Multimodal Marketing Communication

“Multimodality” is a way of characterizing communicative situations which rely upon different forms of communication (e.g., images, written text, spoken language, sounds) to be effective (Bateman, Wildfeuer and Hiippala 2017). In marketing communication, situations qualifying as multimodal are everywhere. Print ads using combinations of text and visuals, interactive billboards with audio, text, and image ad content, and social media videos are examples of communicative situations where individuals are exposed to multimodal messages with persuasive intents. When individuals are exposed to multimodal communication, they process information in two modes: verbal and nonverbal. The verbal and nonverbal systems can cooperate, meaning that a piece of information absorbed through the nonverbal channel (e.g., images) can be verbalized, while verbal information (e.g., text or audio) can be expressed in mental images. However, whether one type of system has priority over the other depends significantly on the situation. While in some situations two (or more) modes are more effective than using one mode, in other situations multimodality can backfire.