Proximity, Familiarity or Congruency? What Influences Memory of Brand Placement in Videogames

Abstract

Brand placement in videogames consists in integrating various brands that are not intrusive to give a feeling of reality to the context, as such increasing awareness and recognition of the brand in the mind of the consumer. The goal of this study is to ascertain if brand position, familiarity and congruency influence memorization of brands presented in a racing videogame. An experimental design 2 (position: prominent or subtle) × 2 (congruency: yes or no) × 2 (familiar: yes or no) was used in a sample of 117 participants (M = 20.91 years, SD = 1.75 years). Consumers have better recall and recognition of brand placement when it is familiar. Likewise, there is more memorization of placement that is congruent with the videogame’s subject matter. Nevertheless, it appears that position has no influence on memory. Regarding the three-way interaction, it turns out that the best way to remember brands is when they are familiar to the consumers, congruent with the videogame’s genre, and they are positioned in a prominent position. This article is the first to investigate the interaction between the three main variables that affect the memorization of brand placement.

The Last of Us and Converse: An Analysis of Product Placement and Its Effect on Player Recall

“…One advantage of advertising in video games is that it cannot be avoided, which means that players are unavoidably exposed to it. According to research by [10] that evaluated performance between children who played video games and those who did not, it was found that the brains of the former group showed greater activity in regions associated with attention and memory; the researchers believe that this is because video games, having more cognitively demanding tasks, improved brain performance in these areas (as cited in National Institute on Drug Abuse).…”

The Influences of Kopiko’s Product Placement in Korean Drama Towards Indonesian Korean Drama Viewers Purchase Intention

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Antropomorfización de Radio Nueva Q durante su product placement en la novela Luz de Luna

“…Respecto al objetivo principal de esta estrategia publicitaria, es la influencia positiva que puede causar en la actitud y comportamiento del televidente en los diversos formatos en el que se desarrolla (Aliagas et al, 2021;Boerman et al, 2021). Además de las ventajas como el despertar de actitudes positivas al presentarse en un programa de entretenimiento, según lo manifestado por Chan & Lowe (2021) o la reducción del zapping, al no notar que están expuestos ante un anuncio (Ibarra, 2018).…”

“…Además de las ventajas como el despertar de actitudes positivas al presentarse en un programa de entretenimiento, según lo manifestado por Chan & Lowe (2021) o la reducción del zapping, al no notar que están expuestos ante un anuncio (Ibarra, 2018). Cabe mencionar que para obtener los resultados deseados al momento de la ejecución del product placement, las marcas que desean invertir en un programa o serie, primero deben estar seguros de que su marca se encuentre relacionada con el tema central alrededor del cual gira el programa, esto a fin de no pasar desapercibida o ser rechazada por el público (Aliagas et al, 2021;Chan, 2020).…”

“…En lo que respecta a plataformas virtuales, encontramos un formato innovador como el de los videojuegos donde el product placement desarrolla un rol parecido al de las novelas, esto debido a que la estrategia es ejecutada en base a una congruencia entre el público y el producto anunciado (Aliagas et al, 2021). Es más, en los videojuegos se podría decir que este rol cumple un mayor protagonismo dado que este va dirigido a un target aún más específico.…”