More Mutter About Clutter: Extending Empirical Generalizations to Facebook

Karen Nelson-Field, Erica Riebe, and Byron Sharp

This article examines the impact of clutter on advertising placed on Facebook. This platform is quite different from broadcast media, yet the current study unveiled very similar findings as previously seen for television and radio—that advertisements were better recalled when placed among fewer other advertisements.

More Mutter About Clutter: Extending Empirical Generalizations to Facebook

Karen Nelson-Field, Erica Riebe and Byron Sharp

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

Management slant

  • Facebook differs little from television and radio in the degree that clutter affects advertising effectiveness.
  • Improvements in advertising recall and brand recall that can be made by reducing advertising clutter are not large enough to justify the cost premium that would be charged to do so. Advertisers (especially for larger brands) are likely to prefer buying additional reach rather than paying the ...

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