Recall and recognition of in-game advertising : the role of game control

Digital gaming has become one of the largest entertainment sectors worldwide, increasingly turning the medium into a promising vehicle for advertisers. As a result, the inclusion of advertising messages in digital games or in-game advertising (IGA) is expected to grow steadily over the course of the following years. However, much work is still needed to maximize the effectiveness of IGA. The aim of the study was to contribute to IGA effectiveness research by analyzing the impact of two factors on the processing of IGA in terms of brand awareness. The primary objective was to investigate the effect of a person’s sense of involvement related to the control and movement mechanisms in a game (i.e. kinesthetic involvement). A within-subjects experiment was conducted in which control over a racing game was varied by manipulating game controller type, resulting in two experimental conditions (symbolic versus mimetic controller). Results show that the variation in game controller has a significant effect on the recall and recognition of the brands integrated into the game, and that this effect can be partially brought back to players’ perceived control over the game: when a game is easier to control, the control mechanisms require less conscious attention, freeing attentional resources that can be subsequently spent on other elements of the game such as IGA. A second factor that was taken into account in the study was brand prominence. The influence of both the size and spatial position of in-game advertisements was examined. Findings demonstrate that there are significant changes in effectiveness between different types of placements. Spatial position seems to be the most important placement characteristic, with central brand placements obtaining the highest recall and recognition scores. The effect of ad size is much smaller, with the effectiveness of the large placements not differing significantly from the effectiveness of their smaller counterparts

Product Placement and the Effects of Persuasion Knowledge

This study examines the effect of persuasion knowledge and cognitive busyness on attitude toward a brand embedded in a popular movie. Product placement is filling an increasingly important role in marketing strategy as conventional techniques have been rendered ineffective by their own ubiquity. Cognitive busyness was hypothesized to cause a product placement message to be processed on a superficial, peripheral level. If joined with persuasion knowledge, the subject’s lack of ability to devote resources to critically evaluate the message would activate compartmentalized knowledge of products and brands increasing the ease of this information’s mental accessibility and thus aid the formation of favorable brand attitudes. A controlled laboratory experiment reveals that when viewers watch the movie in a natural setting, viewers with persuasion knowledge exhibit lower attitude toward the placed brand than viewers without persuasion knowledge. However, such backlash brand-damaging effects are absent, if not reversed, when viewers watch the movie in a cognitively busy setting

Now it looks cool : the effects of brand customization on game players’ processing of brands embedded in advergames

textThis study examines brand customization in advergames and its effects on brand memory, game enjoyment, and attitudes gamers form toward the embedded brand. This study also tests for interactions between individuals’ locus of control and brand customization on the measured variables. A 2(customization) x 2(locus of control) experimental design was used. Subjects (N=60) were invited to a laboratory and the car racing game Gran Turismo 3™ was used as the advergame. Participants completed a questionnaire before and after treatment exposure, t-tests were calculated to test the hypotheses, and ANOVAs were run to examine all research questions. Findings suggest that individuals who customize the brand during gameplay recall the brand almost four times as much as individuals who don’t customize the brand. Results also reveal that subjects under the no customization condition negatively described the brand twice as much as subjects under the customization condition. Furthermore, a significant interaction between individuals’ locus of control and brand customization on brand recall was detected. There were no significant differences in attitude toward the brand and game enjoyment due to brand customization. Finally, the data didn’t demonstrate significant interactions between individuals’ locus of control and brand customization for game enjoyment and brand attitude.Advertisin

Brand placements in video games: How local in‐game experiences influence brand attitudes

Brand placements are omnipresent in video games, but their overall effect on brand attitudes is small and varies substantially between studies. The present research takes an evaluative conditioning perspective to explain when and how brand placements in video games influence brand attitudes. In two experiments with a 3D first-person video game, we show that only brands encountered during positive in-game experiences benefit from the placement, but not those encountered during negative in-game experiences. Building on the cognitive processes underlying evaluative conditioning, we also show that brand attitudes largely depend on the memory for the pairing of a brand with positive/negative in-game experiences. Pairing memory and thus also evaluative conditioning effects increase when players attend to the pairing of brands and positive/negative experiences, for example, when such pairings are a central part of the game\u27s storyline. Overall, our findings show that evaluative conditioning and its cognitive mechanisms can be utilized to explain and predict advertising effects in applied settings, such as brand placements in video games

Grinding the Axe Body Spray: linking gamer experience and brand recall in Guitar Hero III

The growth in popularity of social video games that appeal to a wide variety of audiences offers new opportunities for in-game advertisers to reach beyond the traditional gamer market. The current study aimed to test the effectiveness of in-game advertising placements in the popular video game, Guitar Hero III, based on the Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Motivated Message Processing (LC4MP). The Limited Capacity Model predicts that experienced gamers utilize fewer mental resources when playing video games because the repeated action of playing video games eventually becomes automatic. An experienced gamer would therefore have a greater capacity to remember in-game advertisements. The model also predicts that a video game that places a high cognitive demand on gamers leads to a decrease in mental resources available to process the gaming environment. The study included an experiment and a survey as well as BIOPAC equipment to provide physiological measures of heart rate. Results suggest that gamer experience does not significantly impact brand recall or brand attitude and that significant differences exist between players and watchers. Study results also indicate that the gamer’s perception of a brand’s fit in the video game significantly influences brand attitude. The study bears important implications for in-game advertisers because the results indicate that in-game advertisers should carefully consider both the content and nature of video games when developing in-game brand applications. The study results also suggest that the LC4MP lacks predictive abilities in terms of in-game ad recall when placed in a gaming context

The Effect of Focal Center and Peripheral Ad Placement, Player Involvement, and Player Experience on Recognition and Recall of Videogame Ads

This study examined how game player recognition and recall of ads are affected by ad placement, level of involvement with the game, and experience with video games. Test results supported the hypothesis that moderately involved players will recall and recognize more advertisements within the focal center than those placed in the periphery of vision. However, the hypothesis that highly experienced and highly involved players would not recall or recognize focal center advertisements was only partially supported. While highly involved/highly experienced players did recognize the focal center advertisements better than those placed peripherally, they could not recall ads regardless of their location within the game

Hubungan antara Motivation Achievement untuk Pemain Advergames dengan Tingkat Pemahaman (Level Of Comprehension) dari Brand Message (Pesan Merek)

Advergame merupakan salah satu strategi pemasaran yang dilakukan di era modern. Strategi ini dilakukan melalui video games sebagai mediumnya. Berbeda dengan media-media konvensional seperti televisi, koran, radio, dsb. Yang bersifat pasif ketika menyampaikan pesan Advergame memiliki keunikan tersendiri yakni lebih bersifat interaktif. Sehingga menarik untuk diteliti. Penelitian ini ingin mengetahui Hubungan antara Motivation achievement (Motivasi Penghargaan) dengan Level of Comprehension dari brand message. Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode eksperimen one shot case study. Dengan total partisipan 30 orang yang terbagi menjadi 2 kelompok yaitu kelompok termotivasi dan kelompok tidak termotivasi. kelompok termotivasi adalah kelompok yang diberikan motivasi terlebih dahulu sebelum bermain advergame. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah Uji perbandingan Independent samples T-test. dengan pemenuhan asumsi independensi sampel, uji normalitas Kolomogrov Smirnov dan uji homogenitas variansi. Temuan dari penelitian ini ini menunjukan tidak ada perbedaan nilai yang signifikan antara kedua kelompok yang diuji, artinya adalah tidak ada Hubungan antara Motivation achievement dengan Level of Comprehension dari brand message. Kedua kelompok dapat memahami pesan yang disampaikan melalui games tanpa harus diberi motivasi

Exploring player responses toward in-game advertising : the impact of interactivity

The chapter aims to give an elaborate introduction to in-game advertising. It starts by providing a definition of the practice, an overview of its benefits and drawbacks, and a review of the research that has been conducted on its effectiveness. Additionally, it presents the results of a case study investigating how players respond towards different types of advertisements that are integrated into a digital game, with a specific focus on the interactivity that they allow

Engaging the 'Xbox generation of learners' in Higher Education

The research project identifies examples of technology used to empower learning of Secondary school pupils that could be used to inform students’ engagement in learning with technology in the Higher Education sector. Research was carried out in five partnership Secondary schools and one associate Secondary school to investigate how pupils learn with technology in lessons and to identify the pedagogy underpinning such learning. Data was collected through individual interviews with pupils, group interviews with members of the schools’ councils, lesson observations, interviews with teachers, pupil surveys, teacher surveys, and a case study of a learning event. In addition, data was collected on students’ learning with technology at the university through group interviews with students and student surveys in the School of Education and Professional Development, and through surveys completed by students across various university departments. University tutors, researchers, academic staff, learning technology advisers, and cross sector partners from the local authority participated in focus group interviews on the challenges facing Higher Education in engaging new generations of students, who have grown up in the digital age, in successful scholarly learning

Effects of Video Game Streaming on Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors

Video game streaming has introduced to consumers a new method of creating branded content. Popular streaming platforms receive millions of broadcasters and viewers every month, and the current examines the influence of this type user-generated content on consumer attitudes and behaviors. The goal of this study is to understand how video game streams function as a marketing tool. To investigate this, a quantitative survey was designed and measured participants’ video gaming habits and their perceptions of credibility, usefulness of content, group identification, and purchase intention. Heavier gaming habits were found to be positively related to perceived credibility in a user-generated stream condition. Group identification and stream familiarity were found to be positively related to perceived credibility. These findings hold implications for using video game streams as a marketing tool, as heavier gamers were found perceive user-generated streams as a credible source of information