The effect of variations in banner ad, type of product, website context, and language of advertising on Internet users' attitudes

Bilingual college students in Ecuador were presented with a Spanish-language website (either a video website or an online newspaper website). Each website contained a banner ad. The ad was for either a high-involvement product (a smartphone) or a low-involvement product (a news magazine). The type of ad (display ad with photograph vs. text-only, Google-style search ad), shape of ad (horizontal vs. vertical ad), and language of the ad (English vs. Spanish) varied for each type of website. The high-involvement product was seen as significantly more appealing than the low-involvement product, regardless of the type of ad. An interaction suggested that the high-involvement product was seen as somewhat more appealing if advertised with display ads rather than text-only ads; the low-involvement product was slightly more appealing if advertised with text-only ads. Both products - but especially the high-involvement product - attracted higher ratings if advertised with Spanish-language ads rather than English ads. Finally, products were somewhat more appealing if advertised on 'highly congruent' websites, where the advertised product was similar to the theme of the website (e.g., a smartphone that plays videos advertised on a video website; a news magazine advertised on a newspaper website). (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.