The Key to 360-Degree Video Advertising: An Examination of the Degree of Narrative Structure

In this study, we compared three 360-degree video ads with their counterparts—three standard video ads—in terms of perceived ad novelty, presence (i.e., spatial presence, engagement, ecological validity), ad attitudes, and brand attitudes. We proposed hypotheses based on the narrative processing literature, presence literature, the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP), and novelty literature. We tested our hypotheses through three experiments. Results demonstrated that the superiority of 360-degree video advertising, compared with standard video advertising, is maximized when its standard version features a moderate degree of narrative structure and is attenuated when its standard version depicts either a low or a high degree of narrative structure.