Details of Research Outputs

Social distancing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted offline and outdoor advertising significantly, forcing many advertising activities to move online. Native advertising, a new form of advertising, is regarded as complementary to traditional advertising. The term native advertising refers to a relationship between an advertiser and a publisher whereby the advertiser pays to distribute content on the publisher’s platform, thereby taking advantage of the format and substance of the publisher’s content. Most of the previous research on native advertising is based on western media platforms. In China, Tencent’s WeChat is the largest social media platform. This chapter focuses on native advertising on Tencent’s WeChat official accounts (WOAs). It employs qualitative discourse analysis to understand how native ads on WOAs address the pandemic while seeking to persuade consumers. Referencing Burke’s theory of identification and Green’s theory of narrative transportation, we argue that native ads enjoy the advantage of generating emotional resonance with consumers by talking about pandemic-related topics. However, they risk being perceived as deceptive and manipulative.