The exponential growth in digital media has recently challenged the value of print media in the overall marketing mix. Across three studies, we evaluated the relative effectiveness of print ads versus digital ads. In Study 1, using eye-tracking and biometric measures during exposure, we found stronger encoding and engagement for print ads over digital ads. A week later, participants showed no significant difference in recognizing ads across format, though print ads showed better memory for the encoding context. Notably, using fMRI, we found greater activation in hippocampus and parahippocampal regions for print ads relative to digital ads. Extending these insights, Study 2 demonstrated better memory for print ads across contents, context, and brand associations when using snippets as retrieval cues. In addition to establishing the robustness of earlier findings, Study 3 provided further evidence that the observed memory advantage for print ads is primarily due to superior encoding during initial exposure. From a practical perspective, these findings suggest that marketers should not discount the value of print media in advertising, despite the rapid growth of digital media and communications.

数字媒体的指数增长最近挑战了印刷媒体在整体营销组合中的价值。在三项研究中，我们评估了平面广告与数字广告的相对有效性。在研究 1 中，在曝光期间使用眼动追踪和生物识别措施，我们发现印刷广告的编码和参与度比数字广告更强。一周后，参与者在识别不同格式的广告方面没有显着差异，尽管印刷广告对编码上下文表现出更好的记忆。值得注意的是，使用 fMRI，我们发现相对于数字广告，平面广告在海马和海马旁区域的激活更大。扩展这些见解，当使用片段作为检索线索时，研究 2 展示了对跨内容、上下文和品牌关联的平面广告更好的记忆。除了建立早期发现的稳健性之外，研究 3 还提供了进一步的证据，表明观察到的平面广告的记忆优势主要是由于初始曝光期间的出色编码。从实践的角度来看，这些发现表明，尽管数字媒体和通信快速增长，但营销人员不应低估印刷媒体在广告中的价值。