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The purpose of this study is to examine the kinds of ad appeals and brand types that contribute to perceived ad–media congruence on Instagram and how such congruence influences consumers’ engagement intentions via the interaction of self-related congruence constructs. Additionally, ad intrusiveness was studied as a mediator of the relationship between ad–media congruence and consumers’ behavioral engagement intention.

An online 2 (Ad appeal: hedonic vs utilitarian) × 2 (Brand type: hedonic vs utilitarian) between-subject experiment was conducted with four versions of mock-up Instagram in-feed native ads.

Results showed that hedonic advertising appeals contributed to ad–media congruence on Instagram, which yielded a lower level of ad intrusiveness and further resulted in higher consumer behavioral engagement intentions. The brand type did not significantly influence participants’ perceptions of ad–media congruence. Moreover, the findings indicate individuals’ brand-self congruence and ad-self congruence were significant moderators in interactions with ad–media congruence in influencing consumers’ behavioral engagement intentions.

Both brand managers and social media providers can leverage this study’s findings to improve ad effectiveness and consumer experiences in their respective social media landscapes. Specifically, knowing what kind of ad is more congruent and less intrusive, as well as how to better tailor targeting strategies in digital media spaces by building higher ad self- and brand self-congruence, can help them achieve persuasive effects when complying with the Federal Trade Commission disclosure guideline.

The current study advances extant literature on native advertising by examining the core characteristic of ad–media congruence and its relation to the key metric of social media marketing success – consumer engagement intentions. The findings also extend the congruence theory by examining the interaction effect of media- and self-related congruence constructs.

Social media have become an increasingly important venue for prosocial campaigns. Competing for the public’s attention in the digital space is an ongoing challenge. This study aims to test the influence of ad-context congruence, ad position and ad type (i.e. public service advertising [PSA] vs cause-related brand [CRB] advertising) on the effectiveness of prosocial native advertising on social media.

Two experiments were conducted on different social media platforms (i.e. Twitter and Instagram) with varied prosocial issues (i.e. healthy eating and environmental sustainability).

Experiment 1 indicated that the congruence between prosocial native ads and social media feeds elicited greater ad involvement and a more favorable ad attitude, regardless of ad position. Experiment 2 revealed that such an impact was contingent on whether the prosocial native ad was a public service ad or a CRB ad. The positive influence of ad-context congruence was pronounced among public service ads but was not observed among CRB ads. Perceived ad involvement mediated the interaction effects between ad-context congruence and ad type on ad attitude and behavioral intention.

The study extends ad-context congruence research to the context of prosocial native advertising on social media. Moreover, it identifies ad type as a boundary condition for the congruence effects and reveals that increased ad involvement is the mechanism underlying the positive effect of congruent PSA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of nature of advergame and moderating roles of game-product congruence and need for cognition (NFC) on gamers’ ad-persuasion from attention and elaboration perspectives.

A 2 (nature of game: fast or slow)×2 (game-product congruence: high or low)×2 (NFC: high or low) between measures design is used. In total, 224 graduate students participated in the study. A 2×2×2 between subjects ANOVA is used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that slow-paced advergames result in high persuasion than fast-paced advergames. A 2 way-interaction indicates that for a slow-paced advergame, low game-product congruence result in high persuasion than in high game-product congruence. Furthermore, findings reveal that for a slow-paced advergame with low game-product congruence, subjects with high NFC report high persuasion than subjects with low NFC. For a fast-paced advergame with low game-product congruence, subjects with high NFC report high persuasion than subjects with low NFC.

The findings of the study are very important for advertising practitioners as selection of media that fit the advertised product with reference to the content of the media is a planning strategy that has been widely used by media planners. Thus, if high brand recall and recognition is the primary goal for advertisers, then, slow-paced advergames with low-congruent brand placements can be considered a better media strategy for in-game advertising. Furthermore, advertising managers can design advergames by taking into account NFC factor to make sure that the implementation has the strongest positive effect on consumers’ persuasion. Furthermore, advertising managers can design advergames by taking into account NFC factor to make sure that the implementation has the strongest positive effect on consumers’ persuasion.

This research contributes to the literature of non-traditional online advertising, specifically advergaming context by exploring the impact of nature of game and game-product congruence on gamers’ ad-persuasion. Also, this study is the first attempt toward understanding the moderating role of NFC on gamers’ ad-persuasion in the context of online advertising.

Retailers can use their mobile app to send location-based advertisements to consumers in the store. Goal congruence is an important driver for this type of ad's effectiveness. However, evidence of goal congruence influence on positive and negative outcomes and, in turn, on product purchase intention, is lacking. Research also leaves out the moderating effect of shopping motivation and price promotion level. The paper tests the impact of goal congruence on purchase intention through attitude to the ad and its intrusiveness, as well as the moderating effect of shopping motivation and price promotion.

Two online experiments are conducted to investigate these effects. The first experiment investigates the influence of goal congruence (i.e. low vs high) and the moderating effect of shopping motivation (i.e. utilitarian vs hedonic) on attitudes to the ad, level of perceived intrusiveness and, ultimately, purchase intention. The second experiment introduces the moderating effect of price promotion.

Goal congruence has a positive effect on attitude to the ad but no impact on intrusiveness. Goal congruence and shopping motivation further have a significant effect on attitude to the ad, as well as on purchase intention. Finally, no interaction effect of price promotion level is found.

This study tests the effect of goal congruence for in-store mobile apps on attitude towards the ads and intrusiveness and ultimately purchase intention. It further tests the moderating effect of shopping motivation (i.e. utilitarian vs hedonic) and price promotion level on these relationships.

The purpose of this study is to explore the three-way interaction effects among congruence type (proximal vs distal) of nonverbal ad messages, assessment perspective (internal vs external) of verbal ad messages and social distance (close vs faraway) on consumers’ visit intention.

After developing the four categories of restaurant advertisements and scenarios for each type of social distance, the authors used 780 observations collected from Chinese consumers via the online survey platform Sojump and WeChat. The authors conducted ANOVA to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that in proximal congruence situations, consumers who feel a close social distance between themselves and their companions report higher visit intentions when exposed to internal versus external perspective-oriented ad messages; in distal congruence situations, external perspective-oriented ad messages elicit higher intention to visit advertised restaurant when consumers feel a far social distance between themselves and their companions.

Future research can focus on the different categories of messages, such as functional and experiential messages, to find whether similar interaction effects are explored or not.

This paper suggests some practical implications for advertisers to maximize the impact of advertisements on consumers’ behavioral outcomes via combining the different characteristics of nonverbal and verbal messages effectively, especially according to their target consumers’ characteristics.

In the view of the three-way interaction effects, this paper offers a new lens on understanding how advertisements influence consumers’ behavioral outcomes, which could contribute to the advancement of advertisement theories.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the congruence effect of the product and claimed environmental issue on green advertising on consumer responses as well as the moderation effect of the perceived green reputation of the product on the congruence effect.

A two-by-two designed experiment (high/low congruence × high/low green reputation) with a covariate (ad skepticism) was conducted via online survey recruiting 179 college students.

High congruence of green issue and product category generated positive ad attitude, sponsor attitude, behavioral intention (BI), sponsor credibility and message credibility. Low green reputation positively affected ad attitude and BI. An interaction effect of congruence and green reputation on BI occurred.

This study contributes to suggest a new approach to green reputation by examining a perception of a product category in terms of green reputation. The study findings recommend marketing communication managers to keep high congruence of their product category and claimed environmental issue to maximize communication effectiveness.

This research aims to exhibit the impacts of vocal music vs instrumental music on ad-recall from the perspectives of attention and elaboration.

A 2 music-product congruence (congruence vs incongruence) × 2 music lyrics (lyrics vs no lyrics) between-subject measures design is used. 180 management students participated in the study. A 2 × 2 between-subjects ANOVA is used to test the hypotheses.

Results showed that the instrumental rendition of an ad-song prompted higher ad-recall over the vocal variant. The instrumental rendition provoked the subjects to create the verses or lyrics in their minds, prompting superior recall. Further, it was found that a music-product congruent ad resulted into higher ad-recall than an incongruent ad. Moreover, for a congruent ad condition, the instrumental version of ad-song resulted into higher ad-recall than the vocal version of ad-song. On the other hand, for an incongruent ad condition, the instrumental version as well as the vocal version of ad-song resulted into same level of ad-recall.

The study offers important implications for marketers and advertisers in terms of effective ad-designing and execution considering lyrics and music-product congruence as important factors in the context of radio advertising.

Since very little research has been done focusing on the combined effect of music lyrics and music-product congruence relationship on ad-recall from attention and elaboration perspectives, this paper scores as a pioneering study of its kind in India.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the influence of spokesperson appearance (visual congruence) and the sounds contained in a spokesperson’s name (verbal congruence) on consumer perceptions of spokesperson–product fit.

Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 ensured that verbal congruence impacted perceptions of spokesperson–product fit. Experiment 2 compared the effect of verbal congruence versus traditional match-up (visual congruence) on perceptions of spokesperson–product fit. The mediating role of spokesperson–product fit on attitude towards the advertisement and the moderating role of need for cognition (NFC) was also tested.

Findings indicate that verbal congruence influences consumer perceptions of fit, regardless of visual congruence. Perceptions of spokesperson–product fit also act as mediators between visual and verbal congruence and attitude towards the advertisement. However, verbal congruence did not influence consumer perceptions of spokesperson–product fit when the NFC was low.

This research has implications for advertisers and brand managers considering the creation of a name for a non-celebrity spokesperson or the development of a brand/spokes-character. However, this research is limited, as it examines only male names.

This research shows that perceptions of spokesperson and product fit are not only influenced by spokesperson appearance (visual congruence) but also by spokesperson name (verbal congruence). This research also identifies limitations of the applicability of phonetic symbolism theory by identifying a condition under which phonetic symbolism (verbal congruence) exerts no effects on perceptions of spokesperson–product fit.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of congruity and endorsement on consumer attitudes toward sports website advertisements (Aad), the advertising brand (Abr), and consumers’ future intentions (FI).

The current study followed a 2×3 between-subjects experimental design. Sports celebrity (or the presence or absence of a sports celebrity in a banner ad) and the level of congruity between the website and banner ad (high congruity – soccer, medium congruity – snowboard, and low congruity – computer) were the primary independent variables. Data were collected in two stages. An initial pilot study (n=40) established the reliability and validity of the scaled measures guiding this test. The second phase of data collection, the main study, was conducted over a five-day period. A random assignment of treatment conditions (i.e. exposure to one of six banner ad manipulations) was followed by a series of short surveys designed to measure the dependent variables of subjects’ cognitive ad responses (i.e. Aad, Abr, and FI).

The results indicated that participants who viewed the ad with the endorsement showed a more positive Aad than those who viewed the ad without it. The participants with a high congruity condition reported a more positive Abr and higher FI than those with low or medium congruity.

This study extends the application of congruity theory to banner advertisements, thereby aiding our understanding of consumers’ perceptions of advertising.

The purpose of this study is to enhance the knowledge of advertising effects of nature of advergame (game speed) on gamers’ brand recall and attitude. More specifically, this study investigates varying effects of game speed in advergames on young Indian gamers’ brand recall and attitudes under varied game-product congruence and persuasion knowledge conditions from attention, elaboration and persuasion perspectives.

A 2 (nature of advergame: fast or slow) × 2 (game-product congruence: high or low) × 2 (persuasion knowledge: high or low) between-subject measures design is used. Experimental data were collected from 235 Indian graduate students. ANOVAs and MANOVA with pre-planned contrasts are used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that for a slow-paced advergame, low game-product congruence result in high brand recall than high game-product congruence. For a fast-paced advergame, there is no difference in brand recall between low game-product congruence and high game-product congruence. Furthermore, findings reveal that for a slow-paced advergame with low game-product congruence, subjects with high persuasion knowledge report high brand recall and less favorable brand attitude than subjects with low persuasion knowledge. On the other hand, for a fast-paced advergame with low game-product congruence, there is no difference in brand recall and brand attitude between the subjects with high persuasion knowledge and the subjects with low persuasion knowledge.

The findings of the study are very important for advertising practitioners, as selection of media that fit the advertised product with reference to the nature and content of the media is a planning strategy that has been widely used by media planners. Thus, if advertisers want to create high brand awareness by creating high brand memory, then slow-paced advergames with low congruent brand placements can be chosen as an effective in-game media strategy for online advertising. Additionally, game developers and marketers can plan and develop more effective advergames by taking into account the persuasion knowledge factor so that the implementation would have the strongest positive effect on consumers’ brand recall and brand attitude.

This study contributes to the literature of non-traditional media advertising, specifically advergaming context by exploring the impact of nature of game and game-product congruence on gamers’ ad-persuasion. Also, this study is the first attempt to understand how the game speed and its boundary conditions influence gamers’ brand recall and attitude and in attention, elaboration and persuasion perspectives.