Do You Recognize Its Brand? The Effectiveness of Online In-Stream Video Advertisements

Abstract

The effects of ad length, ad position, and ad-context congruity on brand name recognition in an online in-stream video advertising context were investigated. Video ads and video programs were selected from YouTube as stimuli. Findings from a laboratory experiment indicate that long ads enhance recognition. Mid-roll ads lead to better brand name recognition than pre-roll and post-roll ads because of attention spillover. However, a mid-roll ad is futile when the ad is unrelated to the video content. In contrast, post-roll ads can improve brand name recognition in an incongruent context.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ms. Li would like to thank Dr. Jinhu Jiang for providing research funding for her doctoral study and also thanks Yuan Ze University for providing funding for her exchange program in Taiwan.

FUNDING

This study was partially supported by funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (NSC 101-2410-H-155-015-MY3) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71272139).

Notes

1. Functional shoes are shoes that reduce wear-and-tear injuries, protect the joints in the feet, and improve performance.

2. The results of t tests confirmed manipulation checks for congruity/incongruity comparisons of each product category: (1) watches: M_{watch-fashion} = 4.10, M_watch-IT = 2.14, t (72) = 9.43, p < .001; (2) functional shoes: M_shoe-sports = 4.10, M_shoe-fashion = 2.41, t (78) = 7.77, p < .001; and (3) e-readers: M_e-reader-IT = 4.26, M_{e-reader-sports} = 1.77, t (75) = 11.75, p < .001.