Manipulating Ad Message Involvement through Information Expectancy: Effects on Attitude Evaluation and Confidence

Abstract

Abstract This research proposes an additional method (with potential advantages) of manipulating ad message involvement (AMI) through ad information expectancy. This manipulation of ad information characteristics showed that unexpected information creates a higher AMI than does expected information. In addition, the immediate and delayed effects of ad information expectancy on attitude evaluation, confidence, and recall are examined. In particular, attitude evaluation and confidence responded differently under different times of response and levels of AMI. Under immediate responses, ads with unexpected information (high AMI) produced more favorable attitude evaluation than did ads with expected information (low AMI). However, no differences in attitude confidences were found between the two conditions. Under delayed responses, both attitude evaluation and confidence were significantly higher in the unexpected than in the expected conditions. In addition, although delayed ad and brand confidences under low AMI were low, ad and brand attitudes remained significantly correlated with each other. These findings suggest that 1) assessing both attitude evaluation and attitude confidence is important especially when studying delayed attitudinal effects of advertising, and 2) high AMI through the introduction of unexpected information in ads creates relatively persistent and favorable attitudes.