Understanding Online Intrusive Advertising: A Perspective of Attentional Inertia and Cognitive Engagement

注意慣性與認知投入之網路侵擾式廣告研究

侵擾式廣告可吸引網路使用者的注意力，但是當使用者感受到侵擾則會覺得煩躁並迴避廣告。因此，如何提升廣告的效果並降低廣告侵擾性是一項重要的議題。本篇研究基於注意慣性理論，探討影響注意慣性的因素以及這些因素對使用者網站內容的認知投入和廣告侵擾性的影響。我們認為當使用者對網站內容產生注意慣性則會高度投入網站內容，使得廣告侵擾性增加。我們以實驗室實驗法驗證研究模型並發現文字內容較圖像內容、前後連貫的內容較前後不連貫的內容更易產生認知投入，進而讓使用者感知較高的廣告侵擾性。本研究的發現可幫助廣告主與廣告服務供應商更有效地投遞網路廣告。

Intrusive advertising has been proposed as one solution to the problem of banner blindness. However, when viewers perceive intrusiveness, they feel irritated and tend to avoid the ads. How to improve ad effectiveness while reducing ad intrusiveness is an important issue. Using attentional inertia theory as a basis, this study investigates the effects of browsing path phases, episode relatedness, and information type on a viewer’s cognitive engagement with website content. This study also examines the relationship between cognitive engagement and ad intrusiveness. As a website viewer generates attentional inertia and becomes highly engaged with the content of a webpage, cognitive processing is intensified and an ad is perceived high intrusiveness. A laboratory experiment is conducted to examine the proposed research model. We find that when the viewer is highly engaged in the content, the interruption of the viewer’s browsing task increases the viewer’s perception of the intrusiveness of the ad. The research findings can help advertisers and ad service providers deliver effective intrusive ads while minimizing the level of ad intrusiveness.