The effectiveness of various video ad-choice formats

Audiences are hostile to advertising on the Internet, so adsupportedvideo streaming services have experimented with newinteractive formats to make viewers more receptive to advertising.This lab study investigated explanations for the effectiveness of oneof these new formats, advertisement choice, and potential variationsof this format. The results confirm that advertisement choiceincreases arousal, consistent with the greater attention and involvementexplanations offered by prior studies. However, after controllingfor individual differences, we found no significant positiveeffects of advertisement choice on measures of advertising effectiveness.We also tested a range of current and potential advertisement-choice formats but found none that were better than a choicebetween two ads for the same brand. A harder choice betweenthree ads had a negative effect, compared with no-choice ads.Choices between different brands had positive effects on ad liking,but competitive interference effects on recognition and recall.These results suggest that advertising choice at least does noharm, and offers viewers the benefits of choice, and advertisersthe ability to reach streaming video viewers.