Vodcasts (video podcasts) were created by a Midwestern university's business school to engage prospective students. A study assessed 157 students' reactions to the vodcasts using Ducoffe's (1996) advertising effectiveness model. The final model found that perceived informativeness, credibility, and irritation predicted perceived value, which led to positive attitudes and intent to take action. The type of college enrolled in also impacted attitudes. Informative, credible vodcasts reduced irritation and increased value, attitudes, and students' intent to learn more.

1. Vodcast Impact on Students’ Attitudes
and Behavioral Intentions
BELA FLORENTHAL
WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY
PRISCILLA A. ARLING
DEBORAH SKINNER
KATHRYN W. KING
BUTLER UNIVERSITY
PATRICK J. RONDEAU
SIX SIGMA ASSOCIATES, INC.

2. Research Questions
 Are Vodcasts (video podcasts) effective as part of
universities’ IMC strategy for recruitment?
 Can Vodcasts be assessed using existing theoretical
models of communication?
 Ducoffe’s 1996 and extensions

3. Theoretical Background
 Vodcasts
 Video podcasts
 Interactive
 Capture attention, raise interest, increase involvement, and
lead to action-related commitment
 Millennials (Gen M)
 Net Generation
 Frequent users of the internet
 More into visuals and kinetics
 Multimedia taskers
 On-line buying, socializing, and playing
 Tend to learn on their own time

4. Theoretical Background
 Ducoffe’s (1996) model and extensions
 4 Motivations/benefits:
 Entertainment, Informativeness, Irritation, Credibility
 Relevant demographics
 Inclusion by Brackett and Carr (2001)
 Advertising value
 Consumers and advertisers exchange benefits and costs from web-
based media
 Consumers derive value based on an exchange via communication
 Consumers’ perceived value of the web-based advertising medium

5. Theoretical Background
 Ducoffe’s (1996) model and extensions
 Attitude toward advertising
 Advertising outcomes that capture consumers’ gratification from
interacting on-line with an advertisement
 Behavioral Intentions
 Action Intent
Developed to cater to desired university goals
 Students’ intent to look for additional information based on the
vodcasts

6. Theoretical Model
• Informativeness
• Entertainment Attitude
Advertising Action
• Irritation
toward
Value Intent
Advertising
• Credibility
Relevant
Demographics

7. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses
 Entertainment:
 Refers to consumers’ experience of fun, pleasure, and enjoyment
during media usage
 Ducoffe (1996) suggests:
 Perceived entertainment of the ads impacts the value of the
advertising
 Included in the Web based Motivation Inventory (Rodgers et al.
2007)
 It has been used to explain attitudes toward websites
 Gen M are used to watching reality based television or playing video
games
 Vodcasts mimic that experience
 H1: Perceived entertainment of the vodcast will be
positively associated with the perceived advertising value
of the vodcast and with attitude toward the vodcast.

8. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses
 Informativeness:
 The degree to which consumers can receive resourceful and helpful
information on the Internet (Luo 2002; Ducoffe 1996).
 Ducoffe (1994) suggests:
 Perceived informativeness of the ads impacts the value of the
advertising
 Included in the Web based Motivation Inventory (Rodgers et al.
2007)
 It has been used to explain attitudes toward websites
 Vodcasts offer firsthand reviews of “typical” college coed experiences
 H2: Perceived informativeness of the vodcast will be
positively associated with the perceived advertising value
of the vodcast.
 H7: Perceived informativeness will be positively
associated with the attitude toward the vodcast.

9. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses
 Irritation:
 Advertising with unwanted outcomes
 Results in reduced advertising effectiveness and value (Luo
2002; Ducoffe 1996)
 Gen M:
 Their time is limited and the available website resources are
numerous
 Vodcasts may seem irritating if they are perceived to provide
irrelevant information
 H3: Perceived irritation of the vodcast will be
negatively associated with the perceived advertising
value of the vodcast.

10. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses
 Credibility:
 Extension to Ducoffe’s model by Brackett and Carr (2001)
 Perception that the information provided in the advertisement is truthful
and believable (MacKenzie and Lutz 1989)
 Previous research has established that the perceived credibility of a website
impacts both the value and the attitude toward the website (Chiagouris,
Long, and Plank 2008; Greer 2003)
 The vodcast used in this study represents the website as the context of
interest
 H5: Perceived credibility of the vodcast will be positively
associated with the perceived advertising value of the vodcast.
 H6: Perceived credibility of the vodcast will be positively
associated with the attitude toward the vodcast.

11. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses
 Relevant Demographics:
 Research to support that people react to the web differently depending on
variables such as gender and age
 Students relate differently to the vodcast actors (male or female) and their
characteristics (age, chosen major, field of study, etc.)
 Attitude toward Advertising
 Brackett and Carr (2001) added this outcome construct
 H8: Relevant demographics (e.g., gender, age, major of study,
year in school and/or type of college) will have a direct
relationship with the attitude toward the vodcast.
 H4: The perceived advertising value of the vodcast will be
positively associated with the attitude toward the vodcast.

12. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses
 Behavioral Intention:
 Luo (2001) modified and extended Ducoffe’s (1996) model adding web
usage as an outcome
 Students will review the vodcasts and should be inclined to ask for or obtain
further information to help in their university selection
 H9: Attitude toward the vodcast will be positively associated with
the intent to take actions toward the university.

13. Methodology
 Study design and execution
 A private Midwestern university was sampled
 Vodcasts
 Were created in the business school
 Purpose:
 Engage prospective business students with the
college/university
 Get into their “consideration set” earlier in the decision cycle
(fall vs. spring)
 Tell “the freshman story” through the eyes of two actual business
students
 Were placed on the university’s home page with links to iTunes
and YouTube

14. Methodology
 Study design and execution
 Sampling method:
 924 questionnaires were sent out
 63 questionnaires were collected in freshmen classes
 Total of 157 usable questionnaires (16.99% response rate)
 Sample characteristics:
 57% were males
 70% were ages 17-18
 93% were freshmen
 Enrolled:
 48% into the College of Business
 25% into college of Liberal Arts
 15% into Pharmacy and Health Sciences
 71% came from public schools

15. Methodology
 Study design and execution
 Measures:
 All were 5-point scales
 Ducoffe’s (1996) measures of Entertainment and Advertising
Value were used
 Brackett and Carr’s (2001) measures of Informativeness,
Irritation, and Credibility were used
 Attitude toward the Vodcasts were adopted from Geissler,
Zinkhan and Watson’s (2006) study
 Action Intent was developed for this study using items such as:
 The Vodcasts would prompt me to ask for additional
information
 I would use the information in the Vodcasts to help me decide
about attending

16. Analysis and Results
 Structural Model 1 based on Ducoffe (1996)
 RSMEA = 0.10, GFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.90, NFI = 0.99
Entertainment
0.18*
(1.96)
0.12
(1.46)
0.24**
(2.77) Atttitude
Advertising
Informativeness Toward
Value
Advertising
-0.44**
(5.30)
Irritation

17. Analysis and Results
 Structural Model 2 based on Brackett and Carr (2001) and
Luo (2002)
 RSMEA = 0.20, GFI = 0.91, AGFI = 0.61, NFI = 0.94
0.12
Entertainment (1.20)
0.05
(0.57)
0.06
(0.61)
Informativeness
0.18*
(1.99)
Advertising Atttitude Toward
Irritation Action Intent
Value 0.45** Advertising
-0.42** 0.47**
(-5.13) (5.13) (5.91)
0.12
(1.52)
Credibility
0.05
(0.45)
Business
College
Enrolled 0.15*
(2.39)

18. Analysis and Results
 Final Structural Model 3
 RSMEA = 0.00, GFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.95, NFI = 0.99
0.33**
(4.24)
Informativeness
Action Intent
0.19* 0.43**
(2.24) (5.65)
0.19*
Credibility (2.25)
Advertising 0.76**
Value (4.48)
-0.43**
(-5.50) Atttitude
Toward
Irritation Advertising
Business
0.15*
College
(2.38)
Enrolled

19. Conclusions
 The final model validates most of Ducoffe’s (1996)
and Brackett and Carr’s (2001) hypothesized
relationships
 Three out of four motives, namely Informativeness,
Credibility, and Irritation, directly contribute to perceived
Advertising Value which in turn contributes to Attitude
toward Advertising
 In the vodacst context:
 Perceived Entertainment does not significantly relate to
either Advertising Value or Attitude toward
Advertising

20. Conclusions
 The type of college in which a student was enrolled
was a relevant demographic for the vodcast
context
 Students enrolled in the College of Business had a more
positive attitude toward the vodcasts than students enrolled
in other colleges.
 Action Intent was directly related to perceived
Advertising Value and Informativeness
 The more informative the vodcasts are, the more viewers are
inclined to take university-related actions
 The more the viewers see value in the vodcasts, the more they
inclined to be action driven

21. Managerial Implications
 Vodcasts used by universities to attract students
 Make sure they convey relevant and credible information
 Make sure they are not irritating
 Tracking viral marketing of vodcasts
 Give incentives to students to watch the vodcasts (e.g., treasure hunt)
 Using feedback mechanism
 Allowing students to rate vodcasts and make suggestions for
improvement
 Focus on what drives Action Intent
 Focus mostly on informative vodcasts that keep students interested
 Entertaining vodcasts that lack relevant information may not result
in enrollment-related actions

22. Limitations
 The sampled students already verbally committed to
come to the university
 A more balanced sample with non-committed students could
be beneficial
 Almost half of the sample was students enrolled in
the college of business
 A more even distribution across colleges could be beneficial
 Action Intent
 Was used in a small private university
 Generalizability needs to be established for private and public
universities