Digital engagement and ad avoidance : the role of basic psychological needs in augmenting skippable ad effect

In response to consumer demand and constantly evolving digital technologies, advertisers are adopting diverse interactive advertising formats. Despite its popularity and advertisers’ growing reliance on interactive formats, relatively little is known about which technology features in interactive ads increase consumer-brand engagement. Notably, the academic literature has not said much about the underlying psychological mechanisms by which consumer’s motivational factors promote this engagement. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand the underlying psychological mechanism of consumer's digital engagement with interactive ads. This dissertation focused on two digital ad features: skip ad button and social plugin. In particular, building upon Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan 2000; 2012), this research highlights the importance of fulfilling consumers’ basic psychological needs such as controllability (self-determination) as well as enhancing social influence in augmenting intrinsic motivations to engage in the digital ad, thereby increasing ad effectiveness. Additionally, this research proposes the conceptual framework of digital engagement.Advertisin