Device it Matter? - A Study of How the Choice of Device Impacts Advertising Effectiveness

Abstract: Mobile devices have taken a central role in our society, as smartphones and tablets are incorporated in more parts of people's lives than ever before. This impacts advertisers, as the device through which they reach their target audience is shifting. However, many marketing practitioners do not discriminate between their mobile and PC advertising strategies. Device (does) it matter? Current research would not suggest it does, given that the message and the medium stays unchanged. The purpose of this study was to challenge this view of devices. With little prior research existing on the impact of devices on advertising effectiveness, a theoretical background was developed consisting of a combination of well-established marketing theories and cutting edge research from related areas. Together these theories contradicted the notion that mobile and PC devices shared the same impact on ad effectiveness. A quantitative experiment on social media ads was conducted with 490 respondents. The results revealed that mobile devices generated higher levels of awareness than PC devices. They also indicated that mobile devices were perceived as less intrusive and generated higher ad attitude levels when seen in a social setting, while the PC devices performed better on both measures in a private setting.