Brands in a game or a game for brands? Comparing the persuasive effectiveness of in‐game advertising and advergames

Abstract

Although a rich body of knowledge exists in the domain of gamification of advertising, no research emphasis has been given to compare the persuasive effects of two well-known gamification formats-in-game advertising and advergame. Also, we do not know much about their comparative effects on child and adult gamers. The present research fills these gaps by conducting three experiments in which we examine the effects of gamification format (advergame vs. in-game advertising) and age of consumers (children vs. adults) on attitude toward fictitious and real brands (Studies 1 and 2) and purchase intention of fictitious brands (Study 3). The findings reveal that children have more favorable attitude and purchase intention when the brand is advertised in an advergame than in an in-game advertising format, while adults demonstrate higher brand attitude and purchase intention in the latter as compared to the former gamification format. Also, brand familiarity differentially moderates the relationship between gamification format, age, and brand attitude (Study 2). Finally, consumers' engagement in the game positively mediates the relationship between the independent variables and purchase intention (Study 3). Our research contributes to academia by advancing the literature on gamification of advertising through a granular evaluation of persuasive efficacy of IGA and advergame played by adults and children. It also informs managers to effectively persuade consumers of different age groups by the usage of the right gamification format.

Advergames for children's health education and communication practices

“…Casual games which are usually free games with high accessibility and short durations are also part of advergames (Smith et al, 2014;Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker, 2010). Various studies on advergames mostly aimed to dig into the interaction between games-playing behaviors and players' brand attitude (Ghosh et al, 2022;Lee and Youn, 2008;Nelson et al, 2004), or brand consciousness (Steffen et al, 2013;Nelson and McLeod, 2005), or game and product congruity (Peters and Leshner, 2013), or brand image and brand recall (Ghosh et al, 2022;Waiguny et al, 2013;Waiguny and Terlutter, 2011;Redondo, 2012;Cauberghe and de Pelsmacker, 2010;Van Reijmersdal et al, 2010). Whereas seldom studies investigate the impact of advergames in the field of public service communication.…”

“…Thus, the views and research mentioned above inspire the research team that health games (advergames for health) may have potential in public health promotion including drug prevention, and they are more effective in children's health behavior intervention. The latest study (Ghosh et al, 2022) has proved empirically that the use of advergames could strengthen the players' awareness and positive attitude toward brand messages. Indeed, various research have been applied to study the theories and practices of applying digital games for young generations, for instance, the Health Belief Model (Abraham and Sheeran, 2015), the Persuasive Game Design Model (PGDM) (Orji et al, 2017) and the Gamification Theory (Tsai and Chen, 2019).…”

“…Various studies on advergames mostly aimed to dig into the interaction between games-playing behaviors and players' brand attitude (Ghosh et al ., 2022; Lee and Youn, 2008; Nelson et al ., 2004), or brand consciousness (Steffen et al. , 2013; Nelson and McLeod, 2005), or game and product congruity (Peters and Leshner, 2013), or brand image and brand recall (Ghosh et al ., 2022; Waiguny et al. , 2013; Waiguny and Terlutter, 2011; Redondo, 2012; Cauberghe and de Pelsmacker, 2010; Van Reijmersdal et al.…”

“…Thus, the views and research mentioned above inspire the research team that health games (advergames for health) may have potential in public health promotion including drug prevention, and they are more effective in children's health behavior intervention. The latest study (Ghosh et al. , 2022) has proved empirically that the use of advergames could strengthen the players' awareness and positive attitude toward brand messages.…”

Understanding customer attitude toward advergames: an extended TAM approach

“…Applying gamification in advertising allows marketers to use digital games to promote brands in two main ways: advergames, which are quick and easy games developed around the key value propositions of the brand and in-game advertising, which involves placing brand elements in pre-built or full-fledged video games. This method has been used by marketers for decades to persuade consumers through entertainment media (Ghosh and Dwivedi, 2022). Advergames are a popular form of gamified advertising that leverage game mechanics to engage consumers with a brand and achieve commercial goals.…”