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Management professor Keith Coulter investigated how a viewer's response to a television program influences his or her feelings about the advertisements embedded in it. |
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Ad-itudes: enhancing the message in TV advertising
Professor Keith Coulter's research
What makes you come away from some TV ads feeling good about them, while
other ads make little impression? It may have to do with the TV program in which
the ad appears.
Companies that pay thousands of dollars for TV advertising want to do
everything possible to get you, the consumer, to feel favorably about their
products. Marketing research has shown that the TV program that serves as the
context for the ad can have an effect on how a consumer feels about the ad
itself. Viewers often transfer feelings about the program to the ad embedded in
it. Companies need to know in what program context to place their ads to elicit
the most favorable response from the viewer.
Professor Keith Coulter’s research extends what is known about the impact
of TV program context on attitudes towards ads.
Similar emotional content
Coulter’s research confirms that viewers feel more favorably about
an ad when its emotional content-- positive or negative, corresponds with that
of the program in which it appears. When the program and ad have different
emotional content the viewer seems to feel less favorable toward the ad. But is
similarity of emotional content enough to guarantee a viewer’s attitude toward
an ad?
Feeling, thinking, liking
Coulter maintains that it is not enough to look at just the emotional
content of a program to understand its effect on an ad. He distinguishes between
- emotions generated by a TV program (program affect)
- thoughts generated by a TV program (program cognition)
- how much a TV program is liked (program liking)
Program liking and attitudes to ads
Coulter suggests that although the emotional content of a program may
be serious (involving sadness, fear, anger, etc.) a person can still like the
program a great deal. His research showed that a person’s thoughts about a
program—his or her cognitive response, can contribute to liking a program,
even when the emotional content is negative. And, of course, a person can
dislike a program that is upbeat.
Coulter’s research shows that it is not enough to evaluate just the
emotional content of the program when predicting attitude toward an ad. Program
liking seems to further modify a person’s attitude toward an ad when the
emotional content of the program and ad are different. For example, it appears
that a person is more likely to view an upbeat ad favorably despite its
placement in the context of a serious program if he or she likes the program.
Ads as interruptions: relief or irritation?
Ads are frequently placed within a program and can be viewed as an
unwelcome interruption if the viewer wants the program to continue. Conversely,
in other contexts, such as that of an emotionally-charged program, the viewer
might welcome the ad as a temporary relief. Whether the viewer sees the ad as
relief or as an irritation can also affect his or her attitude toward the ad.
Ad positioning
Coulter’s research shows that the position of the ad in sequence of ads (called a pod) can
affect how much the viewer’s attitude toward the program carries over to the
ad. When the emotional content of the program and ad are similar, it is most
effective to place the ad as close to the beginning of the pod as possible. The
positive transfer of feeling from program to ad seems to lessen as the number of
intervening ads increases. However, when the emotional content differs between
program and ad, the position of the ad in the pod seems to have little effect on
how viewers feel about the ad.
What can an advertiser do?
In accordance with Coulter’s findings, an advertiser can strive to make
sure the emotional content of the ad is similar to that of the program, and to
control the position of the ad in the pod. However, the advertiser cannot
control whether the viewer likes the program and welcomes the ad when it
interrupts the program.
How the research was carried out
Coulter created two ads for the same fictitious automobile. Both messages
emphasized safety features, but one ad used a serious tone while the other used
an upbeat approach to the message. Each ad was grouped with 3 filler ads of
neutral tone. Emotional content of each ad was verified using a pretest with 44
students.
Two TV programs were used as context for the ads: an upbeat situation comedy
(an episode of M*A*S*H) and a drama (an episode of Highway to Heaven with
negative emotional content).
Sixteen combinations of ad, program and ad position were created:
- positive ad with M*A*S*H; target ad in 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th place
- negative ad with Highway to Heaven; target ad in 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th place
- positive ad with Highway to Heaven; target ad in 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th place
- negative ad with M*A*S*H; target ad in 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th place
Four hundred and one university students were used as test subjects and each
of the combinations was viewed by about 25 students. After viewing a program/ad
combination, each subject completed a questionnaire to assess:
- his or her attitude toward the ad
- the degree to which he or she liked the program
- the emotional effect produced by the program
- his or her thoughts about the program
Statistical techniques were used to relate viewers’ responses to
program/ad/ad position combination.
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Additional Resources
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 Professor Keith Coulter
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