Are Those Immersive Online Ads Really Effective? Consumers’ Responses to 360° Video Ads in Different Media Platforms: An Abstract

Abstract

This study investigated the main effects of video ad type and media platform type as well as a two-way interaction effect between ad type and media platform type on consumer responses to online video ads. Several research objectives are developed. First, it examines whether 360° video provides more immersive environment (i.e., perceived autonomy, telepresence, and satisfaction) to consumers than 2D video. Second, it also examines whether desktop screens generate greater immersive environment of the contents than mobile screen. Lastly, this study identifies the differences between video types (360° vs. 2D video) within different media screen size (desktop (large) vs. mobile (small)) on consumer engagements. Some findings confirmed our expectations, while other findings did not. Regarding the main effect of video ad type, perceived autonomy, satisfaction, telepresence, and ad attitude were significantly higher in 360° video ad than in 2D video ad condition except for brand attitude and purchase intention. However, regarding the main effect of media platform type, there was no difference between computer and mobile screen platforms on dependent measures except for perceived autonomy. Unexpectedly, participants perceived higher autonomy in mobile screen condition than desktop screen condition. Across all dependent variables, this study found that 360° video advertising is more effective than 2D advertising only within the desktop screen condition, whereas, within the mobile ad condition, no differences were found. Implications were discussed.