Does customization impact advertising effectiveness? An exploratory study of consumer perceptions of advertising in customized online environments

Customized online environments, such as content aggregators, are an emerging technology and little empirical research has been undertaken to investigate the effects of consumer exposure to advertising within these media environments. Using a 2 × 2 × 3 factorial design, this study examines the effect of customization, desire for control, and type of advertising on a consumer's attitude toward advertising, content recognition, and behavioral intention for interacting with advertising. The results indicate that subjects who thought they were exposed to a customized media environment had greater behavioral intention for interacting with advertising. However, subjects who thought they were exposed to advertising via a non-customized online environment had a more positive attitude toward advertising than those who thought they were exposed to advertising through a customized environment. In summary, customized environments create a sense of engagement for consumers, however, the types of advertising used within these environments require further investigation to determine what is optimal. For high control consumers, degree of customization was not found to impact the recognition of media content. In turn, consumers with a low desire for control had reduced recognition of media content when they thought they were exposed to a customized environment.