Does Advertising Exposure Level Matter? Implications for Experimental Research in Advertising

Abstract

Advertising researchers have been using test advertisements in asingle exposure experiment. Review of literature, however, reveals that recall and persuasion ability of advertisements varies across different levels of advertising exposures. This study reviews the available literature on ad-exposures and theorizes that three exposures are most suitable for testing optimum effectiveness of advertisements in lab studies. Thesame set of advertisements embedded in a television program was shownin two separate but homogenous groups in single and three ad-exposures and their responses on ad-effectiveness were obtained. The findings of the study reveal that advertisements in three exposures elicited significantly greater brand and ad-recall, more favourable advertisement and brand attitude as well as purchase intent than the same set of advertisements in a single exposure. Collectively, the result of this study provides strong support for three ad-exposures as more appropriatefor testing advertising effectiveness in experimental study setting compared to single exposure