THE MEDIUM AS A CONTEXTUAL CUE: Effects of Creative Media Choice

This paper adds to the research on media-context effects with a study of creative media choice (i.e., creatively choosing a medium to implicitly communicate the message). In an experiment, ads were placed in a creative media choice setting and compared with identical ads in a traditional medium. Employing theories on media-source effects and on cognitive priming and assimilation, it is hypothesized that the creative media choice enhances the perception of target brand associations and increases ad credibility and ad and brand attitudes. The results support the hypotheses. The effects of creative media choice are moderated by congruence, and additional analyses suggest that they may be mediated by surprise.