Analysis of Viral Advertising Research Hotspots and Trends Based on Bibliometric Methods

With the popularity and development of social media, viral advertising has also gained tremendous development. Viral advertising as a useful promotional strategy can increase the publicity effectiveness of a brand or product. The purpose of this study is to better understand the research and progress of viral advertising and to explore future research directions. This study examined the viral advertising literature on the Web of Science database from 2004-2022, using bibliometric methods to analyze the data in terms of the annual number of publications, source journals, citations, authors, countries and institutions, and keywords. The results reveal the publishing trend of viral advertising research, the most influential literature and journals, as well as the most productive countries, institutions, and authors, including collaborative partnerships among them. The keyword co-occurrence analysis, cluster analysis, and time evolution analysis identified the research hotspots, themes, and evolution trends of viral advertising. This bibliometric study presents an overall profile of research in the field and proposes a research framework for the study of viral advertising that can serve as a reference, providing valuable guidance for advancing research in this area.