Preattentive Processing of Web Advertising By Chan Yun Yoo

What Makes the Web Different From Other Media?

There are several characteristics that make the Web unique compared with traditional media. The Web is distinguished from other broadcasting media (television and radio) by the fact that the advertising message is integrated within the editorial content, as in print media. With broadcasting media, advertising messages alternate with program content. On the Web, the advertisement is in competition with the page content; this emphasizes the difficulty of attracting the consumer’s attention. In addition, past experience based on eye-tracking studies reveal that the likelihood of paying attention to (or registering) Web advertising diminishes with consumer medium-expertise (Drèze & Hussherr, 2003).

Some researchers believe that the Web’s interactive nature, that is, the ability of the user to receive and transmit messages, creates a totally new communication environment. Instead of the traditional model of one-to-many communication, the Web is a “many–to–many” channel of communication (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). Interactivity is the key characteristic of the new media, which is expected to transform not only the way advertising is designed and implemented but also the manner in which it affects consumers’ opinions and attitudes. Furthermore, the Web enables two–way communication since the user, the target of the communication, can also be an actor in the process. The user can respond to the announcer or even diffuse a counter message and interact with other users in a form of peer–to–peer communication.