Web Advertising info: While things may change, people at the moment use the Web in a way that is heavily loaded with utilitarian rather than entertainment motives. It is dominated by search engines and portals, which are by far the most visited sites. Hence, people's state of mind when exposed to the Web and, thus, Web advertising is very different from other media, particularly television.
One implication of this mostly task-oriented, active and focused frame of mind is that our values are generally more tuned to utilitarian than aesthetic considerations. We value stuff that is useful over stuff that looks attractive.
See also Internet Advertising.
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"Unlike television where you can sit back and let it wash over you, the Web is a high-involvement, interactive medium. It does have some similarities to outdoor advertising but there are also fundamental differences. Most importantly, it is an environment that demands a continual stream of decisions from you. What is called the 'clickstream' is in reality a 'decision stream'. Each click is a decision.
At every step you have to make a choice. 'Do I go here or will I click on this? Which of these will take me where I want to go? That link looks interesting but if I take it will I forget to come back? Will I click or won't I? Have I got time right now? Will it be worth it? I don't want to wait for half a minute and find it's not interesting.
The Web is therefore very different from other media. It is very active, very task-oriented and high-involvement in a very cognitive way. Its nature militates against the ability to lose oneself in the world of the medium, or what one writer has called 'telepresence'. 12 Increasing speed makes downloading of pages much more instant but this still does not alter the fundamental nature of the medium at this point--it is essentially decision making, not relaxation.
Response Makers - Web Advertising
