Can ad makers think beyond 15, 30 and 60 second commercials? Richard C Hanna and Paul D Berger suggest an interesting alternative. Are there any takers?Anand and Sternthal (1990) suggest that the effect of repeated exposures on brand evaluations and changes, depends on the ease with which the advertising message is processed. `Continuous-Storyline' (CSL) advertising will extend the time span before `wear out' sets in and thereby increases brand evaluations by taking advantage of the several ways in which the information is processed.
What is Continuous-Story-Line advertising? It is a series of multiple television commercials in an episodic format. The first of the series of commercials would be similar to a mystery ad in a sense that the brand name (and possibly product category) would be withheld until the end of the commercial. Furthermore, because of the episodic nature of each commercial segment, the conclusion is continuously `implicit' for the viewer to speculate and infer `what happens next.' The storyline itself would involve the use of the product (or brand) but would not specifically discuss features or attributes; they would be implicit in the use of the product.
CSL ads are a combination of `mystery-ads' and ads with `borrowed interest appeal'. Campbell (1995) defines `mystery ads' as ads which keep the product name (and product category) a secret until the end of the commercial and defines `borrowed interest appeal ads' as ads that use something that is "inherently involving and arousing to a significant portion of the target audience." They are used because they cause the viewer to work harder to process the information in the ad. |
