An investigation of the influence of cinema environment on advertising effectiveness

ABSTRACT

Many advertisers are looking to cinema advertising as a nontraditional medium to reach consumers. Although several scholars have examined the effectiveness of this advertising vehicle, there is a dearth of empirically grounded research on how to improve such effectiveness. This study, based on the reactance and the equity theories, is probably the first academic project investigating how to manipulate an advertising environment in a real movie theatre to maximize advertising effectiveness. Results indicated that audiences in a distractive environment held a more positive attitude toward cinema advertising in general, but those in a restrictive environment were more likely to remember the advertised brands. In addition, the provision of ticket price information improved audiences’ acceptance of cinema advertising, but did not enhance recall. Moreover, the influence of ambient scent emitted into the atmosphere in a cinema room on ad recall dissipated when movie viewers became accustomed to such stimuli. Based on these findings, theoretical discussions and recommendations for practising managers were made.

KEYWORDS:

• Cinema advertising
• advertising effectiveness
• experimental research
• reactance theory
• equity theory

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief Charles R. Taylor and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable advice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This article is supported by the 2014 Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [project number 14YJC860037], Project Name: Comparative Analysis of Chinese, Japanese and Korean Companies’ Strategic Communication Practices in the United States.

Notes on contributors

Sheng Yuan

Sheng Yuan holds a PhD degree in mass communications from Indiana University Bloomington. He is currently an associate professor of advertising at Wenzhou Business College in China. His research interests focus on advertising psychology and corporate communication. He has published articles in Journal of Advertising Research and Chinese Journal of Communication.