Comparing consumer responses to advertising and non-advertising mobile communications

With a variety of mobile content, such as weather, sports, and commercial ads, available for consumers to access on wireless devices, it is important to explore the effect of presentation modalities on consumers' ability to retain the information and on consumers' perception of the content. Three messages were presented on a mobile device to 116 respondents via six presentation modalities that combined text, audio, static pictures, and/or video. Strong content effects were found, such that weather information was perceived as most important, most involving,, and most likely to influence future mobile usage. Modality effects influenced recall, with complementary modes (visual and audio) facilitating recall of the commercial ad, but hindered recall of weather information. Implications for marketers, content designers, and mobile service providers are discussed. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.