Consumer Responses to Narrative Advertising: Consumer Responses to Narrative Advertising

Narratives can be a powerful mechanism for persuasion. When correctly applied to the advertising field, it potentially increases ad and brand evaluations. Virtual reality (VR) used in advertising can foster imagery richness and vividness compared to traditional video ads. Irrespective of the exact mechanism behind ad persuasion, cognitive and affective processes are involved in narrative processing. We aim to analyze narrative advertising varying in its narrativity level and explore possible channel effects--ads presented on a computer screen (PC) vs using a VR headset. Methodology: A 2 (narrativity level: high--HL vs low--LL) x 2 (channel: PC vs VR) within-subjects (WS) experiment was conducted. 32 participants (13 female, Mage=26.84, SD=4.33) of 16 nationalities watched 12 2D real video ads (six HL, six LL; ~60s each) in PC and VR. A 10-item questionnaire was answered after each ad and galvanic skin response (GSR) was recorded throughout the study. The questionnaire assessed consumers' response to ads, namely: affect, processing, signals, and brand attitude. Results: For the questionnaire metrics, a WS generalized linear mixed model (GzLM) was used (fixed factors: narrativity level, channel, and the interaction term; random factors: person and brand). There was a main effect of narrativity level on (F(1,759), p-value, direction of the effect): Ad Liking (12.30, <.001, HL>LL); Ad Sharing (9.86, <.01, HL>LL); Ad Attention (16.09, <.001, HL>LL); Ad Immersion (9.78, <.01, HL>LL); Ad Acceptance (47.23, <001, HL>LL); Brand Trust (67.63, <.001, HL<LL). There was a main effect of channel on: Ad Immersion (5.57, <.05, VR>PC); Brand Reaction (4.81, <.05, PC>VR). No effects were found for Ad Understanding. Interaction effects were present in four metrics. For the GSR, we used a non-linear estimation of the number of spontaneous fluctuations (PsPM software). The results of the analysis (WS-GzLM without the random factor brand) showed the main effect in the channel, where VR elicited more spontaneous GSR (F(1,518) = 65.30, p<.001). Conclusions: We found an overall better performance of ads with high levels of narrativity on creating more positive ad perceptions, such as liking, intention to share, attention paid,
immersive feelings, and acceptance. But those ads performed worse on trust perceptions. Regarding
channel, it had a small effect on immersion feelings and brand reactions. Participants felt more
immersed into the ads when watching them on VR, but they reported higher favorable reactions when
watching them on a PC. Although the GSR revealed that videos watched on VR led to higher arousal, this
was not enough to influence ads' conscious perception.