The effects of ad-context congruency on responses to advertising in blogs: Exploring the role of issue involvement

This study examines the effect of ad-context congruency and the moderating role of issue involvement on consumers' responses to banner ads on blogs. Results indicate that a banner ad that is thematically congruent with the blog's context generates more favourable responses than an ad that is not congruent with the context. However, issue involvement moderates the effect of congruency. When a banner ad was placed in a congruent context, individuals who were highly involved with the issue discussed in the blog responded more positively to the ad. However, when a banner ad was placed in an incongruent context, individuals who were less involved with the issue responded more favourably to the ad. Findings suggest that ad-context congruency is especially important when targeting audiences who feel the issue is very relevant to them. In contrast, ad-context incongruency is better perceived by individuals who are less involved with the issue. We explain these findings using the tenets of contextual priming vs cognitive interference. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are also discussed.