You glance at your smartphone
to check the weather, and a tiny banner ad for a new movie pops up. What are
the odds that this fleeting exposure will have any effect on you? According to the Harvard Business Review,
there’s no clear answer despite the sums spent on mobile ads—$8.4 billion in
2012, a number expected to quadruple by 2016.
Some experts argue that mobile
ads are a waste of marketing dollars (see “For Mobile Devices, Think Apps, Not
Ads,” by Sunil Gupta, HBR March 2013).
But new research shows that mobile display ads can work for certain types of
products: those that are both utilitarian and “high involvement.” Minivans and
washing machines, for instance, serve a practical purpose, and consumers buy
them only after much deliberation, in large part because they’re pricey. Mobile
display ads for “hedonic” products (things, such as sports cars and movie
tickets, that people buy for pleasure) are unlikely to have any influence, as
are ones for “low involvement” products (a tube of toothpaste, a candy bar).
We studied data from a market
research firm that surveyed 39,946 U.S. consumers about products featured in 54
mobile display ads from 2007 to 2010. The products spanned 13 industries,
including consumer goods, financial services, and automobiles. About half the
participants saw an ad for a product on their mobile devices; the others saw no
ad. At the start and close of the experiment, all rated their attitude toward
and intention of buying the product.
Personally, I feel completely
blind to all of the ads that pop up while surfing the Internet, except for the
annoying ads. I suppose if I saw a high
ticket item in an advertisement that I might be inclined to take a closer look,
specifically if I was currently in the market for that item.
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