Consumer Reactions to Synced Advertising in the Netherlands

Technological advancements have enabled personalized messaging through synced advertising, a relatively new marketing strategy that synchronizes ads across multiple devices, thereby creating an integrated experience for consumers. This technique leverages real-time media behavior and personalization, potentially leading to feelings of intrusiveness, irritation and ad avoidance. Synced advertising can also lead to increased privacy concerns. Privacy concerns refer to the extent to which consumers are worried about the unauthorized dissemination of their personal information. Consumer privacy has become an increasing concern due to the rising frequency of data hacking and leakage incidents and have been found to lead to more advertisement avoidance. As privacy concern intensify, consumers are likely to have negative experiences and avoid advertisements. Advertising avoidance can be seen as a significant challenge for advertisers, as not all consumers respond positively to online advertising, prompting many to block advertisements. Research indicates that the Dutch population has limited familiarity with synced advertising, highlighting the need for further exploration of its implications, particularly concerning privacy concerns and advertising avoidance. Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), the study examines how consumers’ understanding of synced advertising influences their perception and behavior. A quantitative survey among 159 respondents was conducted, using non-probability sampling, distributed across various social media platforms. The results indicate that knowledge of synced advertising does not significantly predict experience with it, though higher education levels correlate with lower reported experience. Contrary to the expectations, neither knowledge nor experience with synced advertising impacts privacy concerns directly. However, increased privacy concerns were significantly associated with increased cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral advertisement avoidance. These findings underscore that while synced advertising does not directly exacerbate privacy concerns, these concerns critically influence ad avoidance behaviors. Advertisers can use these insights to develop less intrusive and more transparent advertising strategies. Thus, addressing privacy concerns is essential for improving consumer responses to advertising and further research is necessary.