The effect of YouTube advertising on knowledge: A study amongst UWC students

Abstract

Africa has the lowest Internet access in the world with only 11.4% of the population having access to the Internet, and a majority accessing it via their mobile phones (Patel, 2012). YouTube is a video sharing website, with over 2 million active monthly users in South Africa (Grossman, 2012:38-43), giving advertisers an opportunity to reach Generation Y through YouTube advertising since the youth have grown up in a media saturated world, are more brand conscious, technologically savvy and well-networked (Bianca, 2010). The need for information sharing and networking has exploded with fast social media growth and mass of advertising appealing to the youth, who represents a difficult market to reach with marketing communications. Initial information search revealed few research studies in South Africa on YouTube advertising, with little known about attitudes towards social media as an advertising medium. Therefore, the research objective was to determine the effects of YouTube advertising on the cognitive attitude component (knowledge) based on various usage characteristics and demographical elements. A survey method was used and over 500 questionnaires were distributed to UWC students. Findings of the research indicated that YouTube advertising does generally provide knowledge; with usage characteristics and demographical elements having varying effects.