COM 2013 Volume 18

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Interaction in print advertising
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2013) Van Niekerk, Angelique; Gini, Keyser
The unrelenting initiative of copywriters manifests itself in their growing tendency to use interaction within print advertisements and in their use of interactive print advertisements. Interactive advertisements demand more time and involvement of the target market that has to participate in some way in order to grasp the marketing message. In particular, people want to satisfy their curiosity – since part of the message is often missing – by interacting with the advertisement (and thus the brand name). In the case of interactive print advertisements, the focus is on heightened involvement, which is the ultimate reward for the brand in an era of information overload. A clear distinction is made between interactive print advertisements and interaction within a print advertisement, where the objective is a more believable or authentic message. Such advertisements emphasise the use of spoken language (as opposed to written language) which is reflected in the lexical choices, sentence structure, etc. Because people are usually sceptical of advertising messages, print advertisements try to mirror word-of-mouth advertising and, in so doing, address the scepticism of their possible target market by exploiting the characteristics of normal conversation.