Advertising on the edge: appeal effectiveness when advertising in extreme sports

Extreme sports are a solid international industry enjoyed by millions of people, and many brands use extreme sports as contexts for advertising in the US and EU. Interpreting extreme sports through different psychological theories, in two experiments the authors compare the effects on persuasiveness, product attraction and behavioural intention of challenge- and difficulty-focused messages in extreme and traditional sports contexts, for high- and low-involvement brands. They find those appeals to affect ad persuasiveness, product attractiveness, purchase intention and willingness-to-pay positively in extreme sports, but negatively in traditional sports. Qualitative interviews highlight that extreme and traditional sports are perceived as different worlds. Results hold regardless of consumers' participation type or preferred sport type and are based on hundreds of respondents across the US and different EU countries.