Research

Shades of Representation: Exploring the Role of Skin-Tone Diversity in Consumer Perceptions and Brand Practices

With Gijs Overgoor, Hsin-Hsuan Meg Lee, Zhu Han

Abstract: Skin-tone representation has received growing attention in both industry practice and academic discourse, yet its impact on brand engagement remains underexplored. This research introduces a standardized and automated framework to quantify skin-tone diversity in brand visuals across three dimensions: brightness (the lightness or darkness of skin-tones), richness (the number of distinct skin-tone categories represented), and evenness (the abundance of representation across those categories). In Study 1, we validate these dimensions through a controlled online experiment, showing that while brightness is perceived subjectively and influenced by viewer perceptions, richness and evenness serve as objective metrics. In Studies 2 and 3, we apply this framework to a large-scale analysis of 36,396 images and 8,852 videos posted by fashion brands on Instagram and TikTok. We find that skin-tone diversity alone does not affect brand engagement, as measured by post likes. However, the alignment between skin-tone diversity in brand visuals and that of the audience significantly enhances engagement. This effect is consistent in all three dimensions. These findings shed light on effectively visual communication on social media.

• In preparation for submission to Journal of Marketing
• Presented at 2023 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, Hawaii
• Presented at 2023 Marketing Science Diversity Equity Inclusion Conference, Dallas, TX
• Click here to view full paper

Congruence Affects Social Media Ad Engagement

With Ron Dotsch, Yozen Liu, Zhu Han, Maarten Bos, Yakov Bart

Abstract: Stories-based advertising on major social platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram has become a prominent format, yet the drivers behind its effectiveness remain largely unexplored. Utilizing the sequential structure of Stories (user-generated videos or photos) followed by intermittent ads, we examine how contextual congruence between a preceding Story and the subsequent ad influences user engagement. Specifically, we study two forms of congruence: media format congruence (video vs. image) and content congruence across 17 categories. Our findings reveal that content congruence significantly increases ad viewing time (12\% for video ads, 5\% for image ads) and ad completion rates (8\% for video ads, 5\% for image ads), consistently across most content categories. Format congruence substantially enhanced engagement with image ads (viewing time increased by 26\%, completion rate by 30\%) but negatively impacted video ads (viewing time decreased by 28\%, completion rate by 23\%). We discuss potential underlying mechanisms and offer actionable insights for marketers, content creators, and advertising platforms.

• Under review at Journal of Marketing
• Presented at 2023 Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA
• Best Conference Paper M. Wayne Delozier Award