It's Not Whether You Win or Lose; It's How The Game is Played

The current research investigates the interplay of program suspense, game outcome, advertisement placement, and ad execution on viewer reactions to advertising embedded in sports programming. In support of excitation transfer theory, results indicate that ad emotional response, attitude toward the ad, and attitude toward the brand are heightened immediately following a suspenseful sporting event. In addition, when considering both program suspense and game outcome, only program suspense was found to influence ad responses. Findings also indicate that congruency between program suspense and ad suspense moderates the influence of programming on responses to advertising such that an effect is found only in the context of suspenseful programming with suspenseful advertising.