Blurring the Line between Advertising and Editorial: The Content and Effectiveness of Advertorials

Abstract

本研究分析台灣雜誌廣編稿的內容與形式，並探討閱聽眾是否能辯識廣編稿爲商業推廣訊息，並進一步研究不同的內容與表現形式所可能產生的效果。內容分析顯示：平均一份雜誌中會出現8.69則的廣編稿，大部分(79.55%)的廣編稿的聲明標示(disclaimers)採用模糊策略；大多數的廣編稿是獨自出現，但是也有8.92%的廣編稿會與其傳統形式廣告同時出現；此外，大部分(74.20%)的廣編稿是以商品與服務爲主要內容，只有少數(14.65%)以討論該企業爲主要內容；當商品與服務爲討論內容時，重心主要在商品特性與品質，而非商品形象，當企業爲主要討論內容時，重心主要在企業形象，而非其專業技術⁄科技。此外，實驗結果發現廣編稿較傳統雜誌廣告能產生較佳的品牌態度，這樣的結果可能部份是因爲44.79%的受試者不知道廣編稿是廣告；值得注意的是，雖然有35.42%受試者注意到聲明標示，但其中仍有33.82%的受試者無法理解聲明標示的意義，至於沒注意到聲明標示者，則半數無法從廣編稿內容判定其為廣告(50.55%)。實驗結果也發現不能區辯廣編稿爲廣告的受試者，不會因爲廣編稿呈現內容與形式而對廣編稿或該品牌有不同的喜好；相反地，有能力辨識廣編稿爲廣告內容的受試者，對於廣編稿的反應較容易受到廣編稿呈現內容與形式的影響。

The content and effectiveness of advertorials in Taiwanese magazines were explored. A content analysis found an average of 8.69 advertorials per magazine issue. More advertorials used ambiguous disclaimers (79.55%) than unambiguous disclaimers (20.45%). A higher percentage of advertorials (91.08%) appeared alone, as opposed to with a related advertisement (8.92%). More advertorials focused on products or services (74.20%) than on corporations (14.65%). An experiment further showed that advertorials generate more favorable brand attitudes than traditional advertising. Findings of the experiment also indicated that, even though the presence of disclaimer labels helped participants identify an advertorial as advertising, 44.79% of participants were not aware that the advertorials they read were advertising messages even when the labels were present. Finally, findings suggested that only those who were aware that the advertorials were advertising, not those who were unaware, responded differently to variations in the advertorial`s format and content.