Factors influencing the intention to watch online video advertising

R APID C OMMUNICATIONS
Factors Influencing the Intention to Watch Online Video Advertising
Joonghwa Lee,M.A.,1
and Mira Lee,Ph.D.2
Abstract
This study examines the factors influencing consumer intention to watch online video ads,by applying the
theory of reasoned action.The attitude toward watching online video ads,the subjective norm,and prior frequency of watching online video ads positively influence the intention to watch online video ads.Further,beliefs held about entertainment and information outcomes from watching online video ads and subjective norm influence attitude toward watching these ads.
Introduction
I
n response to the increase in popularity of online videos among consumers,advertisers are showing a growing in-terest in using online videos as advertising tools.1By 2013,spending on online video advertising is estimated to reach $5.8billion.2,3Unlike the forced exposure of consumers to tradi-tional TV commercials and consumers’lack of control over presentation of the message,consumers can choose to view the online video ads with video playback controls (OVAs)when they want and also control the presentation of OVAs.4Given that the viewing of OVAs requires active participation by consumers,it is important to examine the factors that influence consumer intention to watch these ads.The present study in-vestigates those factors and examines the relationships be-tween those factors.The theory of reasoned action (TRA)5,6will serve as the theoretical framework for this study.Literature Review
Determinants of intention to watch OVAs
The TRA is a most useful theoretical framework for pre-dicting a particular behavior.5,6According to the TRA,the most important determinant of a behavior is an individual’s intention to perform the behavior .6Further,the first determinant of behavioral intention is the attitude toward performing a be-havior ,which refers to ‘‘the individual’s positive or negative evaluation of performing the behavior’’.5(p6)Previous studies have shown that there is significant influence of the attitude toward a behavior on the intention to perform that behav-ior.7–9In the context of OVAs,therefore,a more favorable attitude toward watching OVAs is expected to lead to a stronger intention to watch these ads.Thus:
H1:An individual’s attitude toward watching OVAs will positively relate to the intention to watch the ads.
According to the TRA,the second determinant of behav-ioral intention is subjective norm ,which refers to ‘‘the person’s perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in ques-tion’’.6(p302)Previous studies have found that the stronger the subjective norm is,the stronger the behavioral intention will be.10,11Similarly,consumer perceived social pressure to watch OVAs will have a positive effect on consumer intention to watch those ads.Thus:
H2:Subjective norm with respect to watching OVAs will positively relate to intention to watch the ads.
Although the original TRA assumes that there are inde-pendent influences of the attitude toward a behavior and the subjective norm on intention,respectively,some researchers suggest that the interdependencies between the two main determinants of behavioral intention should be examined to improve the overall explanatory power of the model.11–13Consistent with previous studies,13subjective norm with re-spect to watching OVAs can be predicted to positively in-fluence consumer attitudes toward watching those ads.Thus:
H3:Subjective norm with respect to watching OVAs will positively relate to attitude toward watching those ads.
Although not included in the original TRA,it was found that adding a past behavior as a co-determinant of behavioral intention to the original model strengthened the explanatory power of the model.14,15Therefore,in the context of OVAs,it is expected that the more frequently consumers watched
1Missouri School of Journalism,University of Missouri,Columbia,Missouri.2
College of Business and Economics,Chung-Ang University,Seoul,Korea.
C YBERPSYCHOLOGY ,B EHAVIOR ,AN
D S OCIAL N ETWORKING Volume 14,Number 10,2011ªMary Ann Liebert,Inc.
DOI:10.1089/cyber.2009.0305
619
OVAs in the past,the greater will be their intention to watch the ads.Thus:
H4:Prior viewing of OVAs will positively relate to the intention to watch such ads.
Determinants of attitude toward a behavior
The TRA assumes that the attitude toward a behavior is determined by behavioral beliefs,which refer to a‘‘person’s beliefs that the behavior leads to certain outcomes and his evaluations of these outcomes’’.5(p8)Although the original TRA assumes a unidimensional belief,researchers have decomposed beliefs to avoid underestimating the compli-cated relationship between beliefs and determinants of intention.8,9,13,16
Given that OVAs are a new form of advertising on the Internet and motivations reflect certain expected outcomes for a particular behavior,17a review of the literature on the motivations for watching advertising as well as for using the Internet is helpful in identifying the expected outcomes from viewing OVAs.In the context of advertising viewing,O’Do-nohoe18identifies several motivations for watching adver-tising,including marketing uses,enjoyment,and social interaction.Similarly,Pollay and Mittal19found that con-sumers use advertising for product information,social role guidance,and hedonic experiences.Additionally,in the context of Internet usage,a number of researchers have identified the specific gratifications that consumers expect to gain from using the Internet,including information,20–22en-tertainment,21–23social interaction,20,22,23relaxation-escape,23 passing time,21,23interactive control,20and shopping.24 Among the expected outcomes for using advertising and for using the Internet,the outcomes most relevant to the context of watching OVAs include entertainment,information,relaxation, escape,passing time,social interaction,and control.We predict that consumers will expect these same outcomes from watching OVAs.As consumers further believe that watching OVAs will produce these outcomes and judge those outcomes to be good outcomes,it is expected that consumers will develop a more positive attitude toward viewing OVAs.Thus:
H5:Each of the behavioral beliefs for watching OVAs—(a) entertainment;(b)information;(c)relaxation;(d)escape;(e) passing time;(f)social interaction;and(g)control—will positively relate to the attitude toward viewing the ads.
Methodology
Participants
An online survey was conducted.Overall,514under-graduate students at a large Midwestern university com-pleted this survey in return for extra credit in their courses. Responses from22of the participants were removed because of many missing responses.Thus,responses from492par-ticipants were used for the subsequent analysis.Ages of the participants ranged from18to29(M=20.45,SD=1.50).Fe-male participants(67.7percent)outnumbered male partici-pants.College students were deemed to be appropriate for this study.Prior research reported that about89percent of Internet users aged18–29watched online videos on video-sharing sites in2009.25Measurement
Intention to watch OVAs and subjective norm were measured, using three items,respectively.Each item was assessed on a scale ranging from‘‘strongly disagree(1)’’to‘‘strongly agree (7).’’Attitude toward watching OVAs was measured usingfive items on a7-point scale.The items used to measure each of these variables were taken from previous studies,5,26and modified for this study.Additionally,to measure prior view-ing of OVAs,participants were asked to indicate how often they had watched OVAs in the past3months,on a scale ranging from‘‘never(1)’’to‘‘quite often(7).’’
With respect to behavioral beliefs,to gain better insight into what consumers expect from watching OVAs,three focus Table1.Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results
Unstandardized
loading
Standardized
loading R2 Behavioral belief items(S b i e i)
Factor1:Entertainment
Entertainment19.090.880.765 Entertainment28.610.830.685 Entertainment37.930.810.662 Factor2:Information
Information18.400.850.729 Information27.990.820.674 Information38.600.810.650 Information48.300.770.585 Information5 6.960.730.528 Factor3:Relaxation
Relaxation19.000.850.721 Relaxation28.630.820.670 Relaxation38.390.810.660 Relaxation48.570.810.655 Factor4:Escape
Escape18.610.990.972 Escape2 5.650.560.315 Factor5:Passing time
Passing time110.150.890.784 Passing time29.440.850.715 Passing time38.850.840.700 Passing time47.680.710.506 Factor6:Social interaction
Social interaction110.260.920.849 Social interaction29.400.870.748 Attitude items
Attitude10.960.860.740 Attitude20.910.840.711 Attitude3 1.080.830.680 Attitude4 1.130.820.675 Attitude50.880.810.654 Subjective norm items
Subjective norm1 1.410.930.864 Subjective norm2 1.370.930.866 Subjective norm3 1.190.690.474 Intention items
Intention1 1.600.960.919 Intention2 1.540.900.812 Intention3 1.330.850.726 v2(398)=1090.287,p<0.001;v2/df=2.739;RMSEA=0.060;NFI= 0.916;CFI=0.944;SRMR=0.041.
CFI,comparativefit index;NFI,normedfit index;RMSEA,root-mean-squared error of approximation;SRMR,standardized root mean of the residual.
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groups were conducted.A total of19undergraduate students (different students from the survey participants)each par-ticipated in one of three focus groups in a campus focus group room.These focus groups identified several expected outcomes from watching the OVAs:Entertainment,relaxa-tion,escape,passing time,social interaction,and control.The review of previous studies and thefindings in the focus groups,taken together,identified seven expected outcomes from watching OVAs,that is,entertainment,information, relaxation,escape,passing time,social interaction,and con-trol.The strength of each belief and the evaluation of its corresponding outcome were measured using items bor-rowed from previous studies,20,23,a after being modified for this study.5The strength of each behavioral belief was as-sessed on a scale ranging from‘‘extremely unlikely’’(1)to ‘‘extremely likely’’(7).Its corresponding evaluation was measured on a scale ranging from‘‘extremely bad’’(1)to ‘‘extremely good’’(7).To compute the sum of the behavioral beliefs,the strength of each belief was multiplied by its cor-responding evaluation,and the resulting scores were then summed for each outcome.5See Appendix A for the items used in this study.
Results
Measurement model
Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted,using AMOS 7.0,to confirm the measurement model.Two indicators of the social interaction belief and two of the entertainment belief were removed due to cross loading.All of three indicators of the control belief were also removed due to a low level of composite reliability.The overallfit for the modified mea-surement model was acceptable(Table1).27All indicators were loaded on the same constructs found in the previous posite reliabilities and average variances ex-tracted for each of the constructs indicated convergent va-lidity(Table2).12,28Further,the square root of the average variance extracted for each construct was higher than the correlations involving the construct(Table3),confirming discriminant validity.12,29
Hypotheses testing
To test the hypotheses,a path analysis was conducted, using AMOS7.0.The control belief was not included in the analysis due to the low reliability,and thus H5g was not tested.To improve the overallfit of the hypothesized model,a path from the entertainment belief to intention to watch OVAs was added to the hypothesized model,after reviewing modification indices.The overallfit for the modified model was good(see Fig.1).27
As shown in Figure1,attitude toward watching OVAs, subjective norm,and prior viewing of OVAs all had a sig-nificant positive relationship to the intention to watch OVAs. Additionally,subjective norm showed a positive impact on attitude toward watching OVAs.Hence,H1–H4were all supported.Further,entertainment and information both had a positive impact on attitude toward watching OVAs.How-ever,other behavioral beliefs all showed no significant rela-tionship to attitude.Thus,H5a and H5b were both supported, whereas H5c–f were not.Finally,there was a positive impact of entertainment on intention to watch OVAs.
Discussion and Conclusions
Ourfindings demonstrate that the TRA is a robust theory that can help researchers predict the factors that influence consumer intention to watch a subset of advertising—online video ads—which requires consumers’active participation. Specifically,this research found that the more positive the participant attitudes toward watching OVAs were and the more that participants perceived there was social pressure to watch those ads,the greater was their intention to watch these ads.Additionally,subjective norm was found to influ-ence attitudes toward watching OVAs positively.Advertisers
posite Reliabilities and Average
Variance Extracted
Constructs Composite
reliability
Average variance
extracted
Entertainment0.8780.706
Information0.8950.633
Relaxation0.8930.677
Escape0.7400.597
Passing time0.8930.680
Social interaction0.8890.799
Attitude0.9160.690
Subjective norm0.8800.709
Intention0.9330.823
Table3.Correlation Between Constructs
ENT INF REL ESC PT SI ATT SN INT
ENT0.840*
INF0.6870.796*
REL0.7020.5290.823*
ESC0.4120.2430.4800.773*
PT0.8030.6240.7800.5000.825*
SI0.5910.4100.6960.4910.6160.894*
ATT0.7110.6000.5790.3760.6170.3760.831*
SN0.3140.2940.4740.3440.2800.3440.4890.842*
INT0.6390.5660.5880.3670.5610.3670.7230.5800.907*
*The numbers in the diagonal row arc square roots of the average variance extracted.
ENT,entertainment;INF,information;REL,relaxation;ESC,escape;PT,passing time;SI,social interaction;ATT,attitude toward watching online video ads;SN,subjective norm;INT,intention to watch online video ads.
ONLINE VIDEO ADVERTISING621
may consider partnering with video sharing Web sites and social network sites,so consumers can see whether their friends have viewed OVAs.Such a feature will lead con-sumers to form favorable attitudes toward watching OVAs and subsequently motivate them to watch those ads.This study also found that the intention to watch OVAs is also influenced by the habitual 10watching of consumers.
Building upon the motivations for viewing advertising and for using the Internet,as identified in previous studies,this study identified six outcomes that consumers expect from watching OVAs:Entertainment,information,relaxation,es-cape,passing time,and social interaction.Understanding these types of outcomes gives useful insights to advertisers for how they can best satisfy consumers’specific needs for viewing OVAs.Specifically,this study found that the more that participants believed that watching OVAs would enter-tain them and the more they judged that outcome to be a good outcome,the more positive were their attitudes toward watching OVAs.Additionally,this behavioral belief about entertainment positively influenced consumer intention to watch OVAs directly.This study suggests that OVAs should be very entertaining to enhance consumer attitudes toward watching OVAs the most and increase their intention to watch these ads.Additionally,given that the belief about information outcome also positively influenced consumer attitudes toward watching OVAs,entertaining OVAs should provide useful information at the same time.
Unexpectedly,however,other behavioral beliefs for watching OVAs did not predict their attitudes toward watching the ads.These nonsignificant findings might have occurred because participants’beliefs about these outcomes were not strong enough to influence their attitudes toward watching OVAs.These findings are consistent with the findings of previous studies demonstrating that some moti-vations for using the Internet such as passing time and re-laxation did not predict Internet affinity and satisfaction.21,23
Limitations and Future Research
Although the list of expected outcomes from watching OVAs that were identified in this study is comprehensive,it is not exhaustive.Additionally,this study examined the factors identified in the TRA.Future research should identify a more comprehensive list of expected outcomes for watching OVAs and examine other factors that may further predict consumer intention to watch OVAs.Endnote
a
Several items used in these studies were not included in this study because some of these items do not reflect conse-quences in general and other items do not reflect a specific outcome that they are supposed to represent.Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.References
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Address correspondence to:
Assoc.Prof.Mira Lee
College of Business and Economics
Chung-Ang University
221HeukSeok Dong
Dongjak-Gu
Seoul
Korea
E-mail:miralee@cau.ac.kr
Appendix A:Items Used in Scales
Entertainment a
1.Watching advertiser-produced online video ads(here-
after OVA)will entertain me and it is good.
2.Watching OVA will amuse me and it is good.
3.Watching OVA will be enjoyable and it is good.
4.*Watching OVA will be exciting and it is good.
5.*Watching OVA will be thrilling and it is rmation b
1.Overall,I will learn a lot about products or services
from watching OVA and it is good.
2.Overall,watching OVA will help me obtain useful in-
formation about products or services and it is good. 3.Watching OVA will help me learn about things hap-
pening in the marketplace and it is good.
ONLINE VIDEO ADVERTISING623
4.Watching OVA will make acquiring information about
products or services inexpensive and it is good.
5.Watching OVA will give me quick and easy access to
large volumes of information about products or services and it is good.
Relaxation a
1.Watching OVA will relax me and it is good.
2.Watching OVA will give me a pleasant rest and it is
good.
3.Watching OVA will allow me to unwind and it is good.
4.Watching OVA will pep me up and it is good. Escape a
1.Watching OVA will help me get away from what I’m
doing and it is good.
2.Watching OVA will help me forget about school,work,
or other things and it is good.
Passing time a
1.Watching OVA will give me something to do when I
have nothing to do and it is good.
2.Watching OVA will give me something to do when
there is no one else to talk to or be with and it is good.
3.Watching OVA will give me something to occupy my
time and it is good.
4.Watching OVA will help me pass the time away,par-
ticularly when I am bored and it is good.
Social interaction b
1.Watching OVA will help me do something with my
friends and it is good.
2.When I visit my friends,watching OVA will help us do
something together and it is good.
3.*Often,watching OVA will help me talk to my friends
about advertisements and it is good.
4.*Watching OVA will help me enjoy telling people about
advertisements I like and it is good.
Control b*
1.*Watching OVA will be interactive and it is good.
2.*Watching OVA will allow me to decide if I want to
continue watching the advertisements or not and it is good.
3.*Watching OVA will give me the control over what
advertisements I want to watch and when I want to watch them and it is good.
Attitude toward watching online video ads
1.bad/good
2.negative/positive
3.unpleasant/pleasant
4.uninteresting/interesting
5.unattractive/attractive
Subjective norm
1.Most people whose opinion I value consider that I
should watch OVA.
2.Most people who are important to me think that I
should watch OVA.
3.It is expected of me that I watch OVA.
Intention to watch online video ads
1.I intend to watch OVA in the near future.
2.I will make an effort to watch OVA in the near future.
3.I plan to watch OVA in the near future.
a These items were borrowed from Ferguson and Perse.23
b These items were borrowed from Korgaonkar and Wolin.20
*These items were deleted.
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