Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

In 2008, when Frito-Lay’s Doritos brand wanted to re-launch two older flavors that had been discontinued in the 1980s, the company created a digital marketing campaign called “Hotel 626.” Part of a Halloween promotion to bring the defunct chips “back from the dead,” the campaign was aimed squarely at teenagers, using a variety of under-the-radar techniques to entice them to “check in” to the online hotel (which was only open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.). By entering their names and email addresses, teens were immediately immersed in a nightmarish movie, from which they could escape only through a series of unpleasant challenges that asked them to use their webcams, microphones, and mobile phones. Live Twitter feeds enabled users to share their experiences in real time, and they were encouraged to post and share photos of themselves as they participated. A custom Facebook app prompted teens to “send a scare” to friends in their social networks. With a budget of less than $1 million, the Hotel 626 campaign had a significant impact—even though the site never mentioned the name of the product itself. By the following spring, more than four million people in 136 countries had visited the site and played the game, with an average stay of 13 minutes. The re-launched flavors sold out, selling two million bags in just 3 weeks, and Hotel 626 was awarded the Cyber Lion at the 2009 Cannes Advertising awards—perhaps the most prestigious prize in marketing (Hotel626.com, 2010; Inspiration Room, 2009). The campaign was so successful that it spawned an even more elaborate and terrifying sequel the following year, called “Asylum 626” (Diaz, 2009).

Frito-Lay’s two 626 campaigns are typical of digital food marketing in the twenty-first century, featuring immersive, engaging, interactive environments, in which the traditional hard sell gives way to more subtle forms of community building, with social media at the center of that process. Not surprisingly, young people are a favored target, as they represent an especially lucrative market for advertisers. According to an August 2010 meeting of the Advertising Research Foundation, “Kids Purchasing Influence” was $700 billion in 2009, up from $50 billion in 2000 (Chester & Montgomery, 2007). Along with other youth marketers, the food and beverage industries are investing large sums of money in research examining the ways that digital media have become so integrated into the social relationships, behaviors, and buying habits of children and teenagers (Microsoft Advertising & Carat, 2010).

The health implications of this advertising juggernaut are grave. Over the past four decades, the level of obesity among US adolescents has grown at an alarming rate, quadrupling from 4.5% in the mid-sixties to 17.6% by 2006. Today, one of every three teens is either overweight or obese. Rates are significantly higher for African-American and Hispanic adolescents than for white adolescents (Grier, 2009). Food marketing—particularly for “high-calorie, low-nutrient” products—is a key environmental factor, and a major “default” affecting adolescent health. The teen years are a critical developmental period, during which long-term consumer habits and eating behaviors are established and reinforced (Brownell, Schwartz, Puhl, Henderson, & Harris, 2009; Story, Sallis, & Orleans, 2009).

Digital food marketing is advancing rapidly, and is poised to reach a crucial tipping point in the very near future, as expenditures for Internet and mobile advertising continue to rise. Major food and beverage companies are investing heavily in global research and development strategies to enhance their ability to promote brands through interactive media—with particular focus on social media, online video, mobile and location marketing. Yet despite this rapid growth in the digital marketplace, academic research concerned with the impact of food marketing on children and adolescents has failed to stay abreast of these developments, or to grasp fully the nature and scope of the impact of such marketing on young people’s behaviors.

The ongoing transformation of food and beverage marketing poses serious threats to the health and wellbeing of young people, and requires both new thinking and comprehensive agendas for policy intervention and research. This chapter presents a conceptual framework for understanding how digital marketing differs from more conventional forms of advertising and marketing. We identify the challenges such marketing raises for researchers, and offer an agenda for future studies that can support evidence-based policymaking. In addition to highlighting the new metrics that industry has developed to measure the effectiveness of interactive food advertising, we also call attention to the most problematic marketing practices that threaten to cross the boundary between commercial messaging and consumer manipulation.

In the course of carrying out this research, we relied on several different sources, including (1) ongoing analysis of trends and contemporary practices in the digital marketing industry, including reports, trade publications, academic articles, and other materials, with a particular focus on the food and beverage sector; (2) in-depth investigation of marketing campaigns by several major corporations in the food and beverage industry; and (3) review of relevant scientific literature regarding marketing impact, child and adolescent development, racial and ethnic minorities, and health.

The Research Gap

Compared to the available research on children, relatively few studies have examined adolescent exposure to food advertising (Brownell et al., 2009; Story et al., 2009). One reason for this gap is that the framework for US children’s advertising regulation, established during the 1970s, applies only to children who are under the age of 12 or 13 (depending upon the particular regulation) (Kunkel, 1990, 2001, 2006; Montgomery, 2008). This tradition has continued in the present policy debate over food marketing and childhood obesity. The recent marketing guidelines developed by food and beverage companies remain focused on younger children, as the advertising industry’s self-regulatory guidelines do (Chester & Montgomery, 2007; Children’s Advertising Review Unit, 2006). (These self-regulatory programs are discussed in detail in Chap. 6.) As a consequence, adolescents have been understudied by scholars and largely ignored by policy makers in both government and self-regulatory arenas.

This research gap is further widened by a dearth of academic studies of contemporary digital food marketing, especially regarding teens (Kunkel & Castonguay, 2012). Today’s adolescents are growing up at the center of an exploding digital media culture (Montgomery, 2007, pp. 107–139). According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “93% of teens use the Internet, and more of them than ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction” (Lenhart, Madden, & Macgill, 2007; Pew Research Center, 2010). Seventy-three percent of online youth between the ages of 12 and 17 use social networking sites (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010; Williamson, 2008). Mobile phone ownership among 8- to 18-year-olds has soared during the past 5 years, from 39% to 66% (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010). Adolescents, because of their role as “early adopters” of new media practices and their steadily rising spending power, are prime targets for interactive marketing. A 2008 survey found that 58% of youth between the ages of 13 and 17 have made a purchase online, spending an average of $46 per month, with more than a quarter of teens spending $50 or more (OTX, 2008).

A large infrastructure of ad agencies, market research firms, and trend analysis companies has been studying how teens incorporate digital media into their daily lives, and developing marketing strategies tailored to key psychosocial needs of adolescence (Montgomery & Chester, 2009). Digital marketing is increasingly regarded as one of the most cost-effective ways to reach and engage young people. The major food and beverage brands are employing a panoply of digital marketing practices to target teenagers across a variety of platforms—social networks, videogames, mobile services, online videos, instant messaging, and even virtual worlds (Chester & Montgomery, 2007; Montgomery & Chester).

Six Unique Concepts Define a Framework for Digital Marketing

Intensive digital marketing campaigns for fast food, snacks, and sweetened beverages feature an integrated set of digital practices designed to engage children and youth, regardless of time or location. We have identified six defining concepts that constitute unique features of digital media and marketing.

Ubiquitous Connectivity. Children and teens now move seamlessly, and often simultaneously, across a spectrum of platforms—from laptops to desktop computers to cell phones to televisions (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). The “360-degree strategy” is one of the core principles of contemporary marketing, aimed at reaching viewers and users repeatedly at multiple “touchpoints” on various platforms (Tsirulnik, 2010). Such campaigns can be highly complex, combining mobile, online video, interactive television, and social networks, and creating a powerful multiplier effect by spreading messages extensively throughout and among social groups (Chester & Montgomery, 2007, 2008). Major media companies are now offering cross-platform marketing opportunities where, in a single buy, advertisers can target customers across a company’s media properties, online and off.

One of the most significant developments is the growth of mobile marketing, viewed by industry observers as “the next great advertising medium,” given mobile’s near-ubiquitous status among consumers (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2008). Mobile and location marketing are quickly reshaping the entire advertising landscape, offering new means of pinpoint ad targeting (Hansen, 2010; Vdopia, n.d.). New interactive, “call-to-action” formats foster instantaneous results, such as the delivery of a mobile coupon through text messaging, scanning a barcode, or clicking on a banner ad (Apsalar, 2011; Mobile Marketing Association, 2011).

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Burger King and other food and beverage companies are playing a leading role in both the mobile and location marketing arenas (Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing, n.d.). For example, the location-based game MyTown, which gives points for checking in at stores, reported that quick-service restaurant chains (including Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Wendy’s) made up eight of the top ten places favored by its users (Patel, 2010). McDonald’s also reported a 33% jump in traffic in the spring of 2010 and generated additional press when it piloted an event using Foursquare, the loyalty-based program that relies on mobile use and rewards consumers as they “check-in” at a restaurant or retail store. Extending the reach of mobile campaigns still further, many of these applications tie together one’s friends through a variety of social media techniques (Keane, 2010).

Engagement. In the world of digital marketing, “engagement” is a widely invoked concept and one of the fundamental goals of today’s contemporary campaigns. It is related to other, more traditional marketing concepts, such as “involvement” and “experiential marketing,” which capture consumers’ interest in and interaction with a brand. For the past several years, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has conducted research and consulted with various advertisers, agencies, media companies, and research firms to clarify definitions and develop measurement approaches. Rather than simply exposing consumers to a particular marketing message, product, or service, one of the key goals of engagement is to create an environment in which consumers actually interact with a brand, befriending the product and integrating it into their personal and social relationships. While the definitions vary considerably, there are a number of key themes that are useful for understanding what marketers mean by engagement. These include, for example, the length of time one spends involved with an advertisement, the amount of interaction, and whether or not a consumer takes a specific action regarding the brand (Advertising Research Foundation, 2006).

Thus McDonald’s “strategic guiding principle” for its Avatar campaign (discussed more fully in the “Immersive Environments” section below) was to “leverage ‘digital’ as the cornerstone to drive brand engagement.” The goal was to provide its targeted customers an experience “true to the film’s vision; at the same time, to deliver an experience exclusive to McDonald’s customers” (Promotion Marketing Association, 2010). Viewing the engagement concept more broadly, Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards website has been aptly described as the soft drink giant’s “relationship building network,” in which offline and online engagements are woven together (Henneges, La Kier, & Geller, 2009).

User-generated Content. Digital technologies make it possible for marketers to enlist youth in creating and distributing brand-related content, including products, packaging, and advertisements for their favorite brands. In this way, youth are no longer passive viewers of commercial messages, but active practitioners in the marketing enterprise. User-generated-media campaigns employ a variety of techniques to encourage consumers to become involved in creating marketing messages. In most cases, companies create a template and provide incentives to foster participation. Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy campaign encourages its youthful fan base to become “co-creators” of the brand, to interact with it on multiple levels, and to promote it among their friends (“Commentary: DEWmocracy and Mountain Dew’s Online Marketing,” 2008; Kahn, 2008; Mountain Dew, 2010). Using a combination of savvy street PR and online promotion, the innovative campaign attracted millions of consumers to its website and led to the creation of the brand’s first “fan created flavor”—Mountain Dew Voltage, which quickly sold 11 million cases. According to Christian Dietrich, director of the Pepsi client business at Tribal DDB, the viral campaign succeeded in “…maximizing the reach of a program towards greater participation…. The consumers do the work for us” (Burns, 2009). In the process, Mountain Dew managed to turn the conventional model of advertising on its head, transforming young people from mere viewers of commercials into ad producers and distributors themselves.

Personalization. Through ongoing data collection and tracking, digital marketers can create personalized marketing and sales appeals based on a customer’s unique preferences, behaviors, and psychological profile. Personalized marketing evolved from “customer relationship marketing” (CRM), a practice that predated the advent of the World Wide Web, but has become exponentially more sophisticated in the Digital Age with the advent of a new generation of media platforms, software, and measurement tools (Hanson, 1999). For example, behavioral targeting has become a core strategy of contemporary marketing, a linchpin of many digital media campaigns targeting young people—not only online but also on cell phones, video games, and other new platforms (Hallerman, 2008; Khan, Weishaar, & Polinsky, 2009). The practice uses a range of online methods—including cookies and invisible data files—to track the online behaviors of individuals (Center for Digital Democracy & U.S. PIRG, 2006, 2007, 2009a, b; EPIC, Center for Digital Democracy, & U.S. PIRG, 2007a, b). Marketers then use this data to create personalized marketing and sales appeals designed to tap into an individual young person’s interests, identity, or concerns, and raising an entirely new set of issues that were not part of the traditional advertising and marketing paradigm (Hallerman, 2008; Khan, Weishaar, & Polinsky, 2009).

Data are collected online from youth through such techniques as contests, sweepstakes, “free” offers, and “point” schemes, delivering detailed information on a particular user (e.g., name, address, email, cell phone number). Immersive, interactive applications, such as games, online video, and so-called “rich media,” are often designed to engage in “data capture”—collecting personal details as well as measuring user responses to online content. “Passive” data collection through the use of cookies, IP addresses, and other data that the industry considers “non-personally identifiable” enables marketers to track and target individual users (Center for Digital Democracy, 2010).

Behavioral targeting is routinely used in the digital campaigns of food and beverage marketers. Fast-food company websites, such as Denny’s, Chuck E Cheese, Dominos, and Jack in the Box, as well gaming sites that display fast-food ads, use data collection and behavioral targeting (AOL Advertising, 2011; Brightkite, 2011; Mattis, 2010; Wyman, 2011). Youth can be lured to any site for ad targeting using video, music, or other applications (Butterfinger—Comedy Network, n.d.). AOL Advertising tells clients they can “find households with teens that have the greatest propensity to purchase specific products or brands…. Find your ideal teenage audiences on the sites they are most likely to visit…. Find people who are searching for information about music or fashion…. Explicitly target households with teenagers present….” AOL claims to reach 83% of all teens, and targets them when they visit the “AOL Youth Super Channel” and its gaming sites, or when they “chat and listen to music” (AOL Advertising, 2010; Lotame, 2010). Coca-Cola has been at the forefront of companies harnessing the capabilities of digital media to collect data from users, creating online forms of “loyalty” and “direct-response” marketing. Its My Coke Rewards campaign has proven highly successful in promoting the company’s soft drink brands to youth. The campaign’s website “blends brand content and transactional interactions” and incorporates advertising, including messages from such fast-food company partners as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Carl’s Jr. (Henneges et al., 2009; Kruse, 2008).

Social Graph. Participatory Web 2.0 platforms—particularly social networking sites such as Facebook—are further enhancing marketers’ ability to know the nature and extent of an individual’s social relationships, and to use that information for highly sophisticated social media marketing campaigns. Online social networks are among the most popular digital media platforms for teens, with more than ­three-fourths of US online youth aged 12–17 participating in them (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010; Owyang, 2010). Social media resonate strongly with many of the fundamental developmental tasks of adolescence, such as identity exploration, social interaction, and autonomy (Buckingham, 2007).

Social networking platforms have added a feature to digital marketing that is distinct and important: the ability to tap into the social graph—the complex web of relationships among individuals facilitated and tracked online—enabling marketers to access and influence both individuals and their communities in ways that were never before possible (Iskold, 2007). Using a host of new techniques and measurement tools, social media marketers can know the breadth and depth of these online social relationships, as well as how they function, understanding who influences whom, and how the process of influence works. These social media campaigns target teens at a point in their lives when they are relying less on their parents and family and more on friends.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Burger King, and McDonald’s are among the pioneers of social media marketing, which offers “brand-building opportunities far beyond what’s available through traditional advertising” (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2008, 2009). PepsiCo, for example, has restructured its overall marketing approach to focus on social media, enabling it to take advantage of the more extensive and deeper connections the online environment provides to those marketing to youth (Daniels, 2010; Ostrow, 2010; “PepsiCo Names 10 Tech Start-Ups,” 2009; Ritchie, 2009). Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Hershey’s, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Jack in the Box, and McDonald’s are also playing a significant role (“Come From Behind Victory,” 2011; Lingeris, 2010; Tobin, 2011). Coca-Cola, for example, has more than 21 million fans on Facebook, and is developing its campaigns shaped by and using social media (Coca-Cola Company, 2010; “New Coca-Cola Ads Debuting,” 2010; “Retail Sector Facebook ‘Fan’ Winners and Losers,” 2011).

Multicultural social media marketing is also growing, reflecting the participation of diverse communities with social sites. Food marketers (including Pepsi, Unilever, and McDonald’s) are developing social media campaigns targeting African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans especially (eMarketer, 2010). Hispanics, given their early adoption of new digital communications services, are viewed as a particularly important market that can be influenced by social media (Carter, 2010; Garcia, 2011; “Hispanic Social Media Insights,” n.d.). McDonald’s, for example, recently sponsored a major meeting of Latina and Latino bloggers (“two hours worth of intense blogger with brand and agency speed dating”) (“Sessions—Hispanicize 2011,” 2011). Pepsi funds “Pepsiweinspire.com,” aimed at African-American women, as social media marketing has become a key component of the advertising arsenal (Pepsico, n.d.).

Immersive Environments. State-of-the-art animation, high-definition video, and other multimedia applications are spawning a new generation of immersive environments, including interactive games and three-dimensional virtual worlds, which marketers are using for brand promotion. Immersive environments surround and engross a person with powerful, realistic images and sounds, creating an ­experience of being inside the action, a mental state that is frequently accompanied by “intense focus, loss of self, distorted time sense, effortless action” (Vamey, 2006). These environments often trigger a sense of “presence,” which is defined as “being there,” a subjective feeling as if one is actually physically in the virtual environment (Li, Daugherty, & Biocca, 2002). Immersive marketing techniques routinely integrate advertising and “content” in such a way as to make the two indistinguishable (Dickson, 2011; Hoffman & Novak, 1996; Wang, 2010). Marketers seamlessly incorporate brands into the flow of the immersive experience, using a highly sophisticated, finely tuned strategy that combines product placement, behavioral targeting, and viral marketing to foster deep, ongoing relationships between brands and individuals.

The industry is carefully monitoring the impact of immersive environments on receptivity to marketing. As one report explained, advertising in the popular XBox LIVE gaming format produces significant results in consumer behavior: “The context—(a deeply immersive, HD entertainment experience)—and the behavior (a desire to engage and interact with the content that is being delivered through that immersive experience, usually gaming but increasingly advertiser-sponsored content) can combine to create a double-whammy of sorts. That’s why we consistently see double digit brand lifts and industry-leading CTRs [click-through-rates]” (Kroese, 2010; Microsoft Advertising, n.d.). Microsoft conducted research on the impact of Doritos and other products in games, finding that “video game ad campaigns evoke stronger emotional connections with consumers and more positive emotional association from the brands” (Microsoft, 2009; Microsoft Advertising, 2011). Another study concluded that “the more immersive an environment is, the more likely a player is to have intent to buy a product they see.” Virtual worlds are particularly effective at inducing a state of flow, because they “create opportunities for participants to lose track of time in enjoyable brand related activities.” This mental state “­contributes to a participant’s attitude about a brand. Ultimately, this strongly influences the participant’s intention to purchase a product from that brand” (“Researchers Find Link,” 2010).

McDonald’s cross-promotion campaign involving the blockbuster movie Avatar is considered the “most extensive deployment” of augmented reality ever used in a marketing effort, utilizing some of the most advanced techniques for linking immersive, online gaming environments to real-world products (“McDonald’s Orders Up Augmented Reality,” 2009). The fast-food restaurant collaborated with Avatar’s production team to develop a “digital platform” for the delivery of “an immersive digital experience centered around Pandora, the mythical planet of Avatar.” The campaign began in the restaurants on December 1, 2009, with hundreds of millions of McDonald’s boxes featuring the Avatar images. Food purchases for both Big Macs and Happy Meals were at the core of the Avatar effort. Buying Big Macs gave the consumer a way to access online Avatar experiences created by the company, and also enabled access to higher levels of game play. In the store, Happy Meals featured Avatar toy characters—“highly innovative Happy Meal toys” that “light up via touch, sound or motion” (McDonald’s, n.d.; “McDonald’s Brings Customers,” 2009; Total Immersion, n.d.). In this manner, the McDonald’s brand was fully integrated into the virtual reality experience (“McDonald’s Big Mac Joins Fox’s ‘AVATAR,’” 2010).

Challenges for Researchers

Researchers will need to take into account the six concepts discussed above when designing studies of how young people respond to digital marketing, addressing, for example, the role that flow, presence, and subjective experience might play in making young people susceptible to food and beverage promotions. An important challenge for research on digital marketing campaigns will be understanding how the components interact in a unified framework with each other and with traditional media marketing. Moreover, the ubiquitous nature of new media makes it difficult for researchers to take into account the entirety of an individual’s interaction with marketing; neither the “medium” nor the “message” can easily be identified or isolated. While it is still important to understand how youth respond to individual media platforms and marketing appeals, they cannot be examined in isolation. Rather, researchers will need to find ways of assessing synergies across platforms, as well as how these platforms and the marketing content within them reinforce each other and create multiplier effects. The role of peer influence in brand promotion needs to be studied, as well the intersection of online social interactions with eating behaviors. For example, is participation in an online game likely to encourage “mindless eating,” and can this tendency be exacerbated by interaction with friends during the game, as well as the presence of brands?

New Metrics

In meeting these challenges—and especially because the field of interactive advertising is so new—scholars will need to adopt and adapt the metrics that industry has developed to assess the impact of their investments in the digital domain. Many of these new forms of monitoring and measurement were simply not possible before the advent of digital media, and the advertising industry is developing an array of new metrics to refine still further the nuances of interactions between users and digital marketing.

The new generation of social media marketing tools, for example, tracks and measures a broad range of “events” that have quickly become a new way to evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns. Such events might include “ads to acquire fans, user shares offer in newsfeed, ‘Like’ buttons for sharing website links to drive traffic, wall posts to build community, influencer relations for promoting content, Facebook connect for identity pooling” (Webtrends, 2011). Social media metrics, similarly, might include “virality of spread,” “most influential,” “velocity,” and “purchase intent”—information used to help foster engagement with interactive content (e.g., “apps”), which are increasingly used by food marketers to target youth (trueAnthem, n.d; Webtrends). Food and beverage marketers, who increasingly view advertising on Facebook as essential, understand the economic value of capturing a “fan.” One recent study found that a fan for a top brand marketing on Facebook is estimated to be worth $136.38, “based on a combination of how much they spend on products, loyalty, recommendations and earned media” (“Facebook Fans More Valuable Customers,” 2010).

Measurement has been incorporated into content, delivery systems, and user interactions. Through web analytics, conversation monitoring, and other forms of surveillance, marketers can now track individuals online, across media, and in the real world, following their interactions, social relationships, and locations. Increasingly, these various forms of analysis can take place in real time, tracking users’ movements and behaviors from moment to moment and assessing their reactions to marketing techniques. As a result, these techniques can be tested, refined, and tailored for maximum impact. Through the use of neuroscience, which is able to monitor brain activity with increasing precision, marketers are further developing their abilities to tap into and elicit subconscious responses.

In this manner, the concept of engagement is being deployed as a measurable set of user behaviors. Engagement metrics include concepts such as “dwell time,” the duration a user spends with an online object (such as a “widget”) and the manner in which the user interacts with that object. Social media analytics measure both users and marketing across the social networking landscape, to assess “how the users are socially linked, and what social interactions occur among the site’s users,” and to arrive at various indexes—such as the “social influence marketing score” or SIM—to assess the lines of influence in social media and viral marketing campaigns. Measurement systems are also being designed to evaluate 360-degree campaigns, which link online and offline marketing efforts. These include methods of identifying the impact of real-time online marketing with retail product sales. An entirely new range of measurements is being developed, finally, for mobile and location-based marketing. Scholars concerned with the youth obesity crisis should examine all of these tools, both as industry practices themselves, and as another means of assessing the public health implications of new media.

Rethinking the Research Paradigm

With the increasing concern over childhood and adolescent obesity, a few scholars have begun to turn their attention to food marketing in digital media. Several studies have analyzed the content and effects of digital food marketing, for example, documenting certain forms of interactive content and assessing children’s responses to some of the new interactive advertising techniques (Alvy & Calvert, 2008; American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Communications, 2006; Calvert, 2008; Calvert, Jordan, & Cocking, 2002; Harris, Schwartz, Brownell, et al., 2009; Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004; Kunkel, Wilcox, Cantor, et al., 2004; Moore, 2006; Moore & Rideout, 2007; Quilliam, Rifon, Lee, Paek, & Cole, 2009; Story & French, 2004; Valkenburg, 2000). For the most part, however, these studies have been based on traditional methods (e.g., content analysis) and standard theoretical models of child development. Drawing from Piaget’s theories, three successive developmental stages have been identified during which children acquire increased abilities to understand advertisers’ intentions to persuade them. It is not until children reach the age of 7 or 8 that they have the cognitive ability to recognize the persuasive intent behind a television advertisement (Kunkel et al., 2004; Roedder-John, 1999). By age 12, children are able to articulate a more critical comprehension of advertising intent and become more skeptical (Livingstone & Helsper, 2006). According to this age-based, “cognitive defense” approach, regulatory safeguards are necessary only for the younger segment of the youth population (Kunkel, 2001, 2006; Montgomery, 2007; Nairn, 2009; Nairn & Fine, 2008).

In recent years, however, some scholars have begun to critique the cognitive model, suggesting other theoretical approaches for assessing the impact of contemporary marketing. For example, Harris et al., examined a large body of research on what is known about how children and adolescents respond to marketing, concluding that the psychological models traditionally applied to food marketing research do not explain many of the demonstrated effects of such marketing (Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009). Wright and his colleagues (2005) argue that the emphasis on cognitive understanding of intent has oversimplified the ways in which advertising works. By focusing on only one aspect of the persuasive process, the model fails to take into account “the multiple psychological effects that are instrumental in persuasion.”

The conventional models for studying advertising effects are ill equipped to address the latest marketing techniques. No one theory can fully explain the complex ways in which contemporary food marketing influences the health behaviors of children and adolescents. However, we see several theoretical models and approaches that may provide a useful foundation on which scholars can build a better understanding of how digital marketing works.

For example, according to theories of dual process models of persuasion, two separate and distinct sets of mental processes—explicit and implicit—are at work in persuasive communication. Explicit processes are consciously accessible, while implicit processes “are activated automatically and effortlessly, without intention or awareness, and are thus difficult to control” (Nairn & Fine, 2008). Implicit persuasion is a fundamental aspect of many digital marketing efforts, especially when brands are woven seamlessly into the highly engaging content and social interactions of the online environment, where they can still be influential without being consciously recognized or recalled (Auty & Lewis, 2003; Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009; Law & Braun, 2000). Recent research has suggested that dual process models of persuasion may be a more appropriate approach for understanding new media marketing strategies (Moses, 2009; Nairn, 2009). Many elements of digital marketing are purposefully designed to elicit emotional responses and to circumvent the deliberate elaboration or conscious processing of product attributes. Exploring the role of affect as a mediator in dual process models may be particularly helpful in understanding how many contemporary food marketing campaigns work (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009; Livingstone & Helsper, 2006). A number of scholars have proposed that unconscious, or automatic, processes may underlie responses to emotionally oriented advertising (Bargh, 2002; Fitzsimons, Hutchinson, Williams, et al., 2002). This may be particularly important with children and adolescents (Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009).

Given the ubiquity of digital media, researchers may also want to draw from models of familiarity and norms to study how marketing functions in the digital context. According to the mere exposure effect model (also called the familiarity principle in social psychology), people exhibit a preference for things because they are familiar with them (Zajonc, 1968). In today’s cross-platform, 24/7 media environment, exposure to marketing has become frequent and commonplace, engendering a level of familiarity that may go unnoticed, yet result in significant marketing effects (Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009). Repeated exposure to marketing stimuli—especially stimuli that are processed less consciously—may lead to perceived norms regarding specific foods and beverages. When the ubiquity of marketing brands and icons is combined with various forms of engagement and integrated into social interactions, the impact of familiarity and social norms may be even further intensified. Researchers need to understand the effect of synergy across digital platforms, as well as digital synergy with other (traditional) marketing methods. Finally, contextual factors must also be taken into account. Individual behavior is influenced by the context in which the behavior is enacted; thus real-life contexts help shape how digitally marketed messages are interpreted, integrated, and influence behavior (Cockerham, Rütten, & Abel, 1997). This is especially important when researching ethnic minority youth and other cultural subgroups (Grier & Kumanyika, 2008).

Beyond these theories and models are other theoretical approaches that could be explored in order to gain further insights for guiding the study of digital food marketing. For example, the obesity research paradigm developed by the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN) is framed as an ecological model that includes variables specifically focused on studying African-American communities and may be adapted to examine other subcultural groups (Kumanyika, Whitt-Glover, Gary, et al., 2007). It is also important to consider the theories that digital marketers themselves cite as influential in developing their strategies (McPhersony, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001). For example, social media marketers have drawn from social network theory to design their efforts for influencing consumers through online social networking platforms (Honig & Steckler, n.d.; McPhersony et al.).

Developing a Research Agenda

The growth of digital media and marketing requires fresh thinking and new agendas for research. Several areas of inquiry deserve particular focus:

Adolescent vulnerabilities. While adolescents are at serious risk for obesity, they have not received the same level of scholarly attention that has been focused on younger children, particularly with regard to food marketing (McGinnis, Gootman, & Kraak, 2005). Because of the emphasis on cognitive theory in much of the advertising effects research, scholars have viewed adolescents as more knowledgeable about marketer intentions, and thus better able to resist advertising and marketing influences (Goldberg, Niedermeier, Bechtel, & Gorn, 2006). With the prevailing policy emphasis focused on younger children, there is a dearth of studies on adolescents (Livingstone & Helsper, 2006). Recent research suggests, however, that biological and psychosocial attributes of the adolescent experience may play an important role in how teens respond to marketing, making them more vulnerable than they have been thought to be in the past (Leslie, Levine, Loughlin, & Pechmann, 2009; Pechmann, Levine, Loughlin, et al., 2005). Factors such as brain development, hormonal changes, mood variations, and social stresses may make teens more susceptible to the kinds of marketing techniques that are becoming pervasive in the digital media (Collins, Ellickson, McCaffrey, et al., 2007; Giedd, 2008; McAnarney, 2008; McCreanor, Barnes, Gregory, et al., 2005; Pechmann et al.; Steinberg, 2007, 2008).

Identity. A related area involves the role of identity formation in the commercial digital context. Consumer researchers have begun to examine how marketing contributes to “self-brand connections” among children and adolescents, with very little attention to the role of digital marketing in this process (Chaplin & Roedder-John, 2005). Many digital marketing strategies purposefully seek to exploit this nexus of self-identity and brand identity. But we still do not know enough about how these interrelationships influence young people. The intersections of brand identity and personal identity may be particularly influential with ethnic minority youth, who must develop an ethnic identity in addition to developing a personal identity and fitting in with peers like other youth (Castro, 2004; Grier, 2009). Products, including foods and beverages, can contribute to identity development, and since research suggests that adolescent self-consciousness can make them more receptive to image advertising for frequently promoted brands, ethnically targeted social media marketing may be particularly effective among minority youth (Grier, 2009 ; Levy, 1959; Pechmann et al., 2005). For example, research among elementary school students indicates that viewing African-American programs among African Americans is associated with higher self-esteem, and suggests how targeted ads may be used in this manner (McDermott & Greenberg, 1984). Thus, since ethnic-targeted marketing may serve identity development purposes among minority youth, the relationship may support enhanced responsiveness to digital target marketing.

Targeted digital marketing to ethnic minority groups. The high levels of obesity among African-American and Hispanic youth are especially alarming. Not only are Hispanic and African-American youth at greater risk for obesity but also more immersed in many aspects of the digital media culture, and are subjected to an increasing amount of targeted marketing based on ethnicity and race. Some 2.5 million US Hispanic teens aged 12–17 subscribe to mobile phone service, and that group is projected to have a subscriber growth rate of two to three times that of the overall US teen market over the next 5 years. African-American and Hispanic youth use many mobile tools more than the general population (Briabe Media, 2007).

Digital marketers have made understanding and reaching minority youth a priority given their numeric growth, favorable usage patterns, and cultural trendsetting. Target marketing to African-American and Hispanic youth influences their consumption choices by affecting the awareness and availability of food-related information and options and can contribute to perceived norms (Grier & Kumanyika, 2008; Grier, Mensinger, et al., 2007). Further, research suggests that ethnic minority youth are more interested in, positive towards, and influenced by marketing than non-Hispanic whites (Grier, 2009).

Food marketing encountered by African-American and Hispanic youth tends to promote less healthful foods, and is less likely to support positive nutrition, although few studies have focused specifically on digital marketing efforts (Bang & Reece, 2003; Grier & Kumanyika, 2008; Harrison, 2006; Outley & Taddese, 2006; Powell, Szczypka, & Chaloupka, 2007). Moreover, minority youth are important cultural models who influence the behaviors of the larger youth population (Bush, Smith, & Martin, 1999; Korzenny, Korzenny, McGavock, & Inglessis, 2006; Moschis, 1987; Singh, Kwon, & Pereira, 2003; Stroman, 1991; Woods, 1995). As a consequence, minority youth may be subject to multiple layers of vulnerability, given family circumstances, normative exposures to obesity, and the contexts in which they live (Grier & Kumanyika, 2008, 2010; Grier, Mensinger, et al., 2007; Kumanyika & Grier, 2006). Unfortunately, there is very limited research on ethnic minority youth and marketing, especially of direct relevance to the digital environment (Grier, 2009).

Impulsivity and addictive behaviors. Food and beverage manufacturers continually research and perfect combinations of flavors and tastes in order to maximize their appeal to consumers, inserting high quantities of sugars, fats, and salts, which can alter the biological circuitry in the brain. Cues may include emotional memories of a particular kind of food or other kinds of positive associations, triggering responses that, over time, become habitual (Drewnowski, 1995; Kessler, 2009). These ingredients, as well as other food additives, may also trigger an addictive process in the brain in ways that are similar to how drugs of abuse work (Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownell, 2009). So far, researchers have not examined the role of digital media and marketing in any of these processes, which is an area that deserves focused attention. When products with compelling and addictive properties are marketed to young people through contemporary digital techniques, their impact on health behaviors may be compounded.

If current obesity trends among children and adolescents are to be reversed, the public health community will need to develop an aggressive, fast-tracked, targeted program of research. To begin understanding the complex ways that youth are interacting with this new commercial media culture, it will be necessary to develop flexible and innovative methodological approaches. Much of this research will need to be collaborative and interdisciplinary, combining expertise from various fields to pose hypotheses that cut across disciplines and across levels of influence (Huang, Drewnowski, Kumanyika, & Glass, 2009). The research methods that academic scholars are employing to study youth engagement with digital media culture—including qualitative, ethnographic investigations of youth subcultures—provide models for exploring digital marketing (Livingstone, 2007; MacArthur Foundation, n.d.). Many researchers across academic fields, as well as within industry, are adapting ethnographic techniques—now dubbed “netnography”—to study behavior online, in order to understand how youth use and are influenced by social networks and other digital media (Kozinets, 2009).

Finally, studies undertaken on youth and digital marketing must also be grounded in the real-world practices of the contemporary marketplace, which is not static but constantly evolving. This will require close, ongoing monitoring of market research, theories, platforms, and techniques. Industry’s new metrics are a clear departure from more traditional types of measurement, and need to be fully understood in order to design research methods that academics can use for testing the health impacts of food and beverage marketing in the digital media. Similarly, various techniques that digital market researchers now use to assess youth consumer behavior could also be adapted for academic researchers, as long as these techniques are employed in accordance with academic standards for ethical research. Specific measures could be developed for assessing each of the key concepts; these measures, in turn, could be incorporated into a model for understanding the impact of digital food marketing on attitudes and behaviors.