How can advertisers win attention?
Siddharth Bhattacharya, assistant professor in the information systems and operations management area at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, takes an in-depth look to find out.
Siddharth Bhattacharya is an assistant professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management Area at the Costello College of Business, George Mason University. Before joining George Mason University, Dr. Bhattacharya completed his Ph.D. from Temple University’s Fox School of Business in 2021. Siddharth’s research focuses on how firms utilize digital information strategies to increase reach, establish relationships with stakeholders, and influence consumer decision making. Dr. Bhattacharya also holds an MBA from Indian School of Business and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science Engineering from India. Dr. Bhattacharya’s work has been published in premiere journals such as Information Systems research, MIS Quarterly, among others. He has also presented his work in many reputed conferences including CIST, ICIS, WISE, WITS, CODE@MIT, Marketing Science, among others.
How Can Advertisers Win Attention?
Advertisers frequently serve mobile pop-up ads tailored to users’ activity, location, or context. But today’s consumers often multitask, raising the question: can ads really break through when consumer attention is so divided?
My research shows that participants were more likely to remember pop-up ads that appeared while they were deeply engaged in a mobile game. Instead of attention being zero-sum, we saw a spillover effect from the game to the advertisement.
Additionally, when ads were timed strategically and attuned to the surrounding environment, the consumers processed them more effectively, retained the information longer, and reported less fatigue. So an ad featuring a sports drink delivered during halftime at a football game, would have a better chance of success than a random ad.
For advertisers, the takeaway is that distractions are not barriers but can be opportunities. By making ads congruent with the environment and timing them to moments when attention is less fragmented, advertisers can create messages that are more memorable and feel like an interruption, ultimately making them more effective. The future of mobile advertising is not about avoiding distraction but learning how to harness it.
