Ambient advertising characteristics and schema incongruity as drivers of advertising effectiveness
Ambient advertising is an answer to increasing advertising clutter and resulting deteriorated attitudes toward advertising. This research draws on literature on human information processing, schema congruity theory, and advertising effectiveness literature to investigate drivers of ambient advertising effectiveness under conditions of increasing advertising clutter and advertising literacy. We contend that schema incongruity as evoked by ambient advertising positively impacts advertising effectiveness. We develop a conceptual framework that suggests four antecedents of advertising schema incongruity creativity, unexpectedness, engagement, and subtlety and two moderating variables perceived advertising clutter and advertising literacy. We further propose that advertising effectiveness on the level of consumers' mind set variables will have an impact on sales in the long run. The article is the first approach to contribute a theory based conceptual framework on influencing factors of ambient advertising effectiveness. It provides a research agenda and theoretically grounded guidelines for ambient advertising practice.