Student Researcher: Nokon Heo (PhD Student)
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
For a complete report of this research, see:
Heo, N., & Sundar, S. S. (2000, August).
Emotional responses to web advertising: The effects of animation, position,
and product involvement on physiological arousal. Paper presented to
the Advertising Division at the annual conference of the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Phoenix, AZ.
Introduction
Despite the Internet's increasing popularity and potential as an advertising medium, advertisers are uncertain about the effectiveness of Web advertising in gaining user attention. It is generally known that only very few online users actually click the banner ads. Today's Web advertisers are increasingly using animation in their banner ads to attract viewers' attention. And typically, those banner ads are scattered all parts of the Web page, which raises a concern for ad clutter. In this study, we examined whether the new medium can actually provide a vehicle for effective commercial communication. More specifically, this study investigated psychological effects of ad animation, ad position, and product involvement within the context of Web advertising.
Hypotheses
H1: Animated ads will elicit greater skin conductance response (SCR) than static ads.
H2: Ads positioned near the top of the page will elicit greater skin conductance response (SCR) than those near the end of the page.
H3: Animated ads will elicit greater skin conductance response (SCR) when they are positioned near the top of the page than animated ads positioned near the bottom of the page.
H4: Animated ads will elicit greater skin conductance response (SCR) than static ads if they feature a low involvement product compared to a high involvement product.
Method
Fifty-six participants were randomly assigned to
one of four orders of a 2 (animation) x 2 (position) x 2 (involvement) within-participants
factorial experiment. Eight separate news Web pages were created, each featuring
a story and a banner ad. Eight News Stories were selected from existing
news Web pages. Of the eight banner ads, four were animated and four were
static. Half of the ads were positioned at the top and the other half were
positioned at the bottom. Half of the ads featured high involvement products
and the other half featured low involvement products. The dependent variable,
emotional response, was operationalized by physiological arousal and measured
by the magnitude of skin conductance responses (SCRs) as participants viewed
the web pages.
Results
H1. Supported. Animated ads elicited greater skin conductance response (SCR) than static ads.
H2. Supported. Ads positioned near the top of the page elicited greater skin conductance response (SCR) than those near the end of the page.
H3. Supported. Animated ads elicited greater skin conductance response (SCR) when they are positioned near the top of the page than animated ads positioned near the bottom of the page.
H4. Supported. Animated ads will elicit greater skin conductance response (SCR) than static ads if they feature a low involvement product compared to a high involvement product.
Conclusions
The findings from the study suggest that ad animation,
position, and product involvement are important ad characteristics that
can generate strong emotions in viewers. Physiological measure of arousal
measured by SCRs can be an alternative measurement tool for advertising
effectiveness. Combining certain product and presentation characteristics
also seem to serve to promote the persuasiveness of online commercial communications.
For more details/information about this study, please contact:
Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Associate Professor and Director
Media Effects Research Laboratory
College of Communications
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ph: (814) 865 2173
E-mail: sss12@psu.edu
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