Elsevier

Journal of Interactive Marketing

Volume 52, November 2020, Pages 61-78
Journal of Interactive Marketing

Negative Consequences of Storytelling in Native Advertising

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.03.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Informational native ads easier to recognize than narrative native ads.

  • Bottom right label placement leads to higher recall for informational native ads.

  • Interaction ameliorates effect of label placement for narrative native ads.

  • Advertising recognition lowers perceived manipulative intent.

Abstract

Native advertising and storytelling are both increasingly popular advertising strategies. This research explores the effectiveness of storytelling in a native advertising context on social media. While most research recommends the use of stories as a way to build trust and relationships with consumers, the current research suggests that in the form of native ads on social media, narratives may be less effective when compared to informational native ads. Two studies find that even when advertising cues such as disclosure labels and brand presence are prominently located, consumers are less likely to recognize the advertising nature of narrative native ads when compared to informational native ads. Lower levels of advertising recognition are associated with increased perceptions of manipulative intentions by the advertiser, which has a negative influence on consumers' attitudes toward the ad. The findings suggest that native ads that clearly communicate their advertising nature through cues such as an informational execution, high brand presence, and prominent disclosure labeling are more effective than a narrative execution style.

Introduction

Native advertising has been increasing in popularity with brands and expenditures are expected to continue to increase (Campbell & Grimm 2019). Native ads, or ads that appear in consumers' social media feed and are designed to blend in with surrounding content, are thought to be an effective way to cut through the advertising clutter in a way that does not disrupt the consumers' browsing experience (Evans et al., 2017, Lee et al., 2016). Storytelling, or using advertising messages and imagery to convey a narrative to consumers, has also been increasing in popularity (Singh and Sonnenburg, 2012, Van Laer et al., 2019). Research has shown that narratives are an effective way to positively influence product attitudes (Chang, 2009, Lien and Chen, 2013, Nielsen and Escalas, 2010) and increase purchase intentions (Gilliam and Zablah, 2013, McFerran et al., 2010). However, little research has explored the instances in which storytelling as a native advertising tactic will be less effective or have negative consequences. Although consumers enjoy them, narratives are expected to be particularly good at disguising their persuasive intent. Since narratives convey a product-related experience or situation rather than fact-based information about a product, especially when employed as native advertising, the format should look and feel very similar to surrounding unpaid content.

Another concern related to native advertising is that, because they are designed to blend in to surrounding content, consumers do not recognize the persuasive intent of the native ads (Boerman, Willemsen, & Van Der Aa, 2017). The FTC has addressed concerns that native advertising may be deceptive by publishing guidelines for disclosure labeling (Federal Trade Commission, 2015). Researchers have called on brands to increase transparency (Campbell and Marks, 2015, Kim, 2017, Wojdynski et al., 2017).

The current research explores the possible consequences of narrative native ads, given that their format is more like user-generated content and less likely to be processed as a persuasive advertising message. It finds that narrative native ads, as compared to informational native ads, are less likely to be recognized as advertising, hence increasing perceptions of manipulative intent by the advertiser, which reduces attitudes toward the ad. This research extends the understanding of the effectiveness of storytelling to native ads on social media, shows that informational native ads may be more effective on social media, and expands the understanding of advertising cues that can prompt consumers to perceive advertisers' manipulative intentions.

Section snippets

Native Advertising

Native ads are ads that blend into and resemble surrounding non-ad content (Wojdynski, 2016, Wojdynski and Evans, 2016). Before the Internet and social media, native ads existed in magazines and newspapers as advertorials; they were designed to resemble an article but were paid content intended to promote a brand or product (Kim, Pasadeos, & Barban, 2001). Now, native ads are commonly used in social media (Campbell and Grimm, 2019, Kim, 2017, Van Reijmersdal et al., 2016) and are designed to

Pretest

Using consumer generated posts from Facebook about a snack food product and portions of content from the brand's Facebook page, four realistic Facebook posts were developed that varied only in execution style (informational versus narrative caption) and the brand presence (high versus low). All other design elements were held constant. The photograph used for the post in all conditions was the same consumer generated picture of an open bag of the product. The company's brand name was included

Pretest

This study manipulates ad execution through the use of informational or narrative-like images, rather than captions. A set of six real print ads were chosen that appeared to convey a narrative; these ads had characters, a climax or obstacle to overcome (such as a broken-down car), and a rich scene to provide the context for the narrative. An informational ad was developed which included facts about the product as well as an image of a person using the product. All ads included a brand logo for

General Discussion

This research explores the relationship between native ad execution style and advertising cues on ad recognition. While a great deal of research has explored content surrounding native ads, such as disclosure label placement (Krouwer et al., 2017, Wojdynski et al., 2017, Wojdynski and Evans, 2016), publisher characteristics (Wu et al., 2016), and spokesperson characteristics (Boerman et al., 2017, Kim et al., 2017), less research has explored how the execution of the native ad influences its

Declaration of Competing Interest

None.

Acknowledgements

Funding for Study 1 was provided by Saginaw Valley State University. Funding for Study 2 was provided by Kent State University during the first author's time there as a doctoral student.

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