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Word of mouth (WOM) communication has been recognized for a long time as an activity to improve the efficiency and success of communication efforts. The purpose of this paper is to examine potential antecedents and moderators of positive WOM of tourist destination residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three WOM predictors are examined, i.e. trustworthiness in communication of authorities, destination reputation, and prevention measures, whereas two sociodemographic variables are considered as moderators, i.e. gender and age, and more specifically, generational cohorts. Empirical research has been conducted among residents of a tourist destination, considered important stakeholders who actively participate in tourist destination branding. Data were collected through an online survey distributed through e-mail marketing lists and online panels. After obtaining 480 valid responses, data were subject to normality tests, Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), measurement invariance assessment, and multi-group analysis. Findings reveal that residents' positive WOM is caused by their perceptions of destination reputation and adoption measures, being the role of trustworthiness in communication of authorities insignificant in residents' WOM engagement. Among the two sociodemographic variables, only gender is found to moderate one relationship (i.e. reputation-WOM), with stronger effects among women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic has strongly affected different issues of everyday life. The pandemic has changed consumer attitudes and behavior. Consequently, during COVID-19, businesses had to decide how to organize the advertising campaigns and what content should be addressed to consumers. Considering the limited number of articles concerning these issues, it seems important to evaluate the impact of the global health crisis on advertising messages in different countries. The main objective of this paper is to assess TV commercial campaigns implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the specific epidemic situation in the selected countries. The research methodology was based on the observation, a qualitative method of collecting data obtained through monitoring the content of TV commercials aired during the afternoon, before or after the main news service. The research was conducted in May 2020 and in May 2021 in five selected European countries affected to varying degrees by the coronavirus pandemic. The research results allowed evaluation of the advertising messages in terms of their content and values exposed. The findings indicate that the number of COVID-related TV commercials is not correlated with the number of patients and deaths from COVID-19. The themes appearing the most often in the TV commercials in the studied period were the #StayAtHome idea, family and friends, the aspect of safety during the crisis, and brands' special offers. The tone of the advertisements was usually uplifting and hopeful, trying to cheer the stressed societies. From a theoretical perspective, the research results show the advertising strategy issues in specific conditions in different European countries. These findings concerning TV commercial strategy during a pandemic crisis could provide references for other countries, especially in Europe. The research results could be useful for marketing managers in developing strategies concerning the successful planning of TV commercials in crisis periods in European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically, consumer advertising is designed to promote or build brand identity for goods or services. Yet when a major crisis disrupts the everyday flow of life, advertisers often pivot from directly pitching their brands to conveying messages that somewhat reflect the tone of public service announcements. After examining the nature of much of the television advertising produced shortly after the United States was placed on lockdown following the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic, this exploratory study investigates posts to Twitter to begin to address the question: To what extent did viewers' interpretations of pandemic-themed commercials either accord with or challenge the advertisers' intended messages of hope? The results show that targeted consumers demonstrated a greater tendency to contest advertisers' inspirational themes than to passively accept them. These findings are discussed within the context of advertising's ideological function as propaganda aimed toward especially active audiences in the age of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]