Processing Web Ads: The Effects of Animation and Arousing Content

As online advertising expenditures continue to grow and surpass those dedicated to some traditional media, advertisers are still largely in the dark concerning the branding power of online media vehicles such as banner advertisements. Assuming that traditional media principles apply, advertisers attempt to increase the effectiveness of online vehicles such as banner ads by making them larger, more animated, or graphically arousing. In this pioneering investigation, Yongkuk Chung measures the extent to which banner ad characteristics such as animation and pictorial representation impact traditional ad response measures such as recall and recognition. In addition, Dr. Chung takes the additional important step of measuring the actual physiological response to variations in banner ad animation, content, and other characteristics in a rigorous scientific investigation. The findings of this study are very important. Not only do they challenge commonly held notions regarding online advertising, they also present clear managerial guidelines to increase branding power online. Managers and scholars will find much in this research to guide their advertising and research efforts. Processing Web Ads will be an important addition to any collection concerned with advertising, branding, communication, or Internet Studies. "This book expands our knowledge of how people process internet advertising. It adds significantly to our understanding ." - Professor Annie Lang, Indiana University