YouTube Ad Placement Project
TASK
Ad placement in YouTube is prevalent but the interaction between YouTube video and ads placed at different time periods of the video lacked research. This potential interaction is especially interesting when video arouses audiences' emotion.
PROCEDURE
I created a website hosting a list of YouTube videos that vary in emotional arousal (the ability of the video to arouse emotional excitement of audiences). Ads were embedded in the videos (for each video, two ads were embedded: one at the beginning of video, the other during the end of the video). I recruited participants and randomly assigned them to arousing, moderate arousing, and non-arousing condition. Below is an illustration of procedure.
FINDINGS
Interestingly, when YouTube videos aroused intense emotion of the audiences, audiences could not remember the verbal information of ads (such as brand name and benefit claims) well, but could remember the visual information of ads (such as screenshots of the product/service) well. Higher arousal particularly enhanced memory for visual information in ads placed at video beginning, but enhanced memory for verbal information in ads placed during video end. These findings suggested that visual and verbal ad information have a tradeoff when placed in YouTube videos, and that advertisers' goal of maximizing visual impression or verbal memory is important for devicing placement strategies.