Abstract:
The primary objective of this research is to investigate and analyze the factors which influence Ad avoidance intention in skippable advertisement context. Marketers and businesses spent millions of budget on promoting their product and services through digital advertising. But users tend to avoid advertisement, because it can disrupt their online experience. Skippable advertising is an advertising method which allows users to skip the advertisement after a five second. This ad format constitute eighty five percent of YouTube advertisement. Previous research has been done on full length advertisement but is very limited in the context of skippable advertisement context. Some papers on digital advertising analyzed factors of advertisement but very few studies conducted on the factors influencing advertisement avoidance intention. Hence, this study was conducted. A structured questionnaire was shared with the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi using Google forms. Using convenience and snowball sampling, 341 responses were collected out of which 326 responses were utilized in this study. Questions were adopted from the literature. SPSS and Smart PLS 4 Software’s were used to analyze the data. The analysis of results revealed that users try to avoid advertisement and want to skip ad as soon as possible unless they find advertisement relevant to their needs and interests. Results also revealed that relevance of advertisement plays a crucial role in reducing the advertising avoidance intention by increasing attention, engagement and positive brand perception. Therefore, this research study may prove to be very helpful for Marketers to make balance between getting viewers attention and considering their video consumption aim and providing better ad experience to their viewers or improving their marketing strategies. Lastly, it will add to the body of knowledge in the domain of advertising and digital marketing.
