۱- INTRODUCTION

۲- LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

۳- METHODOLOGY

۴- RESULTS

۵- DISCUSSION

۶- CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

۷- LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

REFERENCES

Abstract

The primary purposes of this study are to consider the influence of YouTube marketing communication (YMC) on awareness and knowledge among Generation (Gen) Y cohort respondents in South Africa (SA) and Romania (RO) and to establish if country, demographic, and usage (independent) variables have an effect on this cognitive attitudinal association. Multistage sampling was employed, and a survey was conducted among 400 respondents in SA and 400 respondents in RO. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the hypothesized associations. The findings confirm that awareness had a favorable influence on knowledge for the total sample, SA and RO. The results also show that awareness displayed a significantly larger positive effect on knowledge among Romanian Gen Y in comparison with South African Gen Y. This study confirms that age (demographic variable) and access, usage length, log‐on frequency, log‐on duration, and advertisement viewership numbers (usage variables) have a significant effect on cognitive attitudinal responses due to YMC among Gen Y in SA and RO. Organizations should consider adapting YMC strategies to stimulate awareness, which will stimulate favorable knowledge attitudinal responses, as well as consider the aforementioned demographic and usage variables when targeting the infamously unpredictable Gen Y due to the positive cognitive attitudinal association in developing countries.

INTRODUCTION

YouTube is the largest global online video information system (OVIS) with 1.9 billion active global users and reaches 80% of the Gen Y (also known as Millennials) cohort; over 24 thousand hours of video content are uploaded on to YouTube every hour; 70% of content is viewed via mobile devices; and 7 billion hours of video content are watched on a weekly basis (Smith, 2019; Stokes, 2017; YouTube, 2019). This OVIS features a wide variety of user‐generated content that includes how‐to‐do videos; educational content; music videos; and a broad range of organizational and brand content, such as channels, news, and marketing communication (MC) (eg, promotions, advertising, celebrity endorsers, testimonials, influencers, and product placement). MC spending on OVIS platforms is expected to double to $37 billion over the next 5 years and will have over 4 billion users worldwide. Billions of hours of video are viewed on YouTube every day, particularly among Gen Y (18‐ to 32‐year‐olds), who are spending increasing periods of time viewing video content on their mobile devices in comparison with television (Foye, 2018; YouTube, 2019).