Tourist mental-imagery processing: Attention and arousal

•There was no difference between two types of ads in attention measured by heart rate.•Arousal measured using skin conductance was greater for video than for audio ads.•Self-report responses were more favorable for video than for audio ads.

This study aimed to delineate how individuals process two types of advertising communications (i.e., video versus high-imagery audio advertisements) in terms of mental imagery processing. Participant’s heart rate for attention and skin conductance for arousal were measured during exposure to both types of ads. Self-report responses were also obtained after exposure to each ad. There was no difference between the two types of ads in the resulting heart rates, while arousal measured using skin conductance was higher while watching videos ads than arousal while hearing high-imagery audio ads. This study also found self-report responses were greater or more favorable after video ads than after high-imagery audio ads.