Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2021 Marketing in extended reality, a qualitative exploration of how people recall the details of advertisements and what factors drive individual willingness to act across interaction technologies. Adam M. Mazurick Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Recommended Citation Mazurick, Adam M., "Marketing in extended reality, a qualitative exploration of how people recall the details of advertisements and what factors drive individual willingness to act across interaction technologies." (2021). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 18553. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/18553 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Marketing in extended reality, a qualitative exploration of how people recall the details of advertisements and what factors drive individual willingness to act across interaction technologies by Adam Mazurick A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major: Human Computer Interaction Program of Study Committee: James Oliver, Major Professor Michael Dorneich Rafael Radkowski The student author, whose presentation of the scholarship herein was approved by the program of study committee, is solely responsible for the content of this thesis. The Graduate College will ensure this thesis is globally accessible and will not permit alterations after a degree is conferred. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2021 Copyright © Adam Mazurick, 2021. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my Wife, Julia, who believed in my research interests and supported me as I completed my graduate education and conducted this study. The frank reality is that my educational pursuits and goals could not have been achieved without my Wife's support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………………….….iv ABSTRACT………………………………………….………………………………………..…..v CHAPTER 1. MOTIVATION………..…………………………………………………..……… 1 Definition of terms………………………………………………………………………. 1 Technology and social trends……………………………………………………………. 2 Literature review…………………………………………………………..…………….. 4 Research questions …………………………………………………………………….. 11 CHAPTER 2. EXTENDED REALITY HMD DEVELOPMENT……….……………….……. 13 Early hardware prototype………….………………………………………..………….. 13 Early software prototype……………………………………………………………….. 17 Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality support in one app…………………………………. 18 Final hardware prototype………………………………………………………………. 22 CHAPTER 3. STUDY DESIGN…………………………….…………………………………. 25 Purpose…………………………………………………………………………..…….. 25 Methods …………………………………………………………………………….…. 25 Sampling and inclusion criteria……………………………………………………..…. 26 Participant recruitment…………………………………………………………………. 27 Data collection procedures..……………………………………………………………. 27 Commercial descriptions……………………………………………………………….. 29 Analysis plan…………………………………………………………………………… 35 CHAPTER 4. RESULTS………….…………………………………………………………… 36 Perceptual Exercise Results……………………………………………………………. 36 Thematic Analysis Results………………………………………………………………40 AEIOU Observations……………………………………………………………………51 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….52 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….………56 APPENDIX A. IRB APPROVAL…………………………………………………………….…60 APPENDIX B. QUESTIONNAIRE…………………………………………………………….61 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I had to write this thesis under unusual circumstances associated with a pandemic. At times it was an exceptionally arduous and solitary experience conducting remotely moderated research, manufacturing hardware and engineering software. I want to thank my Dog Winston for being my constant companion and emotional support aid during twelve long months of research, iterative design and research execution. I would like to thank an individual who made time to mail me drawings about advanced display technologies he purportedly worked on, a Mr. Bob Lazar. Though controversial and highly debated, Mr. Lazar’s drawings and schematics inspired some of the later discussions concerning affective computing and how mixed-reality commercials were visualized, displayed, and presented to users. I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. James Oliver, and my committee members, Dr. Michael Dorneich, and Rafael Radkowski, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. In addition, I would also like to thank my friends, colleagues, the department faculty and staff for making my time at Iowa State University a wonderful experience. I want to also offer my appreciation to those who were willing to participate in my surveys and observations, without whom, this thesis would not have been possible. v ABSTRACT Advertisers currently face a significant challenge marketing to consumers in 2021. It is well established that people in 2021 consume nearly five times as much information as in 1986. To manage this increase of information, consumers have developed complex coping strategies that involve increased multi-tasking among digital applications like Gmail, LinkedIn, Outlook Calendar and Facebook. These very coping strategies that involve multi-tasking are making consumers less efficient at focusing their attention. Whatsmore, consumers are dividing their attention across more interaction technologies. This combination of societal trends presents distinct challenges to advertisers who want consumers to recall their brands, services and products. In an age where consumers own multiple connected devices, how consumers recall ads across interaction technologies and what drives them to act in response to those advertisements are largely unexplored. In order to explore how people recall the details of advertisements and what factors drive individual willingness to act in response to advertisements, a qualitative study was conducted in which twelve subjects experienced eight commercial variants across popular interaction technologies. After experiencing commercials across Head-Mounted Virtual Reality, Head-Mounted Mixed Reality, Smart Phones, SmartTVs, Hearables, Smart Watches and Smart Speakers, consumers were able to recall the brands and details of commercials more frequently on Head- Mounted Mixed Reality and Wearable interaction technologies. Moreover, willingness-to-act was vi highest on Mobile AR, Mixed Reality and Hearable interaction technologies. On this basis, Mobile AR, head-mounted Mixed Reality, Wearable and Hearable interaction technologies should be taken into account when developing advertising communications. 1 CHAPTER 1. MOTIVATION This thesis engages in a discussion of multi-sensory interaction technologies, so it is essential to define the terms used. Virtual Reality (VR): The definition of Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated digital environment that can be experienced and interacted with as if that environment were real. An ideal VR system enables users to see, hear, touch, smell and move within a virtual environment as if it was real (Jerald, 2016). Although many technologies have been developed or proposed to acutate human sensory perception of these simulated stimuli, truly immersive VR has yet to be realized. To date, the VR technologies with the highest sensory fidelity are those related to visual and auditory systems. Augmented Reality (AR) Augmented Reality is characterized by technologies that enable the natural visual perception of the physical world to be augmented with computer-generated virtual objects. As first defined by Milgram, et al. (1994) augmented reality falls within the broader classification of Mixed Reality (MR) which represents a spectrum spanning from the real environment to the ideal virtual environment. 2 Head Mounted Display (HMD): A Head Mounted Display (HMD) is a visual display device that is more or less rigidly attached to the user’s head. HMDs can be categorized as a non-see-through (i.e., all imagery is computer generated for VR) or see-through (either via video or optical) for AR (Jerald, 2016). Although the term HMD is typically associated with VR applications, many manufacturers are preparing AR-enabled “Smart Glasses.” Technology and social trends The amount of information people consume has skyrocketed in recent years. Researchers at the University of Southern California have found that the average person in 1986 was exposed to approximately forty newspapers worth of information daily and by 2006, that number had more than quadrupled to 174 newspapers’ worth of information daily (Parr, 2016). Researchers indicate that people have adopted multiple technologies as a coping strategy to manage this increase of information. For example, in order to manage busy email inboxes, people have adopted applications like Google Gmail. To stay in touch with friends and family, people use social network applications like Facebook that make it easy to stay up-to-date on all the important updates and life events from their familial and social contacts through a single scrollable feed. 3 Research suggests that people are multitasking more in order to consume and cope with this information (Parr, 2016). In addition, numerous studies have found multitasking makes it harder to pay attention and regain focus. The number of