Awareness and Perceived Appropriateness of Synced Advertising in Dutch Adults

This study provides insight into Dutch adults’ awareness and perceptions of cross-media personalized advertising with a focus on synced advertising (SA). A survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 1,994) shows that the majority of people (>70%) are familiar with the collection, use, and sharing of information about their media behavior. People are less familiar with SA, which involves presenting targeted ads to consumers based on their current media behavior. Less than half of our sample (45%) were familiar with SA, and only 29% had ever experienced SA. The majority (75%) found SA (very) inappropriate. Moreover, our results showed that adults with low conspiracy mentality, those not concerned about their privacy, older adults, less-educated adults, and women are less aware of the collection, use, and sharing of media behavior and are less familiar with SA, and thus could benefit from literacy interventions to improve their understanding and resilience.