The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of advertisement choice on individuals' subsequent attention towards the advertisement. Participants in this study decided which type of advertisement to watch or they were not given a choice. Results of the study showed that advertisement choice significantly influenced female participants' subsequent attention towards the advertisement but not males'. This effect suggests that this marketing technique should be used in specific situations to target women predominately. These include marketing products predominately or universally used by females or during shows which are viewed by a large number of females.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate online viewers’ preferences concerning the number and duration of video advertisements to watch during commercial breaks. The goal of the investigations was to assess whether online viewers preferred watching a fewer number of advertisements with longer durations or a greater number of advertisements with shorter durations.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies used experimental research designs to assess viewers’ preferences regarding advertisements. These designs used two independent variables and one dependent variable. The first independent variable manipulated the type of choice options given to online viewers (e.g. one 60 s or two 30 s advertisements). The second independent variable manipulated when the choice was given to online viewers (i.e. at the beginning of the viewing experience or in the middle of the experience). The dependent variable measured viewers’ choices concerning their preferred advertisement option.
Findings
The results across both studies found that participants made choices that minimized total advertisement exposure time when possible. When minimizing total exposure time was not possible, participants made choices that minimized the number of exposures instead.
Originality/value
These investigations extend the literature on advertisement choice by examining online viewers’ preferences about the format of their advertising experience rather than the content of the persuasive messages themselves. In addition, these investigations provide value by investigating viewers’ responses to stimuli within realistic online simulations rather than abstract hypotheticals.
Two important pieces of information for consumers evaluating products online are consumer ratings (i.e. base-rates) and consumer reviews (i.e. case histories). While literature in cognitive psychology shows a tendency to weigh case history information more heavily than base-rate information, other consumer oriented studies show the opposite. This study examined the relative impact of each type of information by treating consumer ratings and reviews as orthogonal factors and then manipulating the valence of each type of information. Participants evaluated a novel health beverage by viewing consumer ratings and/or reading their reviews about the product. Results indicated that the valence of the base-rate information significantly affected participants' evaluation of the product only when case history information was not presented.When case history information was presented, the valence of such information significantly affected participants' evaluation of the product regardless of the valence of any base-rate information. These results demonstrate that base-rate neglect may bias individuals' evaluations of products since base-rate information tends to be more representative of a population than case history information. Thus determining ways of making base-rate information more impactful in consumer settings is an important goal.
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