A Comparative Study Between Native Advertising and Display Advertising on CNBCAFRICA.COM

Abstract

The battle for consumer attention as a reaction to the constant flow of commercial messages in the online environment has led to a decline in click-through rates, accompanied by advertising avoidance tactics such as banner blindness and skipped pre-roll ads. Native advertising is seen as the solution to these advertising avoidance tactics. As an increased share of advertising budgets are being allocated towards this online advertising format, this research paper aims to test the effectiveness of native advertising compared to display advertising by focusing on the attitudes these two advertising formats evoke. The online news site, CNBCAfrica.com will be used as a case study. A quantitative research methodology was used for the research in which self-administered questionnaires were distributed via SurveyMonkey. The questionnaire contained several statements designed to measure respondents’ attitudes towards native and display advertising, with the aim of confirming or rejecting the stated hypotheses. From the findings, two of the three hypotheses were supported. Thus, it can be concluded that native advertising is favoured over non-native advertising on CNBCAfrica.com. However, the findings of the study rejected the hypothesis that native advertising elects a more positive brand attitude than display advertising. One possible explanation for these results is that the brand chosen for the study had a previous association that skewed the results. The results imply that further research is needed to test this hypothesis, perhaps using a more neutral brand for the case study. In conclusion, this study adds value as it helped contribute to the research on native advertising and its effectiveness on consumers, thus filling a much-needed gap in the market.