Using Unfamiliar Cues to Engage Multitasking Audiences: Giving Attentional Breakthrough

We explore whether unfamiliar cues can affect advertisement (ad) recall after media multitasking. By introducing unfamiliar cues in message content during congruent media multitasking, we found that selective attention prompted cognitive processing and enhanced multitasking audiences’ recall of information from the content. Through four empirical studies, we demonstrated that including an unfamiliar cue in message content prompted multitasking audiences to engage more deeply with the content, improving their ad recall. However, we did not observe this effect during incongruent media multitasking. These findings emphasize the importance of selective attention and offer new insights into overcoming attentional distractions in media multitasking.