Examining FoMO triggered by retargeted advertisements on young people

Abstract

In recent years, new forms of online targeted advertising have become increasingly appealing over traditional advertising. Many marketers opt for retargeted advertisements to reach their audiences with personalised content. Retargeted advertisements are often displayed after the recipient indicates interest in a product by, say, visiting the product page. In this case, the advertisements’ effectiveness may be augmented by the match of the presented offering to the consumer’s personal interest. Some retargeted advertisements attempt to further increment the effectiveness with messages that increase the fear of missing out (FoMO). Very few studies examine FoMO in consumer behaviour, with most literature over the past decade focusing mainly on FoMO as a social media and internet addiction phenomenon. Our study extends our understanding of FoMO among young people as a result of exposure to retargeted advertisements that amplify scarcity or urgency. Young people are known to be more susceptible to advertising influence and hence, could be most potentially vulnerable in this advertising perspective. We observe five themes related to fear, lost opportunities, retargeted advertisements, scarcity, and urgency from an initial scoping study and two systematic literature reviews of earlier empirical works. We conducted an initial survey that focused on these themes, consisting of 26 main items administered among young people aged between 13 and 24. Our study, involving 271 participants, identifies and classifies four factors through an exploratory factor analysis. The findings suggest that young people do not feel inferior to their friends when they miss out on products advertised on retargeting advertisements. However, they can feel disappointed when they miss out on a product and find out that it is not available anymore or that the price has increased.