The intended and unintended effects of synced advertising: When persuasion knowledge could help or backfire

Synced ads: effects of mobile ad size and timing

“…Although the studies were carried out over 10 years ago, their methods are still similar to the most recent tests of synced ads. For example, in Segijn et al (2023b), participants watched a 7-min TV show segment on a large flatscreen TV while multitasking with a magazine app on a smaller (portrait-orientation) tablet screen, and at a hard-coded time, while matching content played on the TV, a synced banner ad was superimposed as a second layer over the magazine content (i.e., dataveillance triggering of synced ads was not replicated). The methods used in that 2023 study are very similar to those used in the older studies reported here, suggesting these older studies are still relevant today.…”

“…However, this level of intrusion was mild compared with the use of pop-over synced ads in other research. For example, in Segijn et al (2023b), a pop-over synced ad intruded over whatever magazine content the viewer was reading on a tablet, when characters in the program on the main screen started discussing the advertised product category (frozen yogurt). Because of this high level of intrusiveness, viewers were able to close the pop-over synced ad and all of them had closed it after an average of 6 s. Intrusive pop-up ads likely concentrate attention on the close button rather than the content of the ad (Frade et al, 2022).…”

“…This allowed companies like Beatgrid (beatgrid.co) to listen to all the ads its consenting panelists hear to estimate the unique reach of each medium in a multi-media plan. But ACR can also be used, without consent, to hear an ad in a primary medium and trigger a matching synced ad (Segijn et al, 2023b). These days, however, the primary medium may be social media, such as Facebook, rather than TV.…”