Embedded Files
Background
When watching the ad preceding a youtube video, do you ever move the mouse to the bottom right corner to wait for the skip-ad button, and click on it as soon as it shows up?
It's frustrating when consumers don't pay attention to the ad contents that advertisers have put lots of money and effort into developing and just focus on the bottom right corner of their screen—but at least we know where they are attending!
Would it be effective for advertisers to show something in the bottom right corner (such as a brand logo or signature product image) at the skip-button location? What would happen if we redesigned the skip button to include visual brand elements?
Research Question
Will re-designing the skip-ad button to incorporate the brand/product information elicit any changes in brand attitude and purchase intention?
Our Strategy
Step 1: Re-design the Skip-Ad button to include advertised product related visual element
Step 2: Have different groups of participants see 1) re-designed skip-ad button, 2) original skip-ad button, and 3) the whole ad without skipping option. See how their brand attitude and purchase intention differ.
Operationalization
Re-designing the Skip-Ad button
Tailored the skip button in a way that incorporates brand/product information: changed it to a cat-paw shape with 5 seconds count-down.
What outcomes do we care about？
Conducted survey testing ad viewer's
implicit and explicit memory of the ad content, by showing them series of images containing the real and fake screenshots of the ad and asking them to recognize the real screenshots
attitude towards the brand
purchase intention of the product
Pretest
Pretest
5 versions of skip-ad button design were pretested on 8 participants using surveys and interviews to see how natural the settings and how noticeable the skip-buttons were.
Sample
Sample
77 Participants took part in the experiment.
Experimentation
Experimentation
Condition 1:
People saw a cat paw shape counting down from 5 seconds, leading to a skip-the-ad sign.
Condition 2:
People saw the original count-down Skip-Ad button that is usually seen on YouTube.
Condition 3:
The control condition - no skipping option was provided.
Analysis
Comparing implicit and explicit memory, attitude and purchase intention among participants seeing the 3 types of Skip-Ad buttons.
Ran ANOVA on memory, attitude and purchase intention scores among the 3 groups of participants who saw different versions of Skip-Ad button.
Results
Slightly better (statistically non-significant) memory for people who had no choice but to watch the whole ad compared to those who skipped the ad. Even having a cute a cat-paw shape skip-button didn't remedy for that.
Worst attitude when people saw the original skip-button.
Highest purchase intention for people who saw the cat-paw shape skip-button.
Slightly worse memory observed in both skip-button groups (statistically non-significant) compared to the control condition.
Worst attitude towards the brand in the original skip-button group (statistically significant).
Highest purchase intention was observed in the cat-paw skip-button group (statistically significant).
Implications
It’s probably best for advertisers to not allow the skip-button at all: consumers have better memory and better attitudes without it. However, advertisers might be able to ameliorate the negative effect of the skip button by creatively designing the button in a cute and semantically meaningful way. Our research shows this improves consumer attitudes and purchasing intentions.
Delivery
This study was presented in a seminar talk at the Advertising Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse