Katarina Panic

Comparing TV Ads and Advergames Targeting Children: The Impact of Persuasion Knowledge on Behavioral Responses

Although thousands of advergames are directed at children, little is known about how advergames affect children and whether this persuasive process differs from traditional advertising formats. Investigating the underlying persuasive mechanism, Study 1 shows that, for TV advertising, persuasion knowledge drives the persuasive effects while, for advergames, persuasion is mainly driven by the attitude toward the game. Adding advertising cues to the advergame does not increase persuasion knowledge but does diminish the positive attitude toward the game effect, influencing behavior indirectly. Study 2 demonstrates that, for an advergame, the persuasive mechanism does not differ between a commercial versus a social persuasive message.

How advertising literacy training affect children’s responses to television commercials versus advergames

This study examined childrens advertising literacy level for traditional versus embedded advertising formats by comparing their cognitive and affective advertising literacy level for television commercials vs. advergames. The study also explored how cognitive and affective advertising literacy further attenuate advertising effects by investigating the mediation impact of cognitive and affective advertising literacy on the relation between the ads format and the purchase request. Third, the study investigated how an advertising literacy training session moderates these effects. The results of this experimental study showed that advergames lead to a higher purchase request rate among children than television commercials. However, only affective but not cognitive advertising literacy mediated the effect of the advertising format on purchase request. In addition, a training session was shown to accelerate childrens cognitive (but not their affective) advertising literacy for advergames, but not for television commercials.

Promoting Dental Hygiene to Children: Comparing Traditional and Interactive Media Following Threat Appeals

Until now, social marketing campaigns mainly targeted children using traditional media. However, little is known about the effectiveness of computer games to communicate health-related information to children. This study compares the impact of an interactive game as a medium to provide health information and improve childrens dietary habits to the impact of more traditional media. Using a 2 × 3 between-subject factorial design with 190 children (7–9 years old), this study investigates the effect of threat messages (weak vs. strong) concerning dental hygiene on behavioral outcome (snack choice), and how this effect is moderated by the type of medium used to communicate subsequent health information after the threat appeal (computer game, information brochure, narrative story). Results show a positive significant effect of perceived threat on childrens adaptive behavior. However, this effect only remains significant when afterwards children are exposed to a narrative health-related story. When children play a game or read a brochure, they need to devote more attention to process this content, distracting them from the original threat message. In sum, when a threat message is followed by additional health information, the medium through which this information is presented influences the effectiveness of the preceding threat message.

Shedding New Light on How Advertising Literacy Can Affect Children's Processing of Embedded Advertising Formats: A Future Research Agenda

Advertisers are continuously searching for new ways to persuade children; current methods include fully integrating commercial content into media content, actively engaging children with the commercial content, and increasing the number of commercial messages children are confronted with at one moment in time. This poses a challenge for how children cope with embedded advertising. This conceptual article aims to develop a theoretically grounded framework for investigating how children process embedded advertising. More precisely, it sheds light on previous research and conceptualizations of advertising literacy and provides suggestions for future research. The article examines conceptual and methodological issues and discusses the need for research on how to improve childrens coping with embedded advertising by emphasizing the value of persuasive intent priming and implementation intentions. To conclude, future research directions are discussed regarding strategies to strengthen childrens coping skills and their dispositional (i.e., associative network consisting of cognitive, moral, and affective beliefs related to advertising) and situational (i.e., actual recognition of and critical reflection on advertising) advertising literacy.

Impact of an Interactive Anti-Speeding Threat Appeal: How Much Threat Is Too Much?

This study investigates the impact of an interactive television public-service announcement (PSA) containing an anti-speeding threat appeal on feelings of telepresence and behavioral intention. In a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design with 213 participants, the level of threat evoked by a traditional PSA, by the interactive part of the PSA (dedicated advertising location or DAL) and by the preceding program context are manipulated to be either low or high. The results support the assumptions of the Extended Parallel Processing Model with regard to the effect of the level of perceived threat and perceived efficacy in an interactive media environment, and the important role of telepresence as a processing variable. The results of the three-way interaction effect of threat evoked by the program, the PSA and the DAL on telepresence show that when the threat levels of the program and the PSA are both either low or high, exposure to the threatening information in the DAL does not generate a significantly higher feeling of telepresence. However, when a low-threat program is followed by a high-threat PSA, the threat level of the DAL has a positive effect on telepresence. The same trend is found with a high-threat program and a low-threat PSA, although the effect of the threat evoked by the DAL on telepresence is not significant at conventional levels. Finally, there is a positive effect of telepresence on the behavioral intention to reduce speeding, which is partly mediated by the viewers perceived efficacy to follow the recommended behavior.

Fundraising in an Interactive Online Environment

This study investigates how nonprofit organizations could develop their websites to elicit positive evaluations and increase fundraising. More specifically, it focuses on the use of celebrity endorsements in an online context. The interaction between perceived congruence of the celebrity with the nonprofit organization and the level of interactivity induced by the website is examined on website experience, which is an important predictor of the attitude toward—and donation intentions for—a (fictitious) nonprofit organization. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design (N = 122), the level of website interactivity and the (in)congruence between the celebrity and the organization are manipulated. The results show that an incongruent celebrity endorser incites a more favorable website experience than a congruent endorser on an interactive website. This, in turn, leads to a more positive attitude and a higher donation intention for the charity. In a non-interactive context, a congruent versus incongruent endorser has no differential impact on people’s responses.

How to pass the courvoisier? An experimental study on the effectiveness of brand placements in music videos

Abstract Purpose The current study examines the effectiveness of brand integrations in music videos by taking into account the impact of both brand placement characteristics (i.e., brand prominence, valence of artist–brand relationship) and audience characteristics (i.e., artist connectedness). Methodology/approach A 2 (prominence: prominent vs. subtle) by 2 (valence: positive vs. negative) by 2 (connectedness: high vs. low) between-subjects experimental design is used. Each respondent first watched one music video via YouTube in which one branded product was placed either prominently or subtly. To manipulate the valence of the artist–brand relationship respondents were instructed to read a magazine article that revealed either a positive or negative attitude of the artist toward the placed brand. Two hundred twenty young adults participated in this study. Findings This study shows that prominent placements appear to be beneficial for the attitude toward the integrated brand when an individual is strongly connected to the artist in the music video, while subtle placements are beneficial both when an individual is weakly or strongly connected to the artist. Further, negative celebrity-brand relationships do not seem to affect brand attitudes in a negative way. Practical implications Embedding the brand in a music video gives marketers and advertisers the chance to reach consumers in a new, creative way. But this study shows that the advertiser should pay attention to the way in which the brand is integrated. Further, negative celebrity information does not seem to affect brand attitudes in a negative way. This makes the music video a very interesting medium for advertisers. Originality/value The current study contributes to previous research on brand placement by investigating the effectiveness of brand placements in music videos and the role of artist connectedness. In addition, the study is original as it includes valence in the model.

Promoting Dental Care to Children Using Traditional and Interactive Mng Tedia Followihreat Appeals

In recent years, computer games have become an important part of children’s lives. Gaming is not only one of their favorite pastime activities, but games are also increasingly used by marketers in an attempt to influence children’s purchase behavior. Today, almost every food and beverage brand targeting children has an advergame on its website. Advergames are“computer games specifically created to function as advertisements to promote brands”, containing brand identifiers such as logos and brand characters (Kretchmer, 2005: 7). Games can also be powerful learning tools. Several authors (e.g., Gee, 2003; Prensky, 2001) argue that computer games can be more enjoyable, more interesting and thus more effective than traditional learning modes to increase children’s knowledge. Empirical studies that evaluated the impact of the use of games within disciplines such as mathematics, science, language, geography and computer science show positive outcomes in terms of learning effectiveness in relation to curricu- lar objectives (e.g., Papastergiou, 2009; Rosas et al., 2003). However, these authors mainly focus on the learning ability of games rather than their persuasive impact for social marketing purposes. In the area of health education, playing computer games has often been seen with skepticism (e.g., Bale, 1994; Funk and Buchman, 1995).

The (B)old and the Beautiful: Investigating the Preference of Senior Consumers Concerning (the Age of) Models Used in Advertising

Today, it is estimated that 7.6 per cent of the world population is aged over 65 (CIA, 2009), making it the fastest-growing age segment in the world. Considering that older citizens do not only grow in number, but also in life expectancy and economic power, one would expect the elderly to receive a great amount of attention from advertisers. But even though marketing executives are aware of the importance of senior consumers, older models are rarely used in mainstream advertising. When they appear in advertisements, elderly are primarily depicted in a negative, stereotypical way (Gunter, 1998; Sikkel, 2004). Older models are mainly found in ads for ‘senior products’ like health products, often suggesting some form of physical impairment. However, these cliche images are far from the current reality. Today’s seniors are socially active, living an active and dynamic life. They are also a powerful consumer group with the means and the willingness to try out new things (Hanson, 1998). Nevertheless, almost no models older than 50 can be found in advertisements for general, age-universal products. This underrepresentation and stereotyping evokes feelings of dissatisfaction, frustration and even insult (Dutta-Bergman, 2006). Many older consumers become alienated from and disinterested in advertisements because they do not identify with the models used in advertisements. These emotions can negatively influence seniors’ attitudes towards advertising (and brands) and affect their purchase intention. While a series of studies revealed that older consumers would like to see more models of their own age in ads (e.g. Long, 1998), other research suggests that seniors do not wish to be confronted more models of their age group in advertisements (Greco, 1989; Carrigan and Szmigin, 1999). Therefore, the main question addressed in this study is: do senior consumers prefer seeing models of their own age, models who match their subjective age, or even younger models in advertising?