Media Multitasking Contexts and Advertising Effectiveness of Traditional and Online Advertising: The Mediating Role of Attention

Media multitasking is a new consumption context that affects the way advertising stimuli are processed and evaluated. In two studies, we explore the effects of media multitasking contexts involving a single or multiple media devices on brand memory and perceived intrusiveness of advertising content. Both studies show that media multitasking leads to lower brand memory, while advertisements are perceived as less intrusive in multitasking compared to traditional media contexts. Additionally, both studies confirm that attention mediates the observed effects on brand memory and perceived intrusiveness, suggesting that the allocation of limited attentional capacity is the underlying mechanism driving these effects.