To Fit In or to Stand out? An Eye-Tracking Study Investigating Online Banner Effectiveness in a Media Multitasking Context

Online advertising banners are often subject to banner blindness, meaning that people avoid looking at them. The current study examines whether web surfing while watching television, a form of media multitasking, influences how people respond to online ad banners. The experimental study examines whether people respond differently to an online ad banner which thematically fits with the website content (i.e., banner congruity) and which is animated (i.e., banner animation), taking into account the relevance between media tasks (whether the content of the television program and the website are related). Individuals' cognitive (visual attention paid to the banner, measured by eye-tracking technology) and attitudinal (online banner irritation) advertising responses are measured as dependent variables. The results indicate that during media multitasking with high task relevance, higher visual attention was obtained for an incongruent (versus congruent) ad banner. When task relevance was low, no such differences were found. This two-way interaction effect was not significant for banner irritation. Further, a significant three-way interaction with task relevance, banner congruity, and banner animation was found on banner irritation but not on visual attention. Concretely, the lowest levels of banner irritation were obtained for a congruent, animated banner in a media multitasking context with high task relevance.