Watch out for the 4th screen: exploring user attitudes towards location-based advertisements on smartwatches

Abstract: Smartwatches are becoming more and more independent from smartphones, with thousands of applications available to smartwatch users. Some businesses already included smartwatches in their marketing initiatives, and it is only a matter of time until advertisers expand to the smartwatch users´ screens. Smartwatches have been called the most personal devices ever and therefore consumer attitudes are a crucial aspect in the adoption of location-based advertisements. This study investigated smartwatch users´ attitudes towards location-based advertising on smartwatches along with the factors that influence these attitudes by employing a research through design approach. Through semi-structured interviews, focus groups and prototypes of pull and push location-based advertisements on smartwatches, it was possible to discover how smartwatch users perceive location-based advertisements on smartwatches. The result of this study is that smartwatch users are open to receive location-based advertisements on their smartwatches, however their attitudes will be affected by the following factors: relevancy, personalization, informativeness, privacy concerns, context (location, frequency, timing), perceived ease of use and attitude towards advertising in general. Factors such as timing and frequency do not apply to pull location-based advertisements. Relevance is the most important factor and includes the element of control, meaning that smartwatch users can provide feedback on the specific advertisement on their smartwatch. The prototypes that were developed based on smartwatch users´ input provide four ready concepts of how location-based advertisements on smartwatches could look like.