Native Advertising on TV: Effects of Ad Format and Media Context

Native advertising has become popular on websites and social media platforms in recent years. Now the TV industry is starting to develop its own native ads/sponsored content. The current research examined this newer form of native advertising - native video ads on TV. Using advertising format (video vs. text/image) as a within-group variable and media context (news vs. entertainment) as a between-group variable, a repeated measures was run to explore the effects on viewers' attitude-toward-the-ad, ad trust, brand interest, as well as perceived differences between native ads and traditional advertising formats. In general, participants reported a more favorable attitude toward video native advertising than text/image advertising. Native ads embedded in news content were perceived as more trustworthy than those embedded in entertainment content. Advertising format also seems to affect how participants perceived the differences between native advertising and traditional advertising.