When and how to advertise? An empirical study on mobile ad response based on contextual factors

Mobile technologies have enabled marketers to target consumers anywhere and anytime. However, as consumers react and respond differently depending on what situation they are in, there is an apparent need to determine when, where, and what kind of advertisement is most relevant to the consumer. Prior studies have found evidence on the influence of contextual factors such as location, time, and consumer behavior to the effectiveness of mobile ads but there has been little empirical evidence that examines contextual factors simultaneously. This paper proposes a holistic approach to examine the response of consumers when faced with two types of contextual factors (environmental and consumer contexts) through the lens of the Mobile Advertising Effectiveness Framework. Additionally, the influence of advertisement type (push- vs. pull-based) to these factors, along with the interactions among the variables are also investigated to determine which factors elicit the best response from consumers.