278 CHAPTER 8 MEDIA PLANNINGStudies on the impact of media-style–ad-style congruency are scarce and reveal con-
tradictory conclusions. Some researchers claim that the better the fit between the ad and the
media context, the more motivated consumers will be to process the ad and the easier this
job will be for them. A computer ad inserted in a computer magazine, for instance, increases
the likelihood that the reader wants to pay attention and is willing to process the ad, since
the computer magazine makes the need for a computer or information on computers more
salient and this evoked need stimulates the motivation to pay attention to stimuli that are
relevant to the need. Similarly, people reading a magazine that evokes transformational
needs, such as a beauty magazine, are more likely to look for transformational cues in ads,
such as the attractiveness of the hair after using a certain shampoo, while reading a health
magazine is more likely to make people pay attention to cues such as the revitalisation of
damaged hair.^68 Also, contexts evoking the same feeling as the ad appear to enhance ad
responses as compared with contexts evoking a different feeling.^69 According to the priming
principle, an ad can be interpreted on the basis of schemas (knowledge structures) activated
or primed by the context.^70 Congruency between the ad and the context means that the ad
can be more easily interpreted since the relevant knowledge structures are already activated.
However, some studies found no effects or even a positive impact associated with placing an
ad in a style that is incongruent with the media context. This relation between ad–context
congruency and ad effectiveness can be explained as follows: the novelty of the ad or thethreat of immunity to antibiotics over time. In the interactive part of the ad, participants could select five infor-
mation buttons related to the advertising message. The interactive part of the ad was manipulated by adding pictures
(non-verbal) to the textual information (verbal). The textual information was the same in both conditions. The
participants received an e-mail with a web link to the stimuli, followed by a questionnaire. The results showed that,
in the case of an interactive ad containing text and pictures, a simultaneous audio-visual programme context leads
to less attention and clicking than an auditory context. In other words, the audio-visual programme context interferes
more with the verbal/pictorial interactive ad than the auditory programme context, implying a lower self-reported
level of attention to the information and fewer clicks than in the auditory programme context.
In the second experiment (133 participants), the same 30-second ad from Experiment 1, with an integrated call
to action followed by an interactive information part with clickable information, was used. The layout of the inter-
active part was a combination of text and pictures and was the same in all experimental conditions. A thematically
incongruent programme context appeared in the same sequence as in Experiment 1 (a sequence from the movie
Taxi in which there was a conversation between a man and a woman sitting in a taxi). The message of the ad
(‘the correct use of antibiotics’) was thematically incongruent with the taxi sequence. The thematically congruent
programme context was a sequence featuring patients in a hospital who received medication. The use of medicines
to counter a virus and the medical context of the programme sequence were thematically congruent with the ad
message about the use of antibiotics. The audio-visual programme context appeared simultaneously with the inter-
active information on screen, by means of picture-in-picture technology. Also the participants’ search goals were
manipulated by using different calls to action. To evoke a goal-directed motivation to search in the information,
a promotional incentive was embedded in the call to action (‘Click here and have a chance to win a bicycle’).
Consequently, participants had a definite end goal: that is, correctly answering the questions in the interactive part
for a chance to win a bicycle. Experiential motivation was induced by inviting participants to view more information
(‘Click here for more information’). The study was administered in the same way as in Experiment 1. The results
showed that, in the case of goal-directed browsing, a congruent programme context leads to more attention and
clicking than an incongruent context, while there were no differences in attention and clicking when people were
experientially motivated. Goal-directed people are less likely to be distracted from their primary task when the
programme context is congruent than when it is incongruent. When the context is incongruent with the interactive
ad, more attention and elaboration are necessary to encode and dissolve the incongruent context. When the user
has an experiential goal to browse through information in the interactive ad, he or she is not focused on any specific
information or stimulus. Thus, the user’s attention will be drawn to the audio-visual programme regardless of the
(in)congruency between the interactive information and the audio-visual programme.^67M08_PELS3221_05_SE_C08.indd 278 6/6/13 9:23 AM