Topical Advertising in enduring events: the role of timing and creativity in engagement with social media brand messages during COVID-19

Research has showed that aligning brand messages with topical events is a success formula for evoking positive consumer responses, in which ad creativity (i.e., originality, meaningfulness, and craftsmanship) and timing (i.e., the time between the start of an event and the appearance of a Topical Advertising message) play a pivotal role. This was demonstrated in the context of short, ending topical events. Less is known about the effects of aligning brand messages with enduring events that have no anticipated end date. Relying on news value theory and creativity literature, this paper explores the effects of Topical Advertising on engagement and the role of creativity and timing in the context of an enduring event: COVID-19. Based on a content analysis of 1,454 Twitter brand messages, the results showed positive effects of Topical Advertising for enduring events too. However, brands only benefited from chiming in at the start of an enduring event, considering that the positive effects on engagement declined as time progressed. Implications are discussed.