Effects of varying involvement level within a television program on recall of cognitive versus affective advertisement

Purpose This study aims to explore how different involvement levels within a single television program influence recall of cognitive vs affective advertisements aired during that television program. Design/methodology/approach Two studies of 2 (program involvement: high vs low) × 2 (advertisement involvement: cognitive vs affective) between subject design were conducted; one study was for cognitive program and other study was for affective program. Existing scales were used after conducting reliability and validity tests. Findings The influence of different levels of involvement with a television program on recall of cognitive and affective advertisements was found. Specifically, recall of cognitive advertisement was found to be higher when involvement with television program is low than when involvement with program is high. Recall of affective advertisement was found to be lower when involvement with program is low than when involvement with program is high. Practical implications Results indicate that cognitive advertisements are recalled more at point of low involvement with program, whereas affective advertisements are recalled at point of high involvement with program. The implications are in the field of understanding and making advertisement airing decisions. Originality/value When the television program progresses, the story tends to build, and hence, the involvement increases. Therefore, involvement level with the program at initial point and later point can vary. This study identified the possibility of cognitive advertisement being recalled more at initial point of a television program, i.e. at low involvement, and affective advertisement being recalled more at the later point of the same television program, i.e. at high involvement.