Advertising impact: Classic TV spots defy interaction
Interactivity is becoming increasingly important in advertising. Advergames are a specific form of interaction designed to engage consumers. They promise to captivate users even more, thereby increasing the impact of advertising.
However, a study by scientists at Murdoch University in Australia has now shown that interactive advertising games on the Internet and interactively extended TV commercials on smart TV do not achieve a higher advertising impact than traditional TV commercials. On the contrary: classic commercials actually perform slightly better. Advergames embed brands in an interactive, playful context. Coke Zero, for example, lets consumers race cars, and the bargain portal QoQa invites us to give ex-bachelor Vujo a virtual slap in the face. The classic domain of such advergames is the Internet, but smart TVs are now also bringing them to the TV screen. In this way, TV commercials can be extended interactively by giving consumers the opportunity to play the advertising games on the TV set after a TV commercial. From a marketing perspective, the question arises as to what advergames can achieve. Do they offer advertisers - stand-alone or as an interactive commercial extension - a higher impact than classic TV commercials? To answer this question, the Murdoch University research team conducted an experiment with 233 Australian consumers. The participants were divided into three groups. The TV group watched a sitcom in which classic TV commercials for four brands - from chocolate to toothpaste - were embedded. Consumers in the PC group were asked to play a simple advertising game (e.g. a quiz) for each brand. Finally, the participants in the Smart TV group were presented with both forms of advertising. They were also shown the sitcom including TV commercials, but here the commercials were extended interactively. The test subjects had the option of using the red button on the remote control to call up the advertising game that matched the respective commercial.
The surprising result: interactivity does not necessarily offer advantages. According to the experiment, interactive advergames do not achieve a higher advertising impact than normal commercials, neither on their own nor integrated into TV commercials. The details show that the classic 30-second spots even lead to a slightly more positive attitude towards the advertised brands than the interactive alternatives. The test subjects in the TV group have a better image of the brands (Ø=5.56 on a 7-point scale) than the consumers in the PC group (5.32) and the Smart TV group (5.43). The so-called "telepresence" effects generated by the three advertising environments examined are a decisive factor in this result. Telepresence refers to the extent to which the respective form of advertising succeeds in captivating consumers and immersing them in the storyline and environment. Previous studies have shown that a higher telepresence boosts the advertising impact, and the present study also shows a positive effect of telepresence on the perception of the advertised brands. Telepresence is therefore an important indicator of advertising impact. However, contrary to their original assumption, the researchers found in this context that the interactivity of the advergames does not captivate consumers more than TV commercials can. Telepresence is even slightly more pronounced in the TV group (Ø=3.27 on a 7-point scale) than in the smart TV group (3.14) and the PC group (3.05). Classic TV commercials are therefore very successful at "abducting" consumers into other worlds that are exciting for them, while advergames are unable to translate their interactivity into higher telepresence.
Clemens Koob
KEY FACTS
Advergames, which convey advertising messages to consumers in a playful way, can not only be used as stand-alone applications on the Internet, but also on smart TVs as an interactive extension of TV commercials.
However, the interactivity of advergames does not translate into advantages in terms of impact compared to classic TV commercials.
Classic TV commercials even lead to a slightly more positive attitude towards advertised brands (TV: Ø=5.56 on a 7-point scale, advergames stand-alone: 5.32, advergames as
spot extension: 5.43).
One reason: TV commercials create a higher telepresence (Ø=3.27 on a 7-point scale) than interactive advergames (stand-alone: 3.05, as a commercial extension: 3.14) - i.e. they make it easier to immerse oneself in another world.
