Image generated with Nightcafe. Prompt: "An abstract representation of what social media means to people."
Use a mix of tools to simulate social media posts for your experiments
This is a Web version of the Companion Appendix for RAISE: A New Method to Develop Experimental Stimuli for Advertising Research with Image Generative Artificial Intelligence, developed by César Zamudio, Jamie Grigsby, and Meg Michelsen, and published in the Journal of Advertising. Questions? Feel free to contact us!
Stimuli developed using the RAISE methodology might be only part of a larger experimental stimuli with accompanying text and other visual elements. These can usually be straightforwardly constructed using freely available tools such as PowerPoint. For certain stimuli –specifically, social media– existing tools make this process very simple.
To illustrate, consider the context of product design. It is known that product design can influence product liking –for example, when a product is minimalistic (Chen and Liu, 2023). Following this logic, suppose a researcher is interested in studying the role of minimalism vs. elaborateness, using a compact camera as stimuli. The summary card to build these stimuli is shown below (for a refresher on how to use the RAISE method, consult the main RAISE tutorial).
To illustrate, consider the context of product design. It is known that product design can influence product liking –for example, when a product is minimalistic (Chen and Liu, 2023). Following this logic, suppose a researcher is interested in studying the role of minimalism vs. elaborateness, using a compact camera as stimuli. The summary card to build these stimuli is shown below (for a refresher on how to use the RAISE method, consult the main RAISE tutorial).
While one could manually create the subsequent social media experimental stimulus, an array of existing tools able to produce social media content mockups are available – for instance, AdMockups or Influencer Marketing Hub. In this application, we used the former tool. We downloaded a logo depicting an “F” and wrote stimuli content for a fictitious brand, “Frei Camera.” If company logos and information are not desired, they can be cropped out of the stimuli. Placing the image generative AI stimuli onto the mockup is straightforward and is done via a one-click upload. The two stimuli are shown below.
Ready to learn more?
Feel free to browse our gallery of examples with full tutorials, and the technical details section to learn the finer points of generating visual experimental stimuli using the RAISE methodology.