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Animated ads have more prominent feature (i.e., motion) than static ones. Because of the motion effect, it is suggested that consumers may experience greater perceptual fluency for animated ads or animated ads are more conducive to preattentive processing. Congruency between the content of Web page and the product of embedded Web ad is another factor of interest. Because of the semantic analysis, it is expected that consumers may experience greater conceptual fluency for a more congruent condition.
Research Methods
Four pretests preceded the main experiment to ensure that appropriate product categories, experimental stimuli, implicit memory measures, and manipulation scenarios were chosen. The main experiment featured a mixed-factorial design with two groups (control vs. preattentive processing), with ad prominence (static vs. animated Web ads) and the level of congruency (high vs. low) as between-subject factors, and product involvement as a within-subject factor. One hundred and fifty undergraduate students participated in the main experiment. The extent of preattentive processing was examined by implicit memory performance, which was assessed by the process dissociation procedure.
Research Findings and Implications
The research revealed that, despite Web advertisements that were outside of subjects’ attentional focus and thus subjects failed to recall it, a simple exposure to Web ads without conscious processing would induce greater implicit memories for the Web advertisements, a more favorable attitude toward the ad, and greater likelihood of inclusion of the advertised brand names in a consideration set.