The moderating role of sport service type on the relationship between ad message type, service trial promotion, and consumers' responses to the advertisements

The primary purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of message appeal on affective (i.e., pleasure and arousal) and cognitive responses (i.e., attitudes toward the advertisements and future intentions) to sport services advertisements. The secondary purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of service trial information in the advertisements on the subjects’ responses. The current study also examined the moderating effects of sport service types, in that which types of ad message appeals are more appropriate for two different sport service types. The current study controlled the involvement factors because personal involvement with a specific sport might influence a subject’s evaluation of advertisements.;In order to gauge the research questions, the current study utilized a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects quasi-experiment factorial design: message appeal (affective vs. cognitive), service trial promotion (presence of service trial promotion vs. absence of service trial promotion), and type of sport service (hedonic/artificial wall climbing vs. utilitarian/fitness center). After random assignment of one of eight treatment conditions, subjects (N = 224) were asked affective as well as cognitive responses to the ads.;The 2 × 2 MANCOVA results indicated that pleasure and arousal were significant functions of message type, indicating differences in the overall emotional responses for the target advertisements. Likewise, 2 × 2 × 2 MANCOVA results revealed that cognitive responses to the ads were also significant functions of message type, service type and service trial promotion, suggesting that subjects who were exposed to the wall climbing advertisement, cognitive message appeal, and trial promotion in the advertisement reported more positive attitudes toward the ads and future intentions. Further, the findings suggested that service type moderated the effects of message type on subjects’ levels of attitudes toward the advertisements and future intentions.;The research contributes to the literature for sport marketers in that the use of free trial promotion might prove useful as a marketing mix for sport service industry. Further, the research suggests that the category of sport service should determine the type of advertising message appeal, and particularly the notion is more salient for utilitarian sport services.