Abstract
Despite the growing application of augmented reality in advertising, there is limited understanding about how customers respond to their interaction with the augmented reality advertising and how it differs from a standard paper-based advertising. Augmented reality ads are immersive, interactive, and lifelike, which means they may help companies create an emotional connection with their customers. The authors test if customers would respond in terms of emotional and affective intensity differently to augmented reality versus standard paper-based advertising. The results of two laboratory studies that consider physiological measures of arousal (galvanic skin response), self-reported measure of affect intensity and willingness to pay show that the higher willingness to pay for customers exposed to augmented reality as opposed to standard paper-based ads is driven by the physiological arousal, but not by the self-reported affect intensity and that processing fluency possibly underlies consumer’s enhanced emotional responses toward AR. These results suggest that replacing traditional advertisements with augmented reality advertisements enhances customer physiological responses and willingness to pay, with possible implications on customer segmentation and marketing communication.
Highlights
The market for augmented reality, which can be defined as the integration of digitally created media within an existing real environment (Azuma et al, 2001), is projected to increase from roughly 5.91 billion in 2018 to more than 198 billion in 2025 (Statista, 2019)
The results of the independent sample t-test showed that participants in the AR advertising condition showed higher reported arousal (MAR = 4.37, SD = 0.95 versus Mactive_traditional = 3.75, SD = 0.85; t(48) = − 2.45, p = 0.02; Cohen’s d = 0.65) and higher levels of GSR than those in the traditional advertising condition (MAR = 19.84, SD = 17.25 versus Mactive_traditional = 6.79, SD = 7.49; t(48) = − 3.42, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.88), while no significant differences emerged between the two conditions when taking into account participants’ WTB (p = 0.91)
This research has shown that the higher WTP for consumers exposed to AR is driven by consumers’ physiological arousal, but not by their self-reported affect intensity
Summary
The market for augmented reality (hereafter, AR), which can be defined as the integration of digitally created media within an existing real environment (Azuma et al, 2001), is projected to increase from roughly 5.91 billion in 2018 to more than 198 billion in 2025 (Statista, 2019). Past empirical evidence on AR applications in marketing communication indicates that AR advertising can enhance different aspects of consumers’ affective responses (Poushneh & Vasquez-Parraga, 2017; Yim et al, 2017). The main objective of this paper is to study whether retrospective self-reported measure of arousal versus real-time physiological measure of arousal differ in their prediction regarding the behavioral intentions for a product advertised through AR (versus print advertisement). This question is of critical importance for companies that are looking to assess the impact of AR advertising on consumer emotions and whether these emotions drive WTP for the product shown in the ad
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