English Abstract
Abstract :
Given that using traditional media to promote websites seems to be fruitful, television commercials sound like the most influential media in generating website traffic. Nowadays, many advertising practitioners are fashioning their advertisements with the display of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) in order to direct the audience to new promising media. The success of this practice is based on the ability of consumers to remember the advertiser's URL and then correctly connect to the site. An important part of the website visiting mechanism is the precise recall of the displayed URL. Therefore, advertising recall can be employed to measure the effectiveness of including URLs in TV commercials.
The main objective of this study is to determine if the use of URLs in TV commercials leads consumers effectively to crossover from television to the Internet. The study also investigates the effects of the included URLs on brand recall. Moreover, it examines the relationship between computer literacy and product URL recall. The study was conducted on an experimental basis at the University of Bahrain campus. Two hundred and seventy-two students from the university's five different colleges participated in the study.
The study shows that most of the participants are unable to correctly recall URLs included in TV commercials. Only 12.5% of the total participants were able to recall at least half of the URLs displayed in the viewed commercials. These URLs seem to have little impact on their memories. The study examined the different ways in which URLs appear in the commercials and found that it has a significant effect on the rate of recall. Choosing the most appropriate one would help this practice reach its hopes It was determined that brands without URLs displayed through the viewed commercials are recalled at a significantly higher rate than commercials with the URL, but that could be a single factor added to many other factors related to the commercial design. The study also indicated a positive, but weak, relationship between computer literacy and the ability to recall URLs accurately.
In general, it can be concluded that the use of Internet addresses in TV commercials, for the purpose of attracting viewers to visit websites, represents a great opportunity, which can be exploited by correct execution
