Consumer response towards social media advertising: Effect of media interactivity, its conditions and the underlying mechanism

•Analyses the effect of media interactivity on consumers’ ad attention and memory in social media advertising•Examines the conditions by which the adverse effect of interactivity can be managed.•Examines the mechanism through which the media interactivity and its conditions develop into consumer-driven outcomes.•Theoretical insights are given to the enhancement of the domain of social media advertising.•Practical directions are provided aiming at successful design and execution of messages in social media platforms. Marketers increasingly use social media platforms as a promotion channel, and doing this, they prefer highly interactive social media because it allows consumers to socialize and network better. However, in this media, attention is often restricted towards primary purpose only as a result of the level of interactivity, thereby affecting consumer response towards the advertisement(ad). In this setting, the study analyzes the role of media interactivity and the effects it has on the reaction of customers towards the social media ad. Further, the study also introduces the conditional role of message relevant aspects, such as message vividness and anthropomorphism, and examines the intervening role of flow experience. Results from a between-subjects study indicate that interactivity hurts the consumer ad reactions. It also suggests that the right use of message relevant aspects can mitigate these adverse effects. Thus, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature and practice regarding the effects of social media interactivity which is relatively recent and has been overlooked by past researchers.