Media engagement and advertising: Transportation, matching, transference and intrusion

Abstract Three studies show that consumer response to advertising depends on engagement with the media content, in this case a television program, in which the advertising appears. The specific form of engagement studied is the experience of narrative transportation, of being absorbed into the narrative world of the program. If an ad is not intrusive, by virtue of where it occurs in a narrative, high transportation is shown to positively impact an ad. This impact is obtained if the ad matches the narrative (thematically compatible), supporting the hypothesis that transportation can act as a message frame that increases processing. If a compatible ad is intrusive, however, it is shown that high transportation is disrupted and this negatively impacts an ad. A third study proposes and finds an additional mechanism, called transportation transference, in which high narrative transportation increases the transportation with an ad that is not intrusive and this increase in ad transportation in turn increases advertising effectiveness.