Mobile Advertising: Does Location Based Advertising Work?

Abstract

Location-based advertising (LBS) through mobile phones aims to remove geographical and information barriers between consumers and marketplace offerings by reaching shoppers when they are proximate to advertisers’ locations. Though such contextual advertising seems convenient, it may also be perceived as intrusive. This paper examines the effectiveness of such “convenient” advertising through an experiment which manipulates the location in terms of a private – public dimension. The results suggest that this location dimension and what the recipients are doing (context) affect their perceptions of usefulness of the ad, store evaluations, and willingness to respond to the offer. The findings are discussed in terms of how, when and where to advertise via mobile devices.

Keywords: location-based advertising, mobile advertising, advertising e/ffectiveness, task congruence, advertising context, perceived usefulness