Contemporary online advertising is characterized by the integration of advertising in other content and brand interactivity. Integrated advertising embeds a persuasive message into informative or entertaining content. Brand interactivity refers to interactions consumers have with brands in advertising messages. A two (integration vs. no integration) x two (brand interactivity vs. no brand interactivity) between subjects experiment (n = 576) examines the effect of online advertising’s brand interactivity and its integration in other content on young teenagers’ (11–۱۴ years) brand memory, awareness of selling intent, critical processing, brand attitude, and their personal information sharing. Brand interactivity has a positive effect on memory, awareness of selling intent, brand attitude and personal information sharing. Integration of advertising in other content has a negative effect on memory, but has no effect on awareness of selling intent, brand attitude and personal information sharing. Surprisingly, awareness of selling intent leads to less critical processing. The main contribution of the study is that it disentangles the effects of brand interactivity and message integration in contemporary advertising formats, and suggests adaptations to well-known theories, such as the Affect Transfer Mechanism and the Persuasion Knowledge Model, in the context of young teenagers’ responses to these formats.

Introduction

Nowadays the average household is equipped with a variety of media devices, including traditional ones (radio, television), and laptops, smartphones and tablets that are connected to the online world. As the media landscape and media use changes, advertisers adjust their advertising formats to it (De Pauw, De Wolf, Hudders, & Cauberghe, 2018). Contemporary online advertising differs from traditional advertising formats in that it is characterized by two important features: integration of advertising in other content, and brand interactivity (Daems, De Pelsmacker, & Moons, 2017; De Pauw et al., 2018; Hudders et al., 2017). Integrated advertising is advertising that embeds a persuasive message into informative or entertaining content resulting in advertising formats with a simultaneous exposure to both the media content and the integrated advertising message (Hudders et al., 2017; Panic, Cauberghe, & De Pelsmacker, 2013). Brand placement, ‘the paid inclusion of brand identifiers in media content (television programs, movies, games)’ (Karrh, 1998) is an example of integrated advertising. For instance, James Bond drinks Belvedere vodka and Bollinger Champaign, wears Tom Ford suits and drives an Aston Martin (Sauer, 2015). American Apparel billboards are integrated in the Second Life game, as are Axe deodorant billboards in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and Metal Gear Solid Series, and Playboy in Mafia II (Gonzalez, 2010). Brand interactivity refers to interactions consumers can have with brands or advertising messages, by clicking on banners or pop-ups that contain brand-related information or by clicking on or using brands in games (De Pauw et al., 2018; Lee, Park, & Wise, 2014). For instance, BMW, Aston Martin and Mercedes have been used in interactive placements in the racing game Gran Turismo (Duran, 2017).