Virtual Advertising in sports events: does it really work?

Virtual Advertising in sports events: does it really work? Lisa Becharas Katie Baumgardner Erin Brown Quincy Henderson Dani Kabbes Casey Richards

Part 1: Article Overview • Purpose • They wanted to test whether participants could recognize virtual advertising • Whether or not exposure time, exposure frequency, and prior brand awareness have a positive impact on the recall of brands advertising • They were testing if attitude towards advertising in general is positively correlated with the attitude towards virtual advertising • Primary relationship: virtual advertising and its recognition, recall of brands, and attitude

Hypotheses • “Virtual advertising is recognized by a majority of television viewers.” • “Exposure time, exposure frequency and prior brand awareness have a positive impact on the recall of the brands advertised.” • “Attitude towards advertising in general is positively correlated with attitude towards virtual advertising.”

Methods • Participants • 142 German university students • Interest in Soccer Broadcasts • High: 34.5% • Medium: 23.9% • Low: 40.1% • Gender • Male: 90.8% • Female: 9.2%

Methods • The students were tested prior to the study (pre-test) on assessing prior brand awareness • The students were shown an 18-minute video clip from a televised soccer match • Five brands/organizations were advertised during the match

Methods • The students were interviewed (post-test) regarding effectiveness of virtual advertising • Compared students’ attitudes towards advertising in general and their attitudes towards virtual advertising • The participants were given a questionnaire after the video • Aided recall: given brands and asked if they saw them • Unaided: Tell me what you saw during the video

Results • 77.5 % of participants recognized that virtual advertising had been used • 92.7 % assigned the virtual advertising correctly (knew what it was)

Results • Recall level was very high in both aided and unaided questionnaires • Duration of exposure does not play an essential role, whereas the frequency of exposure has a significant influence on the effectiveness of advertising • Attitudes towards advertising were significantly and positively correlated with attitudes towards virtual advertising

Construct Validity • Dependent Variable: • Recognition of advertisements • Recall of advertisement • Attitude towards advertisements • Independent Variable: • Exposure to virtual advertisements

How its Operationalized • Dependent Measures • A written standardized interview followed viewing including questions regarding recognition, recall, and attitude. Used the 5-point multi-attribute Likert scales • Independent Measures • Participants viewed an 18 minute video clip of the soccer match Hertha BSC Berlin vs. VfB Stuttgart

Strengths and Weaknesses • Effect Construct: • Strengths • Has face and predictive validity • Multiple ways of measure • Able to quantify results • Weaknesses • Question-wording limits responses • Questionnaire was given immediately after viewing

Strengths and Weaknesses • Cause Construct • Strengths • German soccer match, participants were German as well • Both conventional and virtual advertising were represented • Weaknesses • Only five companies represented • Limited video clip • Lower competition level • No control over prior knowledge of products • Only 18-minute clip, not full game length

Internal Validity • Design (71 People) O X O (aided) (71 People) O X O (unaided)

Group Threats • Participants were “split” into two groups: aided and unaided. • Were they randomly assigned? • Selection instrumentation • The experimenter administering the treatment and questionnaire treated the two groups differently. • Selection history/testing • Were they randomly assigned?

Internal Validity • Very strong for this study because of the testing of prior brand awareness and general design

Issue • We would have liked to see the questionnaires that were distributed • What questions were on the aided/unaided forms? • Could this have led to bias or different results?

Confounding Variables • The researchers tested prior brand awareness and found that it was not a confounding variable because the results were not significant

External Validity • Non-random selection 142 German undergrads and grads in business management classes • Is there a type of person that is more apt to take these classes? • More males than females (90.8% to 9.2%) • Soccer interest (majority was low, 40.1%) • Random Assignment? • Doesn’t say whether they were randomly assigned into the two groups • So were the groups really different to start with?

Who, When, Where are they trying to generalize to? • Seems like they are trying to generalize to people who watch sporting events • Seems like they are trying to generalize to present and future times • Trying to see if this specific type of advertisement works • Seems like they are trying to generalize to sports watchers who watch a sporting event at home • They understand that this is a limited population, but they state it is just an exploratory study • College age, German, business students**

Virtual Advertising in sports events: does it really work?