Jennifer B. Barhorst

Drawing on cognitive science research, this study presents mental time travel experiences to the marketing literature and explores their value to brands. Specifically, we examine how marketing stimuli can be used to elicit mental time travel experiences and the impact these experiences have on important brand outcomes including purchase intentions, word of mouth, loyalty intentions, and learning. We do so with two studies using branded experiences from two marketing campaigns across four different conditions: augmented reality, a 360° website, a video, and a static image. Results identify positive episodic memories as an important primer of mental time travel experiences and that mental time travel to the past is a key factor to influencing purchase intentions, word of mouth, loyalty intentions, and learning. We also show that cognitive load can have an inhibiting effect on mental time travel's ability to influence purchase intentions, word of mouth, and loyalty intentions. Finally, we demonstrate that a state of immersion can enhance mental time travel's ability to influence learning.