Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Empirical Findings From an Experiment on the Mere Exposure Effect of a Web-Based Advertisement

The question of whether Web-based ads are effective as a marketing communication tool still remains elusive. Few studies have ever been conducted to explore the underlying factors that would influence consumers’ responses resulting from exposure to a Web-based ad. A model implemented by Proctor & Gamble actually discounts the value of an exposure to a banner ad unless the viewer actually clicks through to the destination site. But perhaps this does not reflect the way information is perceived and recorded in an individual’s memoiy grid. A stream of research has shown that affect for an object can be generated by merely exposing the subject to that object repeatedly, rather than being based on the cognitive processing of information. This is termed the mere exposure effect (Zajonc 1968). Given the passive and intrusive nature of a Web-based ad, viewers generally do not consciously decide to view them. This would suggest that mere exposure theory could be a possible framework to understand Web-based ad effects. It could be argued that mere exposure to a Web-based ad might enhance a viewer’s recognition and liking for the ad and brand despite the viewer’s inability to recognise having previously seen the ad and brand. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically verify a conceptual framework of mere exposure effects for Web-based advertising inspired by the literature on mere exposure effects.