What makes a COVID-message effective on social media? : The investigation of language variation, bandwagon heuristic cues and modality on the persuasive effects of social media health messages

Abstract

With the outbreak of Covid’19, there is a sharp increase in healthcare advertisements aimed to effectively disseminate pandemic-related information. Many of them are distributed through social media due to its capability to reach a large audience effectively. In countries with a creole language, like Singapore, there is a great opportunity to study the effects of language variation (i.e., localised versus standard) on persuasiveness, especially in the context of COVID-19. Additionally, given the nature of the digital landscape allowing a variety of advertising mediums, the study aims to investigate the moderating effects of modality used in advertisements (i.e., static images vs. videos) on the effects of using Singlish in healthcare advertising. Furthermore, this study seeks to understand how bandwagon heuristic cues play a part in affecting advertising effectiveness. In our study, we find that language variation had a significant impact on advertising persuasiveness, with English advertisements having a positive effect on participants’ behavioural intentions. However, neither modality nor bandwagon heuristic cues have a significant effect on advertising persuasiveness. Yet, there is a three-way interaction between the variables that creates a significant effect on message effectiveness when combined. Moreover, this study further explored the mediating effects of perceived warmth and sense of community on advertising effectiveness, with results showing that neither of the two variables mediated the persuasive effects of language variance. However, the three- way-interaction between language variation, modality and bandwagon heuristic on persuasive effects was mediated by sense of community.