The social nature of advertising design and screen-ad congruence effects on ad aesthetic appreciation in social media spaces

Participatory media technologies (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) dramatically changed the discourse of advertising design, and the way that advertising is approached in social media. To successfully compete in the dynamic environment of social media, social media players provide a variety of design tools, page spaces, and ad formats for brands to optimize their visual aesthetics and maximize consumer engagement. While there is practical knowledge among content creators that some formats of image ads outperform others in advertising effectiveness (Stelzner, 2021), there have been very few efforts in academia that have explored the design aesthetics of image ads consumers see on the screen (Landa, 2016; Moriarty et al., 2018), or the ad design process and practices in social media (Herman & Hwang, 2022). The dissertation fills these gaps. It advances research inquiry in advertising layout design in social media by introducing a new design concept, screen-ad congruence, representing the Good Gestalt, which is defined through similarity between the screen and the ad mechanical features (shape, orientation, and symmetry). The concept reconsiders the mechanical aspects of the ad layout in directional print media (Assael, Kofron, & Burgi, 1967; Smit, Neijens & Heath, 2013). The Fluency Theory of Aesthetic Pleasure (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004; Reber, 2012) is used to explore the potential of screen-ad congruence to generate ad aesthetic appreciation (ad likeability and visual aesthetics) in social media feeds and commerce pages. Study 1 interviews illuminated how social media content creators approached ad layout design in social media and aesthetically appreciated the relationship between the ad and the screen mechanical features. The findings revealed the coexistence of the two media frameworks in ad design practices, defined by the mechanical nature of ad layout and design principles used in print media, as well as the social nature of ad design, characterized by engaging visuality. Community aspect and authenticity of ad design, its conversational rhetoric, engaging visual, fast process of content creation (“social media is quick”), time-consuming process of formatting ads, and user control were recurring themes across all interviews. Participants’ aesthetic appreciation of image ads was in line with the predicted screen-ad congruence effects. Overall, the ad image asymmetry was found to be least pleasing, preceded by horizontally oriented image ads that didn’t feel balanced on the screen. Square and vertically oriented rectangular ads were perceived as equally pleasing. A series of three experiments was run in Study 2 to explore screen-ad congruence effects on ad aesthetic appreciation in social media feeds. The results of Study 2a (shape), Study 2b (orientation), and Study 2c (symmetry) demonstrated the potential of screen-ad congruence to generate favorable ad aesthetic appreciation when all three congruence dimensions (shape, orientation, symmetry) were observed. A follow-up Study 3 further tested the aesthetic potential of screen-ad congruence in the two-column format of social commerce. The results confirmed the importance of all three congruence dimensions to be present to generate ad aesthetic appreciation. When only one condition (shape) was observed, the “picture-in-the-frame” congruence effect disappeared. Additionally, the findings of Study 3 questioned the applicability of the Fluency Theory in the dynamic environment of social media. While symmetrical page design was perceived as easier to navigate, it was not perceived as more pleasing. As a whole, the findings across three studies suggest that the screen-ad congruence is a useful design tool for content creators to consider in their design practices in social media. On a broader scale, the dissertation sets a new research agenda of social ad design and equips scholars with a conceptual framework to approach this dynamically evolving and underrepresented design environment of social media.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications and Media

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Shabalina, Olga

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nelson, Michelle R
• Wise, Kevin
• Simons, Daniel
• Burkus-Chasson, Anne

• Ad Layout Design
• Interactive Ad Layout
• Design Of Social Media Spaces
• Ad Mechanical Features
• Screen-ad Congruence
• Social Commerce
• Ad Aesthetic Appreciation
• Processing Fluency

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Olga Shabalina

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120243

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120243