The Effects of Advertising Content, Perceived Advertising Value and Flow Experience on Acceptance of Mobile Advertising: An Empirical Research on University Student

The rapid development of communication technology resulted in new opportunities for companies to promote product and services. Mobile advertising is one of these opportunities. As the number of smartphones has radically increased, mobile advertising market has been expanded. There is a need for indepth understanding of target market acceptance of mobile advertising in order to use it effectively. This study investigates smartphone user acceptance of MMS and SMS- based mobile advertising in the context of advertising value and flow experience. Hence, the study presents a model that combines the content of mobile advertising messages, advertising value and a mental state individual entirely focused on and called as flow experience, to understand the consumer acceptance of mobile advertising. This model tests the effects of advertising characteristics such as entertainment, informativenes, personalization, irritation, encouraging and credibility on the perceived advertising value, flow experience and the acceptance of advertising. The sample group of this study consists of 392 university students studying at Kırşehir Ahi Evran University. The survey results was analyzed by employing Partial Least Squares (PLS-PM) analysis method. The results reveal that the flow experience and advertising value have positive effects on the acceptance of mobile advertising. Also, while entertainment dimension is the most significant factor on the flow experience, the advertising value is mostly affected by in formativeness of advertising message. The results of the study will help companies to evaluate the factors being effective on the acceptance of mobile advertising and lead them to develop suitable strategies.