The Effects of Skip Buttons on Brand Recognition in Open-screen Advertising

Abstract

Open-screen advertising is one kind of popular mobile advertising with the characteristics of full-screen, mandatory, and wide coverage. However, the intrusiveness induced by its sudden appearance reduces users’ experience of mobile applications. Inserting a skip button into the advertisement is a good way to improve users’ experience but may affect the advertising effectiveness. Across two studies, we tried to find a win-win solution that makes users less disgusted with open-screen advertising and has no detrimental effect on the advertising effectiveness concerned by advertisers. We demonstrate the solution that advertisers can force users to view the advertisement for three seconds and then provide the skip button. Implications are provided for advertising on mobile phones and web pages, and theoretical contributions are described.