Mobile Display Ads Effective For Some Products But Not All

A study (Abstract) into the effectiveness of mobile adverts has found that only adverts for some products are effective; if a product is either practical or something that takes thought and investigation before making a purchase, mobile adverts were more effective.

• Mobile ads do work for products that have a practical and important use, like a lawn mower or a washing machine
• Mobile ads do work for high-involvement products (a lot of time, thought and energy is placed into the decision, like a family car).
• Mobile ads don't work for just-for-pleasure items, like fancy watches
• Mobile items don't work for low-involvement purchases like movie tickets or toothbrush (ones that pose a low risk to the buyer)

MDA campaigns that ran between 2007 and 2010 and involved 39,946 consumers show that MDA campaigns significantly increased consumers' favorable attitudes and purchase intentions only when the campaigns advertised products that were higher (vs. lower) involvement and utilitarian (vs. hedonic).