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WORKING PAPER

Context Effects of TV Programme-Induced Interactivity and Telepresence on Advertising Responses

Verolien Cauberghe*

Maggie Geuens†

Patrick De Pelsmacker‡

September 2010

2010/671 * Corresponding author: Ghent University, Korte Meer 9-11, BE-9000 Gent (Belgium) (E-mail: veroline.cauberghe@ugent.be) † Ghent University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Tweekerkenstraat 2, BE-9000 Gent (Belgium) (E-mail: Maggie.Geuens@ugent.be) ‡ University of Antwerp and Ghent University, Prinsstraat 13, BE-2000 Antwerpen (Belgium) (E-mail: Patrick.depelsmacker@ua.ac.be)

D/2010/7012/42

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Context Effects of TV Programme-Induced Interactivity and Telepresence on

Advertising Responses

1. Introduction

In recent years academic interest in the impact of interactivity and its related aspect,

telepresence, has significantly increased (e.g., Sicilia, Ruiz & Munuera, 2005; Suh & Lee,

2005; Li, Daughtery & Biocca, 2003; Coyle & Thorson, 2001). Reviewing the existing

literature, the following observations can be made.

First, nearly all of the previous research focuses on the Internet. However, the Internet

is not the only medium that allows interactivity. For example, game consoles, personal digital

assistants, mobile phones, and advanced television systems such as interactive digital

television (IDTV) also enable users to interact with the medium content. Although IDTV has

been launched in most Western countries and has an enormous potential in terms of reach

(TV has a higher penetration than the Internet) (Lombard & Snyder-Dutch, 2001), this

relatively new medium technology has received little academic attention (Kim & Sawhney,

2002; Kang, 2002).

Second, several of the previous studies investigate the persuasive impact of

interactivity embedded in the persuasive content itself, such as corporate or product websites

(e.g., McMillan, Hwang & Lee, 2003; Coyle & Thorson, 2001). Other interactivity studies

approach the web as a medium vehicle studying the impact of the characteristics of banners

and pop ups (e.g., Moore, Stammerjohan & Coulter, 2005; Shandasani, Stanaland & Tan,

2001; Cho, Lee & Tharp, 2001). However, researchers have not yet addressed the impact of

an interactive medium context on the responses to an embedded/subsequent persuasive

message.

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Third, prior research indicates that interactive features may induce a certain degree of

perceived interactivity which, in turn, may generate telepresence, a sense of being absorbed

by the environment created by the medium (Kim & Biocca, 1997). Telepresence is an

important antecedent or even component of flow, defined as an “optimal experience of

autotelic self-motivated enjoyment” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Individuals who are in

telepresence and/or a flow state focus their attention on the content, experience time

distortion and enhanced learning, and enjoy being ‘in the content’. This mental state leads to

more positive attitudes and behaviour towards the interactive object (e.g., Web site) (Novak,

Hoffman & Yung, 2000; Hoffman & Novak, 1996). Telepresence has been studied from

different angles and in different media contexts (e.g., traditional television, gaming, virtual

reality). However, the effect of interactive television context-induced telepresence on the

responses to an embedded commercial has not yet been explored.

To partly fill these voids, the objective of the present study is to examine the context

effects of an interactive television programme on the responses to a commercial embedded in

the programme. To this end, we not only investigate the mediating role of perceived

interactivity and telepresence, but also study context- and ad-related thoughts to get a clear

understanding of the underlying mechanism of the context effect of an interactive television

programme on the effectiveness of a subsequent commercial.

This study is relevant from both a theoretical and a managerial point of view. As to

the former, it will provide insight into the role of actual and perceived interactivity in evoking

telepresence, and into the role and process of context-evoked telepresence for advertising

effectiveness. Advertisers will increasingly be faced with interactive medium contexts in the

future, amongst which IDTV. Understanding how interactivity as a context variable

influences advertising effectiveness is therefore managerially very relevant.

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2. Theoretical framework and hypotheses

2.1. Actual and perceived interactivity

Meta-analyses of interactivity (e.g., Liu & Shrum, 2002; McMillan & Hwang,

2002) demonstrate that three basic dimensions are important to define interactivity;

active control, two way communication and time. Active control (or user control) refers

to the voluntary and instrumental action of the user to interact with another user, with

the machine or with the message. Interactivity allows the user to control which

information he/she wants to process and in what sequence. Two way communication can

be characterized as mutual discourse (Williams, Rice & Rogers, 1988) or by the

capability of providing feedback (Day, 1998; Ha & James, 1998). Time refers to the

synchronicity of the two way communication and user control, defined as “the degree to

which users’ input into a communication and the response they receive from the

communication are simultaneous” (Liu & Shrum, 2002, p.55). Other scholars have

approached interactivity from a feature perspective (e.g., Ha & James, 1998; Novak,

Hoffman & Yung, 2000). Here, interactivity is defined by the amount of actual, “bells

and whistles” interactive features embedded in the content, such as forums, emails,

registration forms, games, etc.

The foregoing views on actual interactivity are different from the perspective of

researchers who focus on the perceptions and/or the experience of consumers about

interactivity (e.g., Newhagen et al. 1995; Wu, 1999; Lee, 2004; McMillan & Hwang,

2002). Newhagen (1995) was the first to introduce the concept of perceived interactivity.

Although Chung and Zhao (2004) argue that perceived interactivity has to be based on

consumer’s actual interaction with the stimulus, Reeves and Nass (1996) note:

“Perceptions are far more influential than reality defined more objectively”. Also, Wu’s

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(2005) overview of interactive advertising studies shows that actual interactivity in

commercial content is not always directly related to advertising outcomes, but indirectly

by perceived interactivity, which is positively related with advertising effectiveness.

Based on the conceptualization of past researchers, in the current study, user control and

two way communication are used as two dimensions of actual interactivity which are

manipulated within the programme. We expect that both dimensions of actual

interactivity have a positive effect on perceived interactivity.

2.2. Perceived interactivity and telepresence

A considerable amount of empirical studies have investigated the persuasive impact of

interactivity embedded in the advertising content itself (e.g., Sicilia, Ruiz & Munera, 2005;

Chung & Zhao, 2004; McMillan & Hwang, 2002). Most of them point at the positive effect

of interactivity on advertising outcomes. The theory of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) has

been used to explain these effects. Csikszentmihalyi (1975) defines flow as an “optimal

experience of autotelic, self-motivated enjoyment”. Flow is a phenomenon that can be evoked

by interactivity, vividness, involvement, telepresence and playfulness (Neumann, 1971).

Individuals who are in a flow state focus their attention on the content, experience an increase

in arousal, time distortion and learning, which leads to more positive attitudes and behavior

towards the interactive object (e.g., website) (Novak, Hoffman & Yung, 2000; Hoffman and

Novak, 1996).

An important antecedent of flow is telepresence, a sense of “being there” (Reeves,

Lombard, & Melwani, 1992; Steuer, 1992), “the mediated perception of an environment”

(Steuer, 1992), or “the perceptual illusion of non-mediation” (Lombard and Ditton 1997).

Telepresence is the sense of being transported to the mediated environment, rather than being

in one’s own physical environment (Biocca, 1997). Kim and Biocca (1997) define

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telepresence in a television context as a “feeling of being part of the phenomenal environment

created by television and not being part of the physical environment surrounding the viewer

and the television set.”

In an interactive environment, telepresence has two main antecedents: vividness (or

media richness) and interactivity (Steuer, 1992; Hoffman & Novak, 1996; Lombard & Ditton,

1997). Kim and Biocca (1997) and Klein (2003) claim that both antecedents are necessary for

telepresence to occur. In other words, interactivity may generate feelings of telepresence, but

only for vivid stimuli. The impact of vividness to evoke telepresence has been empirically

validated in past traditional TV studies (e.g., Heeter, 1992) by manipulating vividness

variables, such as screen size (Lombrad & Ditton, 1997), image/color quality (Bracken 2002),

sound quality and motion (Lessiter et al., 2001). The digitalization of IDTV in this study

assures a high screen, image/color and sound quality, all aspects that ensure a relatively high

level of vividness (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005; Li, Daugherty & Biocca, 2003).

Given this sufficiently high level of vividness, we expect that the perceived

interactivity induced by user control and two way communication in the current research

setting will generate feelings of telepresence. Hu and Bartneck (2005) found before that an

interactive movie can induce feelings of (tele)presence. Further, Klein (2003) demonstrated in

a consumer behaviour context that high levels of user control lead to an increase in

telepresence, and Fortin and Dholakia (2005) found that perceived interactivity has a positive

influence on social presence, a dimension of telepresence. In line with the foregoing, and in

line with section 2.1, we further hypothesize that it is mainly the perception of interactivity

that will induce feelings of telepresence since both perceived interactivity and telepresence

are based on perceptions and mental representations. In other words, we expect that the

impact of actual interactivity (user control and two-way communication) on telepresence is

mediated by perceived interactivity.

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H1: Perceived interactivity mediates the effects of user control and two way

communication on telepresence.

2.3 Perceived interactivity, telepresence and persuasion

As mentioned before, the positive impact of perceived ad interactivity on advertising

outcomes found in previous studies has been explained by the theory of flow and telepresence

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). In line with this, Klein (2003) and Hopkins, Raymond, and Mitra

(2004) found that telepresence evoked in a virtual environment improves overall attitudes

towards products embedded in this environment.

We expect that context-evoked telepresence leads to more focused attention on the

television programme and more enjoyment of the programme. Further, the positive evaluation

of the programme context is expected to have a positive effect on the evaluation of the

advertisement. Consequently, we expect that the positive effect of perceived interactivity on

the attitude towards the embedded ad will be driven by interactivity-evoked telepresence.

Hence:

H2: The impact of perceived programme interactivity on the attitude toward the

embedded ad is mediated by programme-evoked telepresence.

2.4. Telepresence and biased processing

The effects of traditional media contexts (television programmes, newspaper articles)

on embedded advertisements have been studied often times (e.g., Aylesworth & MacKenzie,

1998; Coulter, 1998; De Pelsmacker, Geuens & Ankaert, 2002). A general finding is that

psychological processes evoked by a context (e.g., involvement, feelings, excitement evoked

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by a television programme) do not immediately disappear when the programme is interrupted

by a commercial break, and as a consequence have an influence on the processing of the

advertisement embedded in the programme (e.g., Moorman, Neijens & Smit, 2005; Lloyd &

Clancy, 1991).

These programme-evoked responses can influence subsequent ad evaluations in

different ways. In general, in case of extensive processing of the programme combined with a

low motivation to process the ad, few cognitive resources are used for processing the

commercial (Mundorf, Zillmand, and Drew, 1991). This may lead to low brand recall and

both negative or positive attitudes towards the ad, due to peripheral transfer or assimilation

processes, such as the Affect Transfer Mechanism (e.g., Coulter, 1998) and the Excitation

Transfer Mechanism (Zillman, 1971; Lloyd & Clancy, 1991; Cantor, Zillman & Bryant,

1975, Tavassoli, Schultz & Fitzsimons, 1995). Programme-evoked feelings or thoughts will

in these cases transfer to the evaluation of the ad.

When the individual has a lot of cognitive resources available and when (s)he is

highly motivated to process the ad , (s)he is likely to devote a lot of cognitive resources and

will process the subsequent advertisement centrally (e.g., Lloyd & Clancy, 1991). This may

lead to higher brand recall, and a more systematic evaluation of the ad. This systematic

evaluation is often assumed to be objective, but could be biased as well. The latter is the case,

for example, when programme-evoked feelings bias the viewers’ thoughts in a feeling-

congruent way and the viewers base their evaluations on these thoughts (Cfr. ELM, Petty &

Cacioppo, 1981, 1986).

Telepresence evoked by an interactive context should give individuals both the

motivation and the opportunity to process the information in the mediated environment

carefully. Therefore, a simple transfer or assimilation effect seems less likely. Several authors

(Jeandrain 2001, 2004; Coyle & Thorson, 2001) explain the enhancing effect of telepresence

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on the motivation to process information by referring to the similarity between the mediated

experience and a direct experience. Lombard and Ditton (1997) and Jeandrain (2001) state

that when individuals confound mediated experiences with direct ones, a source-monitoring

error can occur leading to a situation in which the information from the fictional source will

be processed with the same quality and depth as information form a direct experience. The

effect of telepresence on the opportunity to process the mediated information can be explained

by the fact that individuals can process a lot of information in that mediated environment,

when experiencing feelings of telepresence, because the competing environmental stimuli

fade away, increasing the opportunity to process the mediated information (Kim & Biocca,

1997).

Besides the processing motivation and opportunity, also the direction of elaboration

can be expected to be influenced by an interactive programme context. Because of the focused

attention on the enjoyable experience of the interactive context, the information-processing

activity of viewers may not be objective, but rather be positively biased (Cacioppo et al.,

1996; Petty et al., 1993; Geuens and De Pelsmacker, 2002). Consequently, due to the general

likeable experience of telepresence, we expect that the positive feelings evoked by the

telepresence, will positively bias the thoughts about the programme.

H3a: The level of context-evoked telepresence is positively correlated with the

amount of positive thoughts about the programme and negatively correlated with the amount

of negative thoughts about the programme.

Viewers also develop thoughts when processing the advertisement. These ad thoughts

are expected to have an effect on the attitude toward the advertisement. The current context

consists of an interactive quiz. Viewers know immediately whether their answer was correct

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or wrong. So, there is no need to keep on thinking about the quiz questions afterwards.

Therefore, we assume that viewers have ample resources available when the quiz is

interrupted for the advertisement and consequently will develop ad thoughts independent of

programme thoughts. However, the positivity of the programme thoughts may bias these ad

thoughts in a positive direction as well. More specifically, we expect that telepresence-

induced biased processing leads to more positive and less negative programme thoughts

(H3a) which, in turn, bias ad thoughts which next transfer to Aad. Consequently, we

hypothesize that ad thoughts will at least partially mediate the effect of programme thoughts

on Aad.

H3b: The effects of positive and negative programme thoughts on Aad are mediated

by positive and negative thoughts about the advertisement.

4. Research method

4.1. Stimuli

The programme vehicle selected for the experiment was a Belgian Quiz format that

was aired during several years in prime time. This format was chosen because it lends itself

very well to inserting interactivity. A programme episode from 1999 was selected to avoid

confounding memory effects of the programme. Following Macias (2003), actual or feature-

based interactivity was manipulated on two dimensions: user control and two way

communication (McMillan & Hwang, 2002; Liu & Shrum, 2002). We used a 3 (user control:

no, moderate, high) x 2 (two way communication: playing along with the quiz or not)

between subjects factorial design.

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User control was manipulated in the programme through the amount of clicks in the

additional transparent information overlays that appeared automatically on screen during the

programme episode. Additional information about the host, candidates, the quiz rules, and

prizes was provided. The first level of user control did not enable any interactivity. Instead,

the viewer got the information on paper. At the second level, five clicks were possible during

two moments in the programme. The highest level of user control in this study was

effectuated by building in four clicking moments representing 26 possible clicks with the

remote control. The amount of information was kept constant across conditions. Two way-

communication varied on two levels. In the playing along condition, for each question in the

quiz, the viewer had the opportunity to make a choice out of three multiple choice answers,

using his remote control. In the not playing along conditions, no additional interactivity was

made possible.

The advertisement used was selected using the following criteria. First, both the

advertisement and the brand had to be unknown in Belgium at the moment of the study to

avoid confounding effects of existing brand knowledge and/or experience. Second, the

advertisement should be in Dutch to avoid language effects. Therefore, an advertisement

from the Netherlands for a brand unknown to Belgians at the time of the study, Elmex, a

tooth paste for sensitive teeth was used. The ad was placed in the middle of the programme

episode.

4.2. Respondents and procedure

Out of an online consumer panel data base, a gross sample of 521 respondents

representative of the Belgian population in terms of age, gender and level of education was

selected. A net sample of 246 respondents participated in the study. The average age of the

respondents was 38 (range 21-56), and 61.8% were males. Forty-five percent of the

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respondents obtained a high school degree and 55% finished higher education. The

respondents were individually invited to an experimental “living room” setting, installed at

one of the Belgian commercial broadcasters. After the introduction and an explanation on

how to use the remote control, the respondents viewed a 15 minutes during episode of the

quiz show. In the middle of the episode, the programme was interrupted by the test ad.

After the viewing experience, the respondents were instructed to freely list all the

thoughts that went through their mind during the time that they were exposed to the

programme and advertisement (MacKenzie, Lutz & Belch, 1986). These thoughts were tape

recorded and coded afterwards. After the thought listing task, the respondents entered a

computer assisted questionnaire containing all the measures. Each respondent received an

incentive of 25 euro. The experiment lasted 50 minutes in total.

4.3. Measures

Perceived interactivity was measured by means of an 8-item, 5-point likert scale

combining items of McMillan & Hwang (2002) and Wu (1999) (e.g., “The programme

allows two way communication”, Cronbach α= .701). Telepresence was measured by means

of the 8-item 5-point likert scale of Kim & Biocca (1997) (e.g., “While watching the

programme, I felt a new world was created”, Cronbach α =.820). The 4-item 5-point

semantic differential scale of Holbrook and Batra (1987) was used to measure the attitude

toward the advertisement (e.g., “I dislike the ad – I like the ad”, Cronbach α=.892).

The thoughts of the respondents were first transcribed and divided in “thought units”

(e.g., Eveland & Dunwoody, 2000). All thoughts were coded according to three dimensions

(Mick, 1992; Aylesworth & MacKenzie, 1998); the target of the thoughts (the programme vs.

the advertisement), the valence of the thought (negative, neutral, positive) and the depth of

the thought (recall vs. thought). Only deep thoughts were incorporated in the analysis; mere

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repetition of the exposed content (recall) was excluded (Ayelsworth & MacKenzie, 1998;

Greenwald, 1986). Two independent judges coded all thoughts. Judges agreed on 84% of the

coded thoughts. Disagreement was solved by a third judge.

5. Results

5.1. The mediating role of perceived interactivity on the relation between actual

interactivity and telepresence

The mediation analysis was carried out using the Baron and Kenny (1986) logic

(Table 1). In the first step, the effects of the independent variables, user control and two way

communication on the dependent variable, telepresence, are estimated. The results of the

ANOVA show a significant main effect of two way communication (F(1, 245)= 36.041,

p<.001) and a marginally significant interaction effect of user control and two way

communication on telepresence (F(1, 245)= 2.493, p=.085).

<<Table 1 about here>>

Playing along (M=2.855) results in a significantly higher level of telepresence than

not playing along (M=2.274). The interaction effect shows that when the respondents could

not play along, user control did not have an enhancing impact on telepresence (F(1, 123)=

.387, p=.680). When the respondents could play along, compared to no user control, a

moderate or high level of user control increased the level of telepresence (F(1, 123)= 3.025,

p=.052; Mno user control=2.717, Mmoderate user control=2.766, Mhigh user control=3.083).

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In the second step of the procedure, the effect of the independent variables on the

mediating variable, perceived interactivity, is investigated. The ANOVA results show a

positive main effect of user control (F(1, 245)= 22.325 p<.001) and two way communication

(F(1, 245)= 300.061, p<.001) on perceived interactivity. In addition, the interaction effect of

both dimensions of actual interactivity on perceived interactivity is significant (F(1, 245)=

3.245, p=.041). Playing along (M=3.852) leads to a significantly higher level of perceived

interactivity than not playing along (M=2.422). The significant effect of user control on

perceived interactivity is driven by the difference between the ‘no user control’ condition one

the one hand, and the two ‘user control’ conditions (moderate and high level) on the other.

The ‘no clicks’ condition leads to the lowest level of perceived interactivity (M=2.772), while

the level of perceived interactivity of the moderate (M=3.291) and high (M=3.360) click

condition do not significantly differ. The interaction effect shows that, when viewers cannot

play along, the fact that there is user control (be it moderate or high) significantly increases

perceived interactivity (F (1, 121)=17.139, p<.001; Mno user control=1.868, Mmoderate user

control=2.659, Mhigh user control=2.707). When viewers can play along, the level of user control is

less important for perceived interactivity, although still positive (F (1, 121)=5.616, p=.005;

Mno user control=3.611, Mmoderate user control=3.939, Mhigh user control=4.012). The results show that

the impact of user control on perceived interactivity is smaller when the respondents can play

along with the game.

In the third step of the Baron and Kenny procedure, the effect of the mediating and the

independent variables on the dependent variable is simultaneously estimated. Therefore,

perceived interactivity was added as a covariate in the step 1 ANOVA. The results

demonstrate that perceived interactivity has a strong significant positive effect on

telepresence (F(1, 245)= 42.937, p<.001). The main effect of two way communication

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becomes insignificant (F(1, 245)= .300, p=.585). Also the main effect of user control remains

insignificant (F(1, 245)= 1.458, p=.235). The interaction effect of user control and two way

communication on telepresence is significant (F(1, 245)= 4.547, p=.012). This effect is

driven by the fact that a lot of user control combined with two-way communication leads to a

higher telepresence than less or no user control. When viewers cannot play along, the level of

user control does not matter and telepresence is low. However, looking at the partial eta

squares, the impact of perceived interactivity (.152) is much stronger than that of the

interaction effect (.037).

Summing up, H1 is supported. Actual interactivity, especially two-way

communication has an impact on perceived interactivity, which in turn mediates the effect of

actual interactive features on evoked telepresence.

5.2. The mediating effect of telepresence on the relation between perceived

interactivity and the attitude toward the advertisement

The second hypothesis is tested by means of a set of linear regression analyses, again

based on the Baron and Kenny (1986) procedure (Table 2). The results of step 1 show a

positive significant effect of the independent variable, perceived interactivity, on the

dependent variable, attitude toward the advertisement (β=.138, p=.031). The second step of

the procedure shows a positive significant impact of perceived interactivity (the independent

variable) on telepresence (the mediator) (β=.495, p<.001). When in the third step of the

Baron and Kenny procedure, the impact of the independent and mediating variable on the

dependent variable are assessed simultaneously, the results show that the impact of perceived

interactivity on the attitude towards the ad becomes insignificant (β=.002, p=.979) while the

effect of telepresence remains significant (β=.283, p<.001). Consequently, the results show

that the effect of perceived context interactivity on the attitude toward the embedded

commercial is fully mediated by telepresence. These results support H2.

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<<Table 2 about here>>

5.3. Telepresence and programme thoughts and the mediating role of ad thoughts on

the relationship between programme thoughts on the attitude toward the advertisement

The correlation between telepresence and the number of positive thoughts evoked by

the programme is positive and significant (Pearson’s Rho= .396, p <.001). The correlation

between telepresence and the number of negative thoughts about the programme is

significantly negative (Pearson’s Rho= -.262, p <.001). This confirms H3a.

To investigate the effect of programme and ad thoughts on Aad, two mediation

analyses were carried out in which the mediating role of ad thoughts was studied. In the first

analysis (Table 3), the effect of positive programme thoughts (independent) on Aad

(dependent) is marginally significant (β=.115, p=.076). The effect of positive programme

thoughts on positive ad thoughts (mediator) is significant (β=.341, p<.001). The results in step

3 show that the effect of positive ad thoughts on Aad is significant (β=.337, p<.001) while the

effect of positive programme thoughts on Aad becomes insignificant (β<.001, p=.998). The

effect of positive programme thoughts on Aad is therefore fully mediated by positive ad

thoughts.

The second analysis is similar, but for negative thoughts (Table 4). The effect of

negative programme thoughts on Aad is significantly negative (β=-.213, p<.001). The effect

of negative programme thoughts on negative ad thoughts is significantly positive (β=.256,

p<.001). The effect of negative ad thoughts on Aad is significantly negative (β=.430, p<.001),

while the effect of negative programme thoughts on Aad decreases substantially to a

marginally significant β=.159 (p=.089). The effect of negative programme thoughts on Aad is

therefore mediated by negative ad thoughts

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The combined results with respect to H3a and H3b show that higher telepresence

evokes significantly more positive and significantly less negative programme thoughts, which

are then transferred to a more positive Aad through more positive and less negative ad

thoughts.

<<tables 3 and 4 here>>

6. Conclusion, implications and further research suggestions

The interactivity embedded in a television programme has a positive influence on the

responses to a commercial embedded in the programme. However, this effect of ‘bells and

whistles’ interactivity is mediated by perceived interactivity and telepresence. Actual

interactivity only has an impact on feelings of telepresence if these interactive features are

also perceived as adding to interactivity. In this study, mainly two-way communication drives

this perception of interactivity. The amount of user control is only marginally important.

Perceived interactivity as such does not directly influence the attitude toward the ad. Its effect

is fully mediated by the evoked telepresence. Telepresence has a positive effect on the

embedded ad, because telepresence leads to biased processing of the programme and ad

content. More positive and less negative ad thoughts result in a more positive Aad. In

addition, Aad is strongly positively correlated with the attitude toward the brand (Pearson’s

Rho= .555, p <.001).

The results confirm and extend previous findings. First of all, perceived interactivity

proved to be a more relevant factor in predicting responses to the context and the embedded

ad than actual interactivity. This confirms the findings of Reeves and Nass (1996) and Wu

(2005). Perceived interactivity of the programme leads to an experience of telepresence, a

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sense of “being there” (in the quiz show). This confirms the potential of interactivity on

television among many others variables (e.g., screen size, image and sound quality; Lombard

& Ditton, 1997; Bracken, 2002) to evoke telepresence and to ‘transport’ people into the

programme.

This telepresence phenomenon is essential for the interactivity to be carried over to

the embedded commercial. Telepresence fully mediates the effect of perceived interactivity

on the attitude toward the advertisement. This positive carry-over effect can be explained in

several ways. Of course, responses to programmes have been shown to carry over to

embedded ads before (e.g. de Pelsmacker, Geuens & Ankaert, 2002), but the present study

identifies a new context response that apparently carries over significantly to the ad. An

explanation that is supported by our thoughts analysis is that telepresence biases thoughts

about the programme, i.e. enhances positive thoughts and suppresses negative thoughts about

the programme. The positivity of these programme thoughts next bias ad thoughts in a

positive way which carry over to the attitude towards the ad. This explanation is also

consistent with Fazio, Zanna and Cooper (1978) who found that attitudes formed through

direct experiences, and thus telepresence (a sense of direct experience), are highly accessible

and therefore likely to be carried over. An additional explanation could be the

conceptualization of telepresence. Telepresence is at the same time related to involvement

(Schubert, Friedman & Regenbrecht, 2001; Lessiter et al., 2001), and to the intrinsic feeling

of enjoyment (cfr. flow). The combination of these two components of telepresence have

been shown to have strong carry-over effects.

From a conceptual point of view, the results shed light on the mechanisms at work in

people exposed to interactive contexts in which ads are embedded. The effect of actual versus

perceived interactivity on context responses is now better understood. The relevance of

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telepresence as a context variable in interactive environments, is established, and its potential

to affect ad responses is shown.

The results also have implications for media planners and advertising professionals.

Based on the results of the present study, placing a commercial in an interactive programme

improves ad evaluation. The actual interactivity (amount of possible clicks etc.) is less

important than the perceptions of the level of interactivity. In our study, user control only

plays a minor role, but two-way communication is all the more important. Advertising

professionals should pay attention to the interactive features of the context in which their ads

are embedded, and make sure that the combination of these features leads to high levels of

perceived interactivity. The vividness of the television content combined with high levels of

perceived interactivity transports people into a mediated reality. The viewer becomes

absorbed by the television content. Developing this feeling of being mediated is crucial for

achieving positive carry-over effects to embedded commercials. Advertising should see to it

that the interactive context in which they place their ads leads to high levels of telepresence.

Only then will interactivity generate positive effects.

The limitations of this study provide directions for future research. The impact of

context interactivity and telepresence was only tested for one commercial. Therefore, the

specific type of advertising strategy and the product type could have influenced the results.

The advertisement was for tooth paste, a low involvement product. Product category

involvement has been found to moderate the experience and the effects of telepresence

(Hopkins, Raymond & Mitra, 2004). Further research should investigate the impact of

context interactivity and telepresence for different products with different levels of

involvement. Also the creative strategy should be manipulated in further research.

A second limitation is that the advertisement was not placed in a commercial pod, but

instead appeared stand-alone in the commercial break. In the present study, this was done to

19

try to measure ad effects as clean as possible and to avoid any possible context and/or

interference effect between the advertisements in the commercial pod itself. In practice,

however, this situation is exceptional (but not totally unrealistic). This might have induced an

artificial viewing environment. Further research should investigate and explore the impact of

context interactivity relatively to the impact of within the commercial pod context effects.

Another limitation is the nature of the interactive program in the present study, which

is likely to evoke feelings of telepresence due to the playfullness of the quiz itself (Holbrook

et al., 1984; Reid, 2004; Mathwick & Rigdon, 2004). Therefore, investigating the context

effects of program interactivity on advertising effectiveness in other types of television

formats is called for. The interactive television programme did not allow to interact with

other individuals, making it impossible to investigate the effect of other types of presence

besides telepresence, such as social presence (having a sense of another personality) and co-

presence (the feeling of being there together) (Ijselsteijn, Freeman & de Ridder, 2001). A

real-life setting could enhance the effects of telepresence developed by a live versus a

recorded or constructed TV experience (Lombard and Ditton, 1997).

Finally, more research is needed into other factors that may have an impact on

perceived interactivity and evoked telepresence, in various interactive settings.

20

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Table 1: Mediating effect of perceived interactivity on the effect of actual interactivity on telepresence (ANOVA)

Baron

&

Kenny

Steps

Relation F(1, 245) Partial

Eta²

p

Step 1

User control

Two way communication

User control x two way communication

-> telepresence

.710

36.041

2.493

.006

.131

.020

.493

<.001

.085

Step 2

User control

Two way communication

User control x two way communication

-> perceived interactivity

22.325

300.161

3.245

.157

.556

.026

<.001

<.001

.041

Step 3

User control

Two way communication

User control x two way communication

Perceived interactivity (covariate)

-> telepresence

1.458

.300

4.547

42.937

.012

.001

.037

.152

.235

.585

.012

<.001

29

Table 2: Mediating effect of telepresence on the effect of perceived interactivity on attitude toward the advertisement (regression analysis)

Baron &

Kenny Steps

Relationship R² β p

Step 1 Perceived interactivity -> Attitude toward the ad .138 .138 .031

Step 2 Perceived interactivity -> Telepresence .495 .495 <.001

Step 3

Perceived interactivity

And Telepresence -> Attitude toward the ad

.282

.002

.283

.979

<.001

30

Table 3: Mediating effect of positive ad thoughts on the effect of positive programme thoughts on the attitude toward the advertisement (regression analysis)

Baron &

Kenny Steps

Relationship R² β p

Step 1 Positive programme thoughts -> Attitude toward

the ad

.013 .115 .076

Step 2 Positive programme thoughts -> Positive ad

thoughts

.117 .341 <.001

Step 3 Positive programme thoughts

Positive ad thoughts

-> Attitude toward the ad

.114

.000

.337

.998

<.001

31

Table 4: Mediating effect of negative ad thoughts on the effect of negative programme thoughts on the attitude toward the advertisement (regression analysis)

Baron &

Kenny Steps

Relationship R² β p

Step 1 Negative programme thoughts -> Attitude toward

the ad

.046 -.213 .001

Step 2 Negative programme thoughts -> Negative ad

thoughts

.065 .256 <.001

Step 3 Negative programme thoughts

Negative ad thoughts

-> Attitude toward the ad

.218 -.104

-.430

.084

<.001