The impact of interactivity on advertising effectiveness in the New Media
Abstract
The research objectives of this dissertation are to empirically differentiate the concept of Interactivity from the related concept of Vividness and to verify the effects of various levels of Interactivity on attitudes and behavioral intentions in marketing communications within the New Media. As a conceptual foundation, the study introduces the Multi-Step model of the impact of interactivity on advertising effectiveness. The model is termed Multi-Step because of the hierarchy of direct and indirect effects. The model was tested by means of an Interactivity by Vividness (3x3) between-subjects factorial design. 360 responses were collected through an online Web interface. Data was analyzed by means of individual ANCOVA with trend analyses and by a MANCOVA procedure. The Multi-Step model was also tested with path analysis to verify the significance of the inter-relationships between constructs in a simultaneous equations procedure. Results indicate moderate effects of Interactivity and Vividness on Social Presence and indirectly, Involvement which in turn have strong effects on advertising effectiveness measures. Findings suggest that the effects of Interactivity reach a "plateau" at medium and high levels, indicating a diminishing returns effect. Conversely, the impact of Vividness appears to be linear with a steady increase across low, medium and high levels. No interaction effect was found between the two treatments. Internet Expertise of the participant had an inverse relationship with the dependent measures and was found to be a significant covariate in the analysis. The study also provides some insights about using the Web as a gateway for experimental research and data collection. ^
Subject Area
Business Administration, Marketing|Mass Communications
Recommended Citation
David R Fortin,
"The impact of interactivity on advertising effectiveness in the New Media"
(1997).
Dissertations and Master's Theses (Campus Access).
Paper AAI9831104.
http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dissertations/AAI9831104