Cause-Related Marketing Advertising Formats on Nonprofit Websites. Does a Company’s Donation-Amount Offer In Nonprofit Display Ads Drive Purchase Intention?

Abstract

Today, advertisers and marketing professionals target non-profit web and social media visitors with digital cause-related marketing (CRM) display advertisements. This study compares two digital CRM advertising formats, the advertisements with an explicit donation amount (EDA) and an online cause sponsorship (OCS) advertising format in terms of their impact on consumers’ purchase intention as well as the gendered differences. Survey results of 538 UK consumers indicate that the overall purchase intention towards EDA advertising formats is stronger than towards the OCS format, irrespective of whether the perceived donation amounts are low or high. Contrarily to expectation, gendered differences in purchase intention did not show significance across all advertising formats.