Interactivity is a central concept of Web advertising (WA). Most WA researchers agree that interactivity is a key factor differentiating Web advertising from traditional advertising (e.g., Cho & Leckenby, 1997; McMillan & Hwang, 2002). Because the consumer’s role is regarded as critical on the Web, perceived interactivity — how consumers perceive interactivity on the Web — sometimes gets more attention in advertising research than other venues of interactivity research such as process- or function-oriented interactivity (Reeves & Nass, 1996; Lee, 2000; McMillan & Downes, 2000).
Although researchers consider perceived interactivity to be important, little research to date has investigated how consumers actually perceive and deal with interactive aspects of Web advertising. Some studies (e.g., Sohn et al., 2003; Chung & Zhao, 2003) dealing with perceived interactivity employed experimental research designs that manipulated the level of interactivity — usually creating two conditions, high and low levels of interactivity. Some experiments (e.g., Edwards et al., 2002) used “forced-exposure,” which forced consumers to be exposed to Web advertising in a manner that was consistent with research objectives rather than real-life experiences. Experimental manipulation of interactivity and of message presentation is not consistent with consumers’ actual Web use experiences.
Thus, most research has not yet focused on consumers’ actual thoughts and behavior related to Web advertising and interactivity. Without ample understanding of consumers’ thoughts and behaviors regarding WA, it is difficult for researchers and practitioners to perform their work related to WA. Therefore, investigation of consumer’s perspectives on WA should be a top priority. The meaning of interactivity in Web advertising should be developed with input from the consumers’ points of view. With sufficient understanding of consumers’ insights, researchers can pursue more informed studies in this field and practitioners can develop more effective consumer-oriented WA strategies.