Catch and Shoot: The Influence of Advergame Mechanics on Preference Formation

Abstract

The use of advergames for the purpose of brand and product promotion is growing in popularity as the mobile gaming industry expands. The extant research on advergames, however, has focused primarily on factors influencing the effectiveness of in‐game advertising (e.g., banner and pop‐up ads appearing beside gameplay). Therefore, this research seeks to examine the impact of branded content integrated directly into the mechanics of a game. Across two studies, the influence of common game mechanics (e.g., shooting, collecting, avoiding) on affective and attentional processes are investigated by manipulating the design elements of a custom advergame. The results suggest that advergame mechanics can influence subsequent choices through perceptual fluency and affective transfer. Additionally, perceived difficulty was found to moderate the relationship between affective response and choice.

Effects of game‐product congruity on in‐app interstitial advertising and the moderation of media‐context factors

“…Previous research on the effects of game ads has focused on advergames (e.g., Gross, ; Kuo & Rice, ; Peters & Leshner, ; Wise et al, ) and in‐game advertising (e.g., Herrewijn & Poels, ; Huang & Yang, ; Sparks & Chung, ). Less is known in terms of the possible effects of interstitial ads appearing during gameplay sessions.…”

Do Social and Competitive Advergames Affect Brand Attitude in Asia?

“…Advergames are defined as the use of interactive gaming technologies that deliver embedded advertising messages to consumers [30][31][32] . Competitive advergames are designed to facilitate user participation by offering challenges and rewards 33 .…”

How Does Serious M‐Game Technology Encourage Low‐Income Households To Perform Socially Responsible Behaviors?

“…Studies in marketing have also demonstrated the ability for games to persuade players. Marketing research has found games can persuade player's preferences toward brands (Kuo & Rice, ; Waiguny, Nelson, & Terlutter, ) and increase intentions to perform behaviors (Ham, Yoon, & Nelson, ). One recent study by Ham and colleagues () found that advergames (a game which incorporates a product or brand) can encourage players to purchase healthy food brands and products.…”

“…Research is needed to improve understanding of how gaming technology, such as serious games, can be used by marketers to encourage socially responsible behaviors. Currently, the majority of marketing research on games focuses on their use for entertainment (Okazaki, 2008) or commercial purposes such as in-game advertising (Badrinarayanan, Sierra, & Taute, 2014;Kuo & Rice, 2015;Sparks & Chung, 2016). More recently, there is emerging interest in games, and in particular serious games, from a social marketing perspective (Mulcahy, Russell-Bennett, & Rundle-Thiele, 2015;Russell-Bennett, Leo, Rundle-Thiele, & Drennan, 2016), which is a subdiscipline of marketing that seeks to encourage positive social and health behaviors.…”