The effects of moving animation on recall, hedonic and utilitarian perceptions, and attitude

An increasing number of firms are investing in moving animation to create more vivid and attractive Web sites. Animated contents are usually invisible to search engines or Web spiders, involve lengthier download time, and are inaccessible to less technology-savvy users who are not equipped with the necessary software or browser plug-ins or users who are wary of malicious Internet downloads. The development costs of animated Web sites are considerably higher too compared with static Web sites. Do the benefits provided by animation justify all of these potential weaknesses? We answer this question by studying the effects of moving animation on consumer responses toward a product. Using an exploratory laboratory experiment, we found that moving animation enhances product recall, perceived product values in terms of the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions, and attitude toward products that are high on the hedonic dimension. It does not, however, enhance consumer attitude toward products that are more "utilitarian" in nature. We draw related managerial implications from these findings.