The games people play: How the entertainment value of online ads helps or harms persuasion (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2016
This study examined the effects of ad prominence and persuasion knowledge (PK) priming on game users' responses to in-game ads, the advertised brands, and the game. The experimental results suggested that game players showed more negative attitudes toward the brand and the game in response to high prominence ads. In addition, there was a significant interaction between ad prominence and PK priming on recall and attitudes. High prominence ads resulted in better product recall, only when PK was not primed. In contrast, high prominence ads resulted in more negative attitudes toward the game and game players' lower intention to play the game in the future, only when PK was primed. These results suggest that high prominence ads might be preferred when PK is not primed, whereas low prominence ads might be preferred when PK is primed. This study contributes to research on the effects of in-game ads in mobile games and provides practical implications for advertisers and game developers.
Motivated cognitive processing of in-game advertising
Communication Research, 2015
An experiment guided by the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) manipulated players' motivational activation states during play of a custom-built first-person shooter video game and examined memory of billboard advertisements embedded in the game's peripheral content. In line with the LC4MP, a memory sensitivity test demonstrated that encoding of peripheral billboard advertisements was greatest during moderate-medium aversive activation and worst with moderate-high aversive activation. However, storage, measured using cued recall, was greater with moderate-medium appetitive activation when compared with other motivational states. The findings extend understandings of motivated cognitive processing of secondary advertising information in video game contexts.
International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising
This essay examines the effects of nature of advergame, game involvement and need for cognition on gamers' ad-persuasion from attention and elaboration perspectives, addressing the research questions 1, 7 and 9. A 2 (nature of game) x 2 (game involvement) x 2 (need for cognition) between-subject measures design is used. 200 Indian undergraduate and graduate management students participated in the study. A 2 x 2 x 2 between-subject measures ANOVA is used to test the hypotheses. Results show that for a slow-paced advergame, low gameinvolvement results in higher ad-persuasion than high game-involvement whereas for a fastpaced advergame, there are no differences in ad-persuasion between high and low gameinvolvements. Also, for a slow-paced advergame with low game-involvement, subjects with high need for cognition report higher ad-persuasion than subjects with low need for cognition. These findings suggest to the advertisers and the game developers who design advergames, to consider a right mix of game specific factors, such as game speed and individual factors, such as gameinvolvement and need for cognition within a single advergame so that the implementation has the stoutest high impact on gamers' ad-persuasion.
The effect of advergames, banners and user type on the attitude to brand and intention to purchase
Purpose – This research was intended to analyze the effectiveness of advergames in comparison with banners. In addition, it seeks to analyze whether the type of user (someone who just casually browses the Internet vs. someone looking for product information on the Internet) will influence the effectiveness of both Internet advertising formats. Design/methodology/approach – An experiment with 152 participants controlling perceived entertainment. Findings – it has been observed that advergames are not superior to banners in improving the attitude towards brand and intention to purchase. These results are independent of the type of user (casual browsers vs. information seekers). Originality/value – While banners are traditional formats in Internet advertising, other formats have emerged as technology advances, such as advergames.
Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 2016
Research indicates that parents have a limited understanding of advergames. This study examines the effects of advertising disclosures and cognitive load on parents' activation of persuasion knowledge for a children's advergame. While parents exposed to any advertising disclosure reported higher levels of persuasion knowledge, a single-modality disclosure resulted in more persuasion knowledge activation than a dual-modality disclosure. Additionally, parents who experienced more cognitive load during advergame play reported less persuasion knowledge than parents who experienced less cognitive load. In support of and in contrast to extant literature, our findings offer both theoretical and managerial implications. Advergames embed products and/or product advertising into already existing media platforms or vehicles (Petty and Andrews 2008) and do not delineate between the commercial and program content. As such, advergames may be viewed as a form and extension of covert marketing whereby consumers are exposed "to brands by embedding them into outlets not typically considered advertising terrain" (Wei, Fischer, and Main 2008, 35). Such tactics may inhibit consumer skepticism toward the communication's persuasive intent and serve as an attempt to overcome potential distrust of the message source (Tanaka 1994/1999; Kaikati and Kaikati 2004). With the trend of children ages 6 to 12 years favoring online gaming, it is no surprise that parents' attitudes toward the use of digital technologies, which include the Internet and Internet-capable devices, are seen as positives for family connectedness (eMarketer.com 2013). However, children aren't always under their parents' supervision when online. Children frequently encounter and engage with commercial content found in advergames, which are distinctly different from traditional television advertising and in-game advertising due to their immersive nature (Evans, Carlson, and Hoy 2013). Existing research has demonstrated that children have difficulty understanding the commercial nature of advergames (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; An and Stern 2011; Owens, Lewis, Auty and Buijzen 2013). However, given the highly integrated commercial and entertainment content in advergames, Evans et al. (2013) state that "adults' recognition of and defense against the persuasive intent in these immersive forms of advertising may also be hindered by the integrated and hidden nature therein" (229). While parents may more closely supervise their child's online time (Eagle 2007) and overestimate their control over such activities online (Livingstone and Bober 2006), "it is unclear how much oversight parents actually give to their children's activities in commercial websites" (Moore and Rideout 2007, 213).
2016
It has been long known that there are different ways of communicating promotional messages with branded entertainments. Among all, the two of them are notable; communicating the message through advergames and integrating the message/brand in the game; known as in game advertising (IGA). Deriving the positive effects of both from the literature, different variables that may reduce or increase the ecacy of them are studied. This study is an attempt to understand the effect of different variables on affective responses to advergames. In the paper, it is suggested from the literature that cognitive overload affects affective responses (i.e. attitudes toward the branded entertainment and the main brand that the game is specifically designed for) of game players. The authors aim to develop hypotheses trying to explain the effect of cognitive overload stimuli on the attitudes of the gamers. In the paper authors also suggested hypotheses about how involvement may affect cognitive o...
Computers in Human Behavior, 2010
This study investigated how persuasive messages integrated in an online game affects children"s cognitive, affective, and conative responses to the brand, as well as their attitude toward the game itself. An experiment conducted among 2453 girls between the ages of 11 and 17 demonstrated that confrontation with interactive brand placement in the game resulted in more positive attitudes toward the game, higher top of mind awareness of the brand, more positive brand images, and more favorable behavioral intentions. In addition, consistent with persuasion literature and theories on child development, this study showed that there was a three-way interaction effect between exposure to the brand placement, age, and prior brand use for behavioral intentions. The youngest girls who had no prior experience with the brand were more strongly influenced by the brand placement than the oldest girls who had no prior brand experience.
A Conditional Mediation Analysis of Ad Value Moderated by Time Spent on YouTube
A Conditional Mediation Analysis of Ad Value Moderated by Time Spent on YouTube, 2023
Social media usage has increased significantly in the last few years due to its easy access and low cost. Besides other social media forums, YouTube usage worldwide has also increased profoundly. A recent decline in the number of advertisements on YouTube has led to YouTube skepticism about its full-fledged operations in Pakistan. Also, many firms in Pakistan have reduced their advertisement budgets on YouTube. Given its importance, the study has examined the factors affecting YouTube ad avoidance. The study also examined the mediating role of ad value and the moderating role of time spent on YouTube. In addition, the study has also examined the conditional indirect effect of time spent on YouTube. We collected data based on an e-questionnaire, in which 457 participants completed the questionnaires. Our study found that perceived ad irritation (PAIR) and perceived ad goal impediment (PAGI) positively affect perceived ad avoidance (PAAV). The study also documents that perceived ad information (PAIN) and perceived Ad entertainment (PAEN) insignificantly affect perceived ad avoidance (PAAV). The study proposed four mediating hypotheses, and we found support for only one hypothesis, stating that perceived ad avoidance (PAAV) mediates perceived ad goal impediment (PAGI) and perceived ad avoidance (PAAV). However, the study found time spent on YouTube (TSOY) moderates perceived ad value (PAVL) and perceived ad