How media multitasking effects advertising effectiveness

What is it about?

The younger generation has been growing up with the use of modern media since childhood and in the same way the trend is increasing in general to use not just one single medium in isolation, but several media at the same time. For example, you sit in front of the TV and the smartphone is also within reach. In this way, the term media multimedia tasking describes simultaneous exposure to two or more types of media content. With regard to advertising, this behavior opens up new threats and opportunities for companies. On the negative side, multifaceted distraction because of limited human cognitive processing abilities might diminish advertising effectiveness. On the positive side, a TV-ad might refer to a webpage for more detailed information. Alternatively, the coordinated application of different media promoting the same brand within a certain campaign might create synergy effects. This research addresses the latter by investigating the effect of media multitasking with TV and mobile Internet advertisements on message effectiveness (i.e., memory). As a result of an online experiment we find that media multitasking harms message effectiveness. Moreover, it does not matter whether consumers are exposed to the same or different advertising messages during media multitasking situations. However, subjects’ high media multitasking frequency diminishes the negative effect of simultaneous advertising exposure on message effectiveness. Furthermore, men perform better than women in media multitasking situations.

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Why is it important?

The findings indicate that media multitasking interferes with message effectiveness but less so for men and persons with a high media multitasking frequency. Moreover, media multitasking peaks at certain times during the day. As a result, addressing particular target groups should be considered: e.g., women by attention-getting TV ads, older adults during parts of the day (rather than in the evening).