Cross-media advertising strategies and brand attitude: the role of cognitive load

In recent years, cross-media advertising has received widespread attention from researchers and practitioners seeking effective ways to communicate with their audience. Building on Kahneman's dual-system theory, the present article proposes a model of the impact of cross-media advertising on brand attitude (Abr). An eye-tracking experiment with 60 participants indicates that simultaneous (vs. sequential) exposure to ads for the same brand on TV and the Internet increases cognitive load and, through subjective comprehension, decreases brand attitude. Two online experiments with 395 and 198 participants in a low- and high-involvement product category, respectively, validate the proposed model. Experiment 2 reveals that in sequential exposure to TV and the internet, the fit between campaign ads further decreases the cognitive load leading to improved brand attitude. Experiment 3 strongly suggests that in simultaneous exposure, synchronous (vs. asynchronous) ads reduce cognitive demands and, through subjective comprehension and TV ad engagement, improve brand attitude.