This study investigates the effects of narrative ads, which differ in terms of narrative focus and brand prominence in a native advertising context. Considering the recent methodological debates about advertising and consumer experiments, we aim to design the research to be as realistic as possible. We produced video ad stimuli and published them as sponsored posts on Instagram to test the effects in a real-life setting. In this way, online engagement behavior was examined through social media metrics. The users who clicked on the ad were directed to the research website and asked to answer the scales of narrative transportation and attitude toward the ad. While the ads achieved different engagement results in line with their content features, transportation and attitude results demonstrate the superiority of narrative ads, which are product-oriented and with low brand prominence.
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