sought to assess adverse events from energy drinks among a population-based sample of youth and young adults in Canada. METHODS:An online survey was conducted in 2015 with a national sample of youth (aged 12-17 yr) and young adults (aged 18-24 yr) recruited from a consumer panel. Respondents reported prior consumption of energy drinks as well as adverse outcomes, concurrent activities associated with the outcomes and whether medical attention was sought or considered. Adverse events from coffee were also assessed for comparison. Weighted analyses are reported. RESULTS:Of the 2055 respondents, 1516 (73.8%) reported having ever consumed an energy drink, and 1741 (84.7%) reported having ever consumed coffee (unweighted). Overall, 55.4% of respondents who had ever consumed an energy drink reported that they had experienced at least 1 adverse event, including fast heartbeat (24.7%), difficulty sleeping (24.1%), headache (18.3%), nausea/vomiting/diarrhea (5.1%), chest pain (3.6%) and seizures (0.2%); 3.1% had sought or had considered seeking medical help for an adverse event. The prevalence of reported adverse events was significantly greater among energy drink consumers than among coffee consumers (36.0%) (odds ratio [OR] 2.67 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.01-2.56]), as was the proportion who reported seeking or considering seeking medical help for adverse events (3.1% v. 1.4%) (OR 2.18 [95% CI 1.39-3.41]). INTERPRETATION:More than half of youth and young adults who had consumed energy drinks reported adverse outcomes, some serious enough to warrant seeking medical help. The adverse outcomes were consistent with the physiologic effects of caffeine but were significantly more prevalent than with other sources of caffeine such as coffee, consistent with data from national adverse event databases.

Project description:BackgroundDigital mental health is an emerging field that can leverage technology and mobile apps to deliver mental health treatment to populations in areas with limited mental health services. Despite widespread availability of these apps, uptake remains low. Enhanced marketing is necessary to increase public engagement. There is growing recognition that mental health intervention beneficiaries should be engaged in all phases of treatment development, adaptation, and delivery. Crowdsourcing - consulting the public to solve problems and sharing the solutions - can foster community-informed ideas for public health, but has yet been applied to digital mental health marketing.ObjectiveWith the goal of engaging potential intervention beneficiaries in digital mental health dissemination, the current project implemented a digital mental health crowdsourcing designathon for Chinese college students in Macao SAR, China and evaluated the feasibility of the contest and the products. The contest asked participants to design marketing packages for Step-by-Step, a scalable WHO digital mental health intervention focusing on depression.MethodsDesignathon participants, recruited from a global health class, were sorted into teams with balanced areas of expertise. Two judging panels - one of experts in relevant fields and another of Chinese college students - evaluated the marketing packages and selected finalists. The designathon was held in-person over four days and involved debriefing, workshops, a contest, and an awards ceremony. A parallel mixed-methods approach was applied, including qualitative feedback from judges and participants alongside quantitative data on participant satisfaction and depressive symptoms to enrich our understanding of the event. Additionally, based on judges' feedback given to participants, the communication packages of the contest were ranked.Results49 participants (8 teams of 6-7 members each) were involved in the designathon. Using a cutoff score of 10 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), 11.4% of participants had moderate or higher depressive symptoms. All teams successfully produced complete digital mental health marketing packages. Four finalists' packages were selected quantitatively with judges' scores and the top finalist's package was described by judges' comments as simple, thoughtful, and appealing, although not informative enough. Participants were overall satisfied with the designathon, but some mentioned that time was insufficient and that organization/instruction clarity could have been improved.ConclusionsThe designathon is a novel, feasible strategy to collect crowd input for the dissemination of a mental health intervention. Compared with traditional communication strategies, this bottom-up approach included and engaged potential intervention beneficiaries to take an active role in creating digital mental health marketing communication. Future contests should allow participants more time and reconsider aspects of event organization.

Dataset Information

Exposure to digital marketing enhances young adults' interest in energy drinks: An exploratory investigation.

Publications

Exposure to digital marketing enhances young adults' interest in energy drinks: An exploratory investigation.

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