How Super are Video Supers? A Test of Communication Efficacy

Interest in the role of video supers—superimposed video presentations of verbal information—has grown among consumers, advertisers, the television networks, and public policymakers, as supers have become prevalent in television commercials. The authors empirically address the communication efficacy of video supers in a sample of 200 different commercials that contain video supers. Drawing on a theory of modality effects, the authors examine the comprehension of video supers relative to commercial content. The authors develop hypotheses and analyze structural determinants of video super comprehension, such as presence of a voice-over, rate of presentation, and presentation size. The findings are supportive of the predictions and suggest that viewer opportunity to process information in a video super might be a critical element in any strategy to increase viewer comprehension rates.