Preattentive Processing of Web Advertising By Chan Yun Yoo

This disappointing figure is problematic because it implies that advertisers may waste their money on Web advertising. However, proponents argue that Web ads obtain a significant amount of brand recognition through exposure even without clicking-throughs (Briggs & Hollis, 1997).

The debate surrounding the effects of Web advertising has attracted academicians’ attention to this new medium. However, from the practitioners’ viewpoint, the risk of investing in Web advertising is still high because research into this medium is in the early stage. Therefore, what is lacking is a comprehensive theory or model to explain how Web advertising works. In addition to this, the currently dismal click-through rates, along with consumers’ intentional ignoring or avoiding Web advertising, suggest that we need to look beyond the conscious processing of Web advertising. In this context, preattentive processing would provide a useful framework for researchers and practitioners.

Visiting the Web is goal-directed behavior, which satisfies consumers’ needs and wants (e.g., finding information, entertainment, socialization). Consumers are likely to pay voluntary (or conscious) attention to advertising information that is relevant to their goals when visiting the Web, but they are not likely to pay attention to irrelevant Web ads and may even ignore them. Given that consumers visit Web pages to fulfill their goals or tasks, they are incidentally exposed to Web ads. Thus, they are more likely to undergo preattentive processing, which is defined here as automatically scanning the Web page (Schweizer, 2001), or they pay involuntary attention to Web ads.