Varying the Image Quality of Multiple Television Commercials and the Impact on Evaluation and Recall: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The media plays an important role in the delivery of marketing communications messages to consumers, and changes to the mode of transmission and formatting options permitted by different media influence the way messages are created and received. Recently, the transition to digital technology has allowed the presentation of television advertisements with large differences in image quality. As the reception of promotional messages is directly dependent on the context they are received in, the ability to directly vary the image quality of successive commercials should influence the way these messages are received. While previous research has looked at varying the image quality of a commercial, there has been no research addressing how varying the image quality of successive commercials influences reception. Such an understanding has important implications for advertising theory and practice. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to test whether differences in resolution of consecutive television advertisements influences consumer response. An experimental design was then developed based around comparing two levels of resolution for a commercial and incorporating the order of presentation, to result in eight treatment types for any given pair of commercials. Twelve different pairs were then presented to participants on computer monitors based on a selection of commercials obtained from the Internet. A series of evaluative and recall questions were developed and measured through a written questionnaire completed between each pair of commercials viewed, with participants individually controlling the amount of time required to complete the questions. The data was then analysed using a procedure capable of appropriately incorporating any correlation between the repeated measures. The results show increasing the resolution of a commercial relative to a prior commercial positively influences a person’s evaluation of the image and overall commercial. Furthermore decreasing the resolution of a commercial negatively influences such evaluation. No conclusive evidence was found to suggest increasing or decreasing resolution significantly influences the amount of visual information recalled from a commercial.