Sharing the Spotlight: Understanding Consumer Response to Joint Advertising

Joint advertising has emerged as an innovative and seemingly counterintuitive strategy that provides a novel way of thinking about advertising. Yet, as with many new strategies, early campaigns have met with varying degrees of success. While the brands themselves may see strategic benefits in temporarily teaming up to accomplish shared goals, much remains unknown about how consumers perceive and respond to different kinds of joint advertisements. Through three experimental studies, we demonstrate how the type of products (same vs. complementary vs. different industries) that are promoted in a joint advertisement impact consumer response and establish perceived cognitive fit as the mediating mechanism underlying this relationship. Specifically, joint advertisements between brands in complementary industries are found to generate the highest levels of perceived cognitive fit and prove the most effective in increasing consumer attitudes and behaviors. However, the negative effects of joint advertisements between brands in the same or different industries can be partially mitigated by consumer processing style. Our paper offers important contributions by providing actionable advice regarding the types of partners that brands should select to optimize their joint advertising efforts and achieve the most favorable consumer responses.