Transparency of digital native and embedded advertising: Opportunities and challenges for regulation and education

Contains fulltext : 219424.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)This article elaborates on one of the main characteristics of digital native and embedded advertising: its lack of transparency. Challenges and opportunities for disclosing native advertising practices as well as how educational measures concerning this type of advertising should look are discussed. In addition, a future research agenda is presented.11 p

The development and testing of a pictogram signaling advertising in online videos

Although influencer marketing has become an important advertising strategy, it has one major challenge: its lack of transparency. Young people often struggle to distinguish commercial from non-commercial content, making them particularly susceptible to influencer marketing. In response to the Dutch Media Act, we aim to develop and test a Kijkwijzer pictogram that that clearly signals advertising (i.e. influencer marketing) in online videos to minors (8–18 year-olds). The project comprised three phases: (1) an inventory phase including a cocreation workshop, (2) a survey (N = 248) gaining insights into minors’ associations with a selection of pictograms, and (3) a preregistered online experiment (N = 656) to compare the effectiveness of selected pictograms in increasing advertising literacy. The cocreation workshop and the survey resulted in three pictograms that were associated with advertising and sponsored content and deemed appropriate by the minors to signal influencer marketing in online videos. However, results of the online experiment showed no effects of these pictograms on conceptual and affective advertising literacy. Overall, the findings show the difficulty of creating one effective pictogram that is preferred by all age groups, and the value of the different research phases