Promoting sustainable clothing consumption through trait-based personalization in Instagram ads

This study investigates the potential of trait-based personalization of social media advertisements to promote sustainable clothing consumption. An online experiment (wave 1 N = 663 women, wave 2 N = 247) examined the immediate and long-term effects of the alignment between an Instagram ad’s appeal (extrovert vs. introvert ad) and audience personality (trait extroversion) on ad engagement, attitudes toward and intentions for sustainable clothing consumption, and self-reported sustainable clothing consumption. Results reveal that an ad that is congruent to receivers’ extrovert personality increases ad engagement and clothing consumption intentions immediately after exposure. The ad did not have any long-term effects.