Brand recall of skippable vs non-skippable ads in YouTube Readapting information and arousal to active audiences Daniel Belanche, Carlos Flavián and Alfredo Pérez-Rueda Department of Marketing Management and Marketing Research, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain Abstract Purpose – By integrating the evidence of various audience theories, a comparison is made of viewers’ information processing of new interactive video advertising formats (skippable video ads) with traditional, non-skippable formats. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how exposure to a brand name at different moments during online video advertisements influences viewers’ recall. Design/methodology/approach – A neuroscientific pre-test supported the selection of an arousing video, and a subsequent pre-test confirmed the scenario validity. Using a broader sample, the main study applied a 3 × 2 experimental design of different ad designs and formats. Findings – Distinctions should be made between formats and audiences that lead to different information processing methods. Users exposed to skippable ads (active audiences) exert a higher control over advertising and tend to process the information presented in the initial part of an ad. In turn, users viewing non-skippable ads (passive audiences) should be exposed to the high arousal stimulus before presentation of the key information that the advertiser wants them to remember. Practical implications – Advertising managers and content creators can use these results to improve the design of their online videos, and to achieve greater effectiveness in terms of information recall. Originality/value – Skippable online videos have become a commonly used advertising format, but research into their effects is scarce. This study offers the first comparison of viewers’ reactions towards skippable vs non-skippable formats, in terms of brand recall and economic performance. Further research might extend this underdeveloped field of study and enhance the knowledge of video format processing in social media. Keywords YouTube, Audiences, Ad format Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Digital video advertising has increased by 114 per cent since 2014 (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2018). Prompted by initiatives by Facebook and Google, online advertising expenditure will rise from US$45bn in 2019 to US$61bn by 2021, an average increase of 18 per cent a year (Zenith, 2019). By 2017, television had lost its leading position in terms of ad spending, as online advertising overtook it to become the dominant advertising medium (Slefo, 2017). Yet advertisers tend still to apply their established, offline advertising practices to online settings (Belanche et al., 2017a), without considering the interactive needs of internet audiences (Cho and Cheon, 2004; Gvili and Levy, 2018). “Advertising blindness” spreads quickly when viewers refuse to pay attention to ads or anything that appears to resemble them (Resnick and Albert, 2014). For example, most campaigns persist with an overload strategy, such that US viewers are exposed to some 4,000–10,000 ads daily, but 68 per cent of them recall less than five of the ads they watched in the previous week (Elkin, 2016). In Europe, 75 per cent of viewers admitted they could not remember the brand advertised after being forced to watch an online video ad (Freier, 2019). This evidence suggests that users are now more selective about which advertising messages they accept and might even be reacting negatively to online advertising. To increase ad effectiveness, some internet platforms have developed innovative, interactive features (e.g. for liking, sharing), led mainly by Facebook and YouTube. The skippable, pre-roll Online Information Review © Emerald Publishing Limited 1468-4527 DOI 10.1108/OIR-01-2019-0035 Received 25 January 2019 Revised 30 September 2019 Accepted 31 October 2019 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1468-4527.htm Skippable vs non-skippable ads in YouTube