Preattentive Processing of Web Advertising By Chan Yun Yoo

The findings suggest that the definition of Web advertising should be expanded to include Web site and banner ads as well as other types of persuasive messages such as pop–ups, pop–unders, URLs, and online affiliate ads. Therefore, the following broad definition is suggested: Web advertising is the paid communication by an identified sponsor through the World Wide Web in an effort to persuade (Yoo & Stout, 2001).

Following the above definition, Web advertising sources can be classified into three different forms: (a) Lead, (b) Jumper, and (c) Destination. The “Lead” includes banner ads, keyword search ads, pop–ups, pop–unders, buttons, and paid links, whose main purpose is driving Web traffic to a destination, working as a gateway, whereas a “Jumper” pops up unavoidably between a Lead and a “Destination” as a form of Web page, for example, interstitial. Using the TV advertising model, a Jumper is an attempt to force exposure to the advertisement by interrupting the content of a page by overlaying a full– or partial–screen advertisement, but it is located between two sites or two ads. Finally, the “Destination” includes the corporate homepage and linked campaign Web sites, that is, sponsorship Web sites. Corporate homepages are the primary home domain for their companies, whereas sponsorship Web sites contain editorial content that relates to the sponsor’s product (Putrevu & Lord, 2003).

However, it is beyond the scope of this study to explore all forms of Web advertising in the context of preattentive processing. Thus, for the purpose of this study, one of the prevalent forms of Web advertising—banner ads—will be investigated.