Use of Brand Engagement Appeals in US Cigarette and E-Cigarettes Ads (2019–2020)

Abstract Background: The tobacco industry has historically used brand engagement – communication tactics companies use to increase customer attachment to a brand and brand loyalty – to recruit and retain consumers. Limited information is available to assess the brand engagement tactics used to promote the two most popular tobacco products in the US – cigarettes and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) – across different advertising platforms (e.g., direct-to-consumer (DTC), social media). Material and methods: We acquired 520 cigarette and 5,502 e–cigarette ads that ran in the US January 2019 to December 2020 from market research firms (Kantar, Numerator), Rutger’s University ad surveillance website (trinketsandtrash.org), and branded social media accounts. Ads were double-coded for eight types of brand engagement tactics: Price Promotion, Sweepstakes, Mobile App, Email/Mail List, Free Gift, Social Media engagement request, Sponsored Events, and Auto-Ship subscription program. We report presence of brand engagement tactics by product type and advertising platform. Results: Overall, 62.9% of cigarette ads and 49.9% of e-cigarette ads contained at least one brand engagement tactic. For cigarette ads, the most common tactics were Sweepstakes and Mobile App requests, which were most commonly featured in DTC ads. For e-cigarettes, the most common tactic was Price Promotion which was featured in most DTC and online e-cigarette ads. Conclusions: Brand engagement was common in this sample of cigarette and e-cigarette ads. Our findings highlight key differences in the type of brand engagement tactic used to promote each product on different advertising platforms. Results can inform continued advertising surveillance studies and regulatory efforts.


Introduction
Brand engagement broadly encompasses communication tactics companies use to increase customer attachment to a brand and brand loyalty including repeat purchasing (Hollebeek, 2011;Keller, 2013).These tactics offer a rewarding exchange that requires the consumer to act, typically by responding to a call to action from the company.This series of positive transactions can lead to brand attachment, whereby customers repeatedly engage with the brand for benefit (e.g., price discounts, event access), eventually leading to brand loyalty and customer retention (Razmus, 2021).When a customer has a positive experience engaging with a brand, they may assign a higher value to the brand's product or feel more personally connected to the brand (Brodie et al., 2011;Hollebeek et al., 2019).
The tobacco industry has historically used a range of tactics to cultivate brand engagement and promote product use.Common engagement strategies include coupons or discount offers, chances to enter a sweepstakes, "free gift" giveaways (e.g., lighters, customized hat), and promotion of sponsored events, like concerts or music festivals (Brock et al., 2015;Lewis, Yulis, et al., 2004;Ling & Glantz, 2002;Stevens et al., 2004;Toll & Ling, 2005).More recently, tobacco companies have developed branded mobile phone applications (apps), which provide another touchpoint for consumers to engage with the brand and retrieve mobile coupons (Navarro et al., 2019).Direct-to-consumer (DTC) mail and email, in which consumers provide their contact information to receive communications, are also used to reach new and existing customers (Brock et al., 2015;Lewis, Yulis, et al., 2004).In addition, tobacco companies may maintain social media accounts that consumers can interact with or follow (Liang et al., 2015;O'Brien et al., 2019), and potentially receive product discounts (Jackler et al., 2019;Liang et al., 2015) or "free gift" giveaways (Czaplicki, Kostygina, et al., 2020).
Broadly, exposure to tobacco advertising is a causal factor for tobacco use initiation.(General et al., 2012) Research suggests that some brand engagement tactics, like sweepstakes or coupons, can increase receptivity to cigarette and e-cigarette advertising among young people (La Capria et al., 2023;Moran et al., 2021) and contribute to future tobacco use (Choi et al., 2019;Coreas et al., 2021;Lewis et al., 2015).Additionally, exposure to brand engagement tactics that lower price through promotions or mobile app coupons can impede cessation efforts (Lewis, Delnevo, et al., 2004;Navarro et al., 2019).Other brand engagement strategies that encourage consumers to follow and interact with a brand via social media (a largely unregulated marketing milieu (Kong et al., 2022)) or at sponsored events can also contribute to the formation of "pro-tobacco" norms and beliefs that may lead to sustained addiction and tobacco use (Lee et al., 2023;Rosenberg & Siegel, 2001;Zhu, 2017).
Advertising surveillance studies can inform policy strategies to address brand engagement tactics in tobacco ads.To date, there is limited research which comprehensively characterizes the range and extent of brand engagement tactics in tobacco ads and across products and advertising platforms (e.g., television, online, social media).Most studies examined the presence of coupons alone (Cantrell et al., 2017;Jackler et al., 2019;Lewis, Delnevo, et al., 2004;Liang et al., 2015;Silver et al., 2022) or coupons plus one or two other brand engagement tactics (e.g., sweepstakes (Czaplicki, Rahman, et al., 2020); sweepstakes and giveaways (Brock et al., 2015)) in a single advertising medium (e.g., direct mail (Brock et al., 2015;Czaplicki, Rahman, et al., 2020;Silver et al., 2022), online/mobile sites (Cantrell et al., 2017), social media (Jackler et al., 2019;Liang et al., 2015)).One 2016 study reviewed a broader range of brand engagement tactics present in tobacco ads and found that sweepstakes, price reduction offers, and links to a brand's app were common in cigarette ads but substantially less common in e-cigarette ads (Meghan Bridgid; Moran et al., 2019a).However, the authors only report findings in aggregate by product type (e.g., cigarettes) and did not examine differences in brand engagement tactics by product type and advertising platform (e.g., cigarette ads on social media) (Meghan Bridgid; Moran et al., 2019a).
The current study expands this line of research to examine brand engagement tactics in cigarette and e-cigarettes ads from 2019 to 2020 across advertising platforms (social media, DTC mail and email, online/mobile, and traditional print or broadcast).Cigarettes and e-cigarettes are the most popular tobacco products used by adults and adolescents in the US (Cornelius et al., 2020;Gentzke et al., 2022).Cigarette smoking remains one of the leading causes of preventable death and disability in the US (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2014); although the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are unknown, there is evidence that e-cigarettes appeal to nicotine naïve youth, (Fadus et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2020) contain harmful chemical constituents (Olmedo et al., 2018;Sleiman et al., 2016), and can have adverse effects on cardiovascular, respiratory, and central nervous system (Faulcon et al., 2020;Tsai et al., 2020).Further, tobacco companies invest millions of dollars to market both products in the US to recruit and retain consumers (Ma et al., 2022;Ozga et al., 2022).Therefore, understanding (i) the extent to which cigarette and e-cigarette ads include brand engagement tactics and (ii) on what advertising platforms can identify specific brand engagement strategies that may contribute to product use and require continued surveillance and regulatory attention.

Sample
We conducted a content analysis of 520 cigarette and 5,502 e-cigarette ads which ran in the US during 2019-2020.Our sample of ads was compiled from four sources: Kantar, Numerator, Trinkets & Trash, and ad-hoc social media downloads.We purchased 65 unique cigarette ads from Kantar, a market research firm that monitors print (e.g., magazine) and online marketing.We purchased 2,079 unique e-cigarette ads from Numerator, a market research firm that monitors print (e.g., magazines), digital (e.g., online/mobile), outdoor (e.g., billboards, public transportation), broadcast (e.g., radio, TV), and opt-in email ads.We identified additional, unique cigarette (n = 396) and e-cigarette (n = 242) magazine, DTC mail, and opt-in email ads not already present in our purchased ad sample through Rutgers University Center for Tobacco Studies' surveillance website Trinkets & Trash (www.trinketsandtrash.org).Finally, each month a research assistant screenshot and downloaded all social media posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter made during the previous month for select cigarette (Winston) and e-cigarette (Blu, JUUL, Logic, Leap Vapor, BidiStick, Vuse) made by the companies from their official brand-owned accounts (e.g., Winston's Facebook account).These brands were purposively chosen based on whether they had a strong social media presence (Leap Vapor, Bidistick), or they had a substantive market share for the product category (Centers for Disease Control, 2021;Wells Fargo, 2019) and an active social media presence (Winston, Blu, JUUL, Logic, Vuse).DTC ads included both DTC mail and opt-in emails sent to consumers, while, traditional ads included print, broadcast, and outdoor advertising.

Codebook
Codebook development relied on existing research and initial review of study ads.First, we reviewed the literature on tobacco advertising (Brock et al., 2015;Cantrell et al., 2017;Czaplicki, Rahman, et al., 2020;Jackler et al., 2019;Lewis, Yulis, et al., 2004;Liang et al., 2015;Meghan Bridgid;Moran et al., 2019a;Silver et al., 2022), which identified several brand engagement strategies used by tobacco companies.Next, we conducted a cursory review of our ad sample and identified additional brand engagement advertising strategies not noted in the existing literature (e.g., enroll in auto-ship programs).The resulting codebook captured features across eight domains: (1) Price Promotion offers (e.g., physical/digital coupon or general discount (i.e., buy one, get one)) (2) requests to enter a Sweepstakes, (3) requests to download a brand's Mobile App, (4) requests to sign up for the brand's Email/Mail List, (5) Free Gift offers, (6) requests to follow or engage with the brand's Social Media platforms, (7) promotion of Sponsored Events, and (8) requests to enroll in an Auto-Ship subscription program.Ads could be coded for one or more brand engagement tactics.More details of code definitions and example ad images are available in Supplemental Table 1.

Coding procedures
Two trained coders double coded all ads.The unit of analysis was the branded ad content, which included any audio, text, and visual elements purposefully included in the ad by the product brand.Coders were trained on a training sample of 75 non-study ads.Training took place over a two-month period through an iterative process of double-coding ads, comparing codes, and discussing discrepant codes, until sufficient reliability was obtained (kappa score > 0.70).Once reliability was established via the training sample, double coding of the full study sample began.Coded data was entered using the RedCap platform.Any discrepancies were reviewed and reconciled through discussion.

Analysis
We present descriptive statistics on the presence of brand engagement tactics by product-type and advertising platform.

Results
Figure 1 displays the proportion of ads with brand engagement tactics by product type.Among the cigarette ads (n = 520) in our sample, 62.9% contained any brand engagement appeals.The most common brand engagement tactics present in our sample of cigarette ads were Sweepstakes (22.9%),Mobile App (22.4%),Price Promotion (12.1%),Email/Mail List (6.9%), and Free Gift (6.5%).Among the e-cigarette ads (n = 5,502) in our sample, 49.9% contained any brand engagement appeals.The most common brand engagement tactics in e-cigarette ads were Price Promotion (30.8%) and Social Media (16.3%).A small proportion of e-cigarette ads contained other brand engagement strategies.

Brand engagement by advertising platform
Table 1 presents the proportion of cigarette and e-cigarette ads with brand engagement by brand engagement tactic and advertising platform.

Discussion
A substantial proportion of cigarette (63%) and e-cigarette (50%) ads in our sample included brand engagement appeals.For cigarette ads-and DTC cigarette ads, in particular-the most commonly featured tactics were requests to enter a Sweepstakes or requests to download a brand's Mobile App.This finding aligns with prior research (Meghan Bridgid; Moran et al., 2019a) and suggests that sweepstakes offers, and brand apps remain important strategies to recruit and retain smokers (Lewis, Yulis, et al., 2004;M. B. Moran et al., 2019b).Historically, sweepstakes have been used as an incentive to collect information on new users and keep current users from switching brands or quitting (Lewis, Yulis, et al., 2004;M. B. Moran et al., 2019b), and research suggests the presence of a sweepstakes offers in cigarette ads may be particularly appealing to young people (Moran et al., 2021;M. B. Moran et al., 2019b).Mobile apps, which frequently offer location-based or time-sensitive digital coupons (Navarro et al., 2019), also collect data from individuals to tailor app content, lower the cost of tobacco products for price-sensitive consumers, including youth (Pesko et al., 2018;Yao et al., 2020).
For e-cigarette ads, the most common brand engagement strategies present in our sample of ads were Price Promotion and requests to follow a brand's Social Media account.Past research suggests that price promotions are commonly featured in e-cigarettes ads (Meghan Bridgid; Moran et al., 2019a;Silver et al., 2022), reinforcing the salience of this brand engagement tactic for e-cigarettes, which may be more expensive compared to other tobacco products (Yao et al., 2020).In addition, our study provides new evidence that e-cigarette advertisements are frequently used to promote branded social media content.This is particularly concerning given evidence that young people actively engage with tobacco-related social media content (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2020), exposure to tobacco-related social media content has been associated with increased likelihood of escalated tobacco use (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2020;Donaldson et al., 2022;Hébert et al., 2017), and the potential for social media ads to contain additional discount offers (Jackler et al., 2019;Liang et al., 2015) that may appeal to price sensitive young people (Pesko et al., 2018;Yao et al., 2020).
Importantly, results from this study provide new insights into how brand engagement tactics present in cigarette and e-cigarette ads vary by advertising platform.We found that social media ads for cigarettes and e-cigarettes frequently included requests to follow or further engage with a brand's social media, which may reinforce continued interaction with branded content.Moreover, research has found that tobacco company social media profiles may be accessible to youth (Jackler et al., 2019;Kong et al., 2021;O'Brien et al., 2020), indicating a need to restrict access to this content.We also observed that Price Promotion was an important feature of nearly all DTC e-cigarette ads with brand engagement.Price promotions were also commonly featured in online/mobile e-cigarette ads, suggesting that access to discounts are available online and accessible to youth who are at risk of engaging with such promotional offers (Soneji, Knutzen, et al., 2019;Soneji, Yang, et al., 2019).DTC and online e-cigarette ads may play an important role in consumer retention, particularly through discount offers.
Restrictions on price promotions in DTC and online/mobile ads may be needed to limit the influence of such offers on initiation and sustained tobacco use.
Findings from this study could have several policy implications.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the broad authority to regulate tobacco marketing and promotions, which can include several of the brand engagement tactics discussed.Sweepstakes and price promotions were common in our study sample.This finding, along with other evidence that highlights how these features may be particularly appealing to youth (Meghan Bridgid; Moran et al., 2019a;Moran et al., 2021;Pesko et al., 2018;Yao et al., 2020), suggest that FDA could promulgate a rule to restrict use of these tactics in cigarette and e-cigarette ads.Such a rule would align with the Master Settlement Agreement, which was a legal settlement in 1998 between major tobacco companies and 46 U.S. states that prohibited tobacco companies from targeting youth in the cigarette advertisements (National Associations of Attorneys General, Unknown).In addition, mobile apps and the promotion of mobile apps in cigarette ads could be considered a form of tobacco marketing and subject to similar federal restrictions (BinDhim et al., 2014), particularly if further research suggests these apps appeal to young people.Alternatively, advocates could pressure app stores in the US to voluntarily implement and enforce new (for Google Play) and existing (for Apple) bans on pro-tobacco mobile apps (BinDhim et al., 2014;Meacham et al., 2020).
Our findings also demonstrate the emphasis that tobacco companies place on promoting and encouraging engagement with their brand's social media accounts.Although some platforms, like Facebook, have restrictions on paid advertising for tobacco products, these policies are largely ineffective and tobacco promotion through brand-owned social media accounts remains unregulated (Kong et al., 2022).Findings from our study, along with other research indicating the appeal of and access to social media tobacco brand marketing to young people (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2020;Donaldson et al., 2022;Hébert et al., 2017;Kong et al., 2021;O'Brien et al., 2020), suggest that the FDA should consider banning tobacco company brand-owned social media accounts under its regulatory authority.Additionally, public health counter-marketing efforts could incorporate these findings by alerting young people to the myriad ways tobacco companies attempt to foster engagement and collect their information (e.g., by sweepstakes entries).

Limitations
While our sample was large and drew from a diverse range of sources, Kantar, Numerator, and Trinkets & Trash are not exhaustive sources of all tobacco ads that ran during the study time-period and we cannot be certain our sample is representative of the full spectrum of cigarette and e-cigarette ads that ran during the study period.Therefore, our sample may not fully reflect all possible brand engagement tactics present in cigarette and e-cigarette ads that ran in 2019-2020.Further, our social media sample was purposively selected and cannot reflect all content from brand-owned cigarette and e-cigarette social media accounts.For official brand accounts that we followed, we attempted to systematically screenshot all posts for each month at the start of the following month; however, it is possible that we some posts were deleted during the month and not included in our data.Our sample also did not include other relevant tobacco marketing channels that may use brand engagement tactics, such as point of sale ads, brand websites, and celebrity endorsements.It also did not include ads for other popular (e.g., cigars) or recently introduced (e.g., oral nicotine pouches) tobacco products, which could be examined in the future.Additionally, these were US ads only, and tobacco ads in other countries may use different brand engagement tactics.It is possible that our codebook, although extensive, did not capture all brand engagement tactics present in US cigarette and e-cigarette ads.We are also only able to report on the prevalence of tactics at the broad category level (e.g., engage with Social Media) and cannot provide estimates of different features of these tactics (e.g., share a post, tag a friend, follow a brand's social media account).Study coders double coded each ad and were trained to a standard level of reliability; however, there is still a possibility for misclassification.
Ads in this study also ran in 2019 and 2020, and the nature of the advertising may be influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic (RT, 2020) does not account for the changing landscape of tobacco and nicotine products (e.g., non-tobacco nicotine products) and introduction of new social media platforms like Tik Tok which are particularly appealing to younger populations (Pew Research Center, 2022).We are also unable to assess the extent to which consumers actively engage (e.g., liking post) with the brand engagement tactics present in the examined ads.

Conclusion
This study updates prior research to provide a comprehensive assessment of the brand engagement tactics used to promote cigarettes and e-cigarettes across advertising platforms and provides a new baseline to continue this line of inquiry for cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and other non-tobacco nicotine products.We found that tobacco companies use a variety of tactics to obtain information about consumers, cultivate brand loyalty and engender repeat purchases.The type of tactics varies by the product type and advertising platform (e.g., cigarette DTC ads included more Sweepstakes and Mobile App offers; while most e-cigarette DTC ads included Price Promotion), highlighting areas for future advertising surveillance.Future studies should also assess how brand engagement tactics may be differentially targeted to populations based on age or race/ethnicity and gender identities.To the extent that these tactics are targeted to and appeal to youth and other groups, FDA could take action to restrict their use under its regulatory authority.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Proportion of uS cigarette and e-cigarette ads from 2019 to 2020 that included brand engagement marketing tactics.

Table 1 .
Presence of brand engagement marketing tactics in uS cigarette and e-cigarette ads from 2019 to 2020 by advertising outlet a .
a Social media ads include original posts from companies.Dtc email/mail includes marketing sent directly to consumers via mail or email.Online/mobile advertising includes ads purchased and placed on websites or mobile apps.traditionalmedia includes print, broadcast, and outdoor advertising.bProportions reported among ads with brand engagement tactics.c categories are not mutually exclusive and multiple brand engagement tactics could be featured in a single ad.