VU UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM
FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Sequencing Publicity
and Advertising Online
A study on the Most Persuasive Way of
Combining Publicity and Advertising in an Online
Environment
Date: June 30, 2009
Author: Jaap van Nes
Student nr: 1471090
Research area: Online Marketing
Supervisor: Dr. F. Adiguzel
, Sequencing Publicity and Advertising Online
PREFACE
When I first walked into the VU University almost five years ago, I did not have a single clue
what to expect. If somebody would have told me that in a couple of years I would write 20.000
words in a thesis, I would have probably laughed at them. And here I am, the 20.000 words are
written and the end of an enjoyable journey is near.
This thesis is written as the final piece of the Master of Marketing at the VU University
Amsterdam. The thesis is inspired by an article by Coleman and Loda (2005) that I accidentally
found when looking for thesis topics last year, but inspired me from the moment I read it. The
subject of the thesis thus became sequencing advertising and publicity online, a new and exciting
subject in marketing communication.
While writing the thesis, I had help from so many people. There are a couple of people I would
like to mention here for supporting me. First and foremost I want to thank dr. Adiguzel for her
enthusiasm, flexibility and helping spirit. Next, I couldn‟t have made this thesis possible with the
support of the team at Gamer.nl, with a special thanks to Kris Boon and Joost Wouterse for
helping me out with the experiment. Also my friends who provided a healthy dose of
entertainment throughout the period played a role in the process. A special thanks goes out to
Juliëtte for listening to my endless and probably not always so interesting stories about this thesis
and Yoram, who gave a lot of useful feedback and helped me out in every way.
Last I would like to thank dr. Barbara Coleman and dr. Marsha Loda from Augusta State
University (Augusta, Georgia) for giving me some tips while writing the discussion. It is great to
know that the people behind the books and articles we students read are actually interested in
what we do and are willing to help motivated students.
Amsterdam, June 30th 2009
Jaap van Nes
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, Sequencing Publicity and Advertising Online
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
Advertising and publicity have long been compared on their effectiveness instead of being
perceived as two complementing media forms (Schumann, Arti & Rivera, 2001; Wang, 2006).
Recent studies have showed though that not only the use of the medium, but also the sequence in
which the media are used, influences the persuasiveness of the communicated message (Coleman
and Loda, 2005). In a print environment it was found that the sequence publicity-then-
advertising persuades readers the most. This research looks at sequencing advertising and
publicity in an online environment, thereby analyzing whether the results found by Coleman and
Loda (2005) are also applicable in an online environment. Next, this research also looks at three
different online advertising formats to determine which of the formats is most persuasive in
combination with publicity.
In the literature review the differences between advertising and publicity are identified.
Advertising is a message which is paid for by a specific sponsor, while publicity is free and
cannot be controlled by a sponsor (Kotler, 1993). The two media also differ on credibility:
publicity is thought to be more credible than advertising (Balasubramanian, 1994). Using both
advertising and publicity creates a synergistic effect (Wang, 2006), which means that the
linkages that are formed in the mind of the receiver are connected to create impact beyond the
power of a message on its own (Moriarty, 1996). Within this marketing synergy the question
arises if it makes any difference which media is used first and if so, what is the best way to
sequence.
To investigate this relationship in the online environment, an experiment is conducted. In
total 247 respondents participated in an experiment in which one first had to read an article and
was then confronted with an advertisement, or vice versa. After reading the publicity and seeing
the advertisement, a questionnaire was completed in which the respondents were measured on
their Message Acceptance (measured as Perceived Credibility and Message Strength) and
Message Response (Attitude towards the Brand and Purchase Intention).
The results of the research indicate that there is no single best way to use publicity and
advertising online. Nor is there a best sequence, nor is there a most persuading advertising
format. Only two of the results in this research show significant results and both are contrasting
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, Sequencing Publicity and Advertising Online
the best sequence found in the print environment (publicity-then-advertising). First, respondents
confronted with a banner first scored higher on Message Response than respondents who saw the
banner after the publicity and second, respondents who saw a background advertisement first
scored higher on the Message Acceptance variable Message Strength than the ones who saw the
background advertisement after the publicity. Other results include the finding that if the
sequence publicity-then-advertising is used, interstitials score higher on attitude towards the
brand than banners and that combined use of advertising and publicity outperforms the use of
only advertising.
The main academic implications of this research are that, contrast to sequencing in a print
environment, there is evidence to suggest that publicity-then-advertising is not the most
persuasive sequence online, not all online advertising formats behave the same (background
advertising behaves differently), advertising has a possible negative effect on brand attitude,
publicity is generally more persuading than advertising and the combined use of publicity and
advertising outperforms the sole use of advertising.
From a managerial perspective, this research implies that managers cannot count on one
single solution to determine which sequence to use and banners still prove to be an effective
advertising format. Also managers should not only look at advertising recall to measure the
effictivity of an advertisement, but also take the attitude towards the brand into account, because
advertisements might have a negative effect on the latter construct.
The biggest limitation of this research is the sample size, which was too small and led to
data not normally distributed. It also limits the significant findings, which were rare while the
data showed interesting differences between treatments. Other limitations include the subject,
games can be downloaded illegally and this influenced the Purchase Intention scale, and the fact
that it was not checked whether respondents really read the publicity.
Future research should replicate this study in another industry, with tangible product that
cannot be possessed illegally and with more respondents per treatment. Next, other advertising
formats should be linked with sequencing, since this research showed that there is no uniform
best sequence and that each advertising format behaves differently. Last, an in-depth look at
different advertising formats is suggested, because some of the results could not be explained by
current literature.
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, Sequencing Publicity and Advertising Online
Table of Contents
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... 2
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6
1.2 Research Goal ....................................................................................................................... 7
1.3 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 7
1.4 Scientific and Managerial Contribution ................................................................................ 8
1.5 Delimitation........................................................................................................................... 9
1.6 Outline ................................................................................................................................... 9
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................ 10
2.1 Advertising and Publicity .................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Online Publicity................................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Online Advertising .............................................................................................................. 15
2.4 Research Model and Hypotheses ........................................................................................ 19
3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 23
3.1 Research design ................................................................................................................... 23
3.2 Data collection..................................................................................................................... 23
3.3 Sample ................................................................................................................................. 24
3.4 Experiment Development .................................................................................................... 25
3.5 Questionnaire Development ................................................................................................ 26
3.6 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................... 28
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, Sequencing Publicity and Advertising Online
4. RESULTS ................................................................................................................................. 31
4.1 Experiment and Sample structure ....................................................................................... 31
4.2 Pre-test Analysis .................................................................................................................. 31
4.3 Manipulation check ............................................................................................................. 35
4.4 Hypothesis testing ............................................................................................................... 36
4.5 Additional analysis .............................................................................................................. 42
4.6 Research Model with Results .............................................................................................. 48
5. CONCLUSIONS & DISCUSSION .......................................................................................... 49
5.1 Summary of the Research ................................................................................................... 49
5.2 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 50
5.3 Implications ......................................................................................................................... 56
5.4 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research ................................................... 58
6. REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 60
7. APPENDIXES .......................................................................................................................... 64
Appendix A: Questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 64
Appendix B: Translation Process.................................................................................................. 66
Appendix C: Press Release Alpha Protocol .................................................................................. 69
Appendix D: Publicity Story......................................................................................................... 71
Appendix E: Advertisements ........................................................................................................ 73
Appendix F: Text used in experiment ........................................................................................... 75
Appendix G: SPSS Output ............................................................................................................ 77
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