Search results

Advergames have attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners as a new way of increasing customer engagement and advertising effectiveness. Gamified ads provide an exciting and persuasive environment for customers rather than non-gamified advertisements. Despite the growing spending on advergames projects, the understanding of customer attitude regarding advergames has received less attention and there are not enough studies about advergames. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to design a novel TAM-based model of determinants of customer attitudes toward advergames to enhance customer engagement and purchase intention.

To obtain this end, the mixed method was applied. In the first step, the main determinants of customer attitude towards advergames were identified by a literature review as well as semi-structured interviews. In the second step, the proposed technology acceptance model (TAM)-based model was validated by survey method through players of advergames. A total of 15 interviews were conducted in the qualitative phase and 102 completed questionnaires were analyzed in the survey method.

The results of the qualitative approach indicate that the main determinants of attitude towards advertisements can be classified into three categories, which are added to TAM as external variables. The results of the survey approach reveal that advertising content and game-related factors have a significant positive effect on perceived ease of use (PEOU). The advertising content and player-related factors also significantly affect perceived usefulness (PU). PU and PEOU also positively and significantly affect customer attitude. The findings show that the new TAM-based model can be considered as a robust model for explaining customer attitude toward advergame acceptance.

The research findings can assist digital marketers to have a big picture of customer attitudes regarding advergames and implement these innovative digital-enabled advertising strategies successfully. The findings further suggest considering marketing/advertising aspects and game-related aspects as well as individual factors to design advergames.

Advergames have become one of the priorities for digital marketers to enhance brand awareness and customer engagement, yet there is no study identifying determinants of attitude by considering multi-aspects of advergames. The most important theoretical contribution of the current study is to design a new extended TAM-based model which integrates behavioral variables (PEOU and PU) with factors related to the advergames context.

Appropriate and deliberate use of drug prevention methods is the key to educating children about the dangers of addiction and the way of prevention. With the growing prevalence of digital games among youngsters, health education and communication among children can try adopting advergames on digital television instead of traditional media, which has also been supported by prior research. It is, therefore, this research attempts to apply digital games as a means of health promotion and carry drug prevention messages through digital gameplay. Based on behavioral models, this research investigated the communication design and effectiveness of advergames for children's health promotion.

Two studies were conducted in this research. In Study 1, the research team investigated how public health message was assimilated into advergames, which affect the health behaviors of children, they are (1) Knowledge about Drug, (2) Attitude Toward Drug and (3) Perceived Severity toward Drug-abuse. In Study 2, this research investigated the effects of the advergames on children through a between-group experiment. A pre-test/post-test for the control group and experimental group with 180 primary school children in Hong Kong was conducted.

The finding showed the potential use of advergames in health communication among children. The result proved that the anti-drug advergame is a more successful intervention among the participating children in the experimental group than the control group. The result triggers further investigations in academic, professional and educational values for advergames design, health education and communication areas.

Because of the chosen small sampling locally in Hong Kong, the research results may lack generalizability for other countries or practices.

The study evokes children's awareness of drug prevention, encourages their physical and emotional wellness, and finally advocates a healthy lifestyle for them, through the deployment of health game communication.

Despite this research studied the use of advergames, instead of digital games in general, for health promotion and delivering drug prevention messages. The research design distinctively allowed the primary students to participate in the design of the advergames instead of being passive players and/or in the information delivery process. This approach is indeed a pioneer attempt in that limited practice has been found academically. The study expands academic and practical knowledge on health game communication.

This research investigates how advergame design elements (fantasy vs realistic advergame experiences) may impact players' brand patronage (BP), under the influence of mediators (hot and cold brand relationship quality [BRQ]) and moderators (advergame reward system and brand personality).

This research comprises of a survey (study 1) and a lab experiment (study 2).

Study 1 shows that fantasy (reality) based advergame experience leads to brand patronage through strong mediation of hot (cold) BRQ and weak mediation of cold (hot) BRQ. Introducing a utilitarian (hedonic) advergame reward system positively moderates the effect of fantasy (reality) based advergame experience on cold (hot) BRQ. Study 2 shows that an advergame that elicits fantasy (realistic) experience and offers hedonic (utilitarian) rewards for a brand having affective (vs cognitive) brand personality strongly impacts hot (cold) BRQ.

This research is an effort to understand how gamification as leisure information systems may be used to create gamers' advergame experiences that elicit BP by strategically designing advergame reward systems specific to brand personality types.

This paper aims to explain the effect of flow, game repetition and brand familiarity on players’ brand attitude and purchase intention in the context of mobile advergaming.

Data from 227 participants who played a mobile advergame were analysed. Structural equation modelling with partial least squares was used to test the research model.

The results reveal that the independent variables (i.e. game repetition and brand familiarity) significantly influence the dependent variables explored in this study (i.e. brand attitude and purchase intentions of players). Results also show that brand familiarity influences players’ flow experience, which in turn significantly affects players’ purchase intentions.

The findings of this study are important for advertising practitioners and advergames’ developers as understanding the determinants of mobile advergaming effectiveness is crucial for designing successful advergames that persuade players the most.

This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides new insights into the effectiveness of mobile advergames, which is an under-researched area. Second, it offers empirical evidence of the effects of game repetition, flow and brand familiarity on mobile advergaming effectiveness.

This study aims to examine how brands can leverage on advergames as an interactive marketing tool to foster prosumer culture and build a sacred brand. Drawing from game theory, this research scrutinizes how advergame format (cooperative vs noncooperative) influences consumers’ perceived brand sacredness by harnessing positive brand relationship quality (BRQ) and intention to prosume. It also examines how reward types moderate the relationship between advergame format and advergamers’ BRQ.

Three different studies were conducted. Study 1 develops a measure to capture advergamers’ intention to prosume. Study 2 uses survey to collect data from brand-controlled gaming community platform. Study 3 is an experiment that uses 2 (game format: cooperative vs noncooperative) × 2 (reward type: hedonic vs utilitarian) between-subject format.

Study 1 provides a reliable and valid measure to capture “intention to prosume.” The results of Study 2 elucidate that (non) cooperative advergame format generates strong cold (hot) BRQ, leading to intention to prosume, which, in turn, drives brand sacredness. The results of Study 3 elucidate that using (utilitarian) hedonic rewards strengthens the impact of (non) cooperative advergame format on (cold) hot BRQ.

This research has examined the roles of cooperative vs noncooperative game design formats and hedonic vs utilitarian reward formats. Future research may focus on other possible advergame design formats and reward types.

This research provides insights to advergame marketers toward designing appropriate hedonic or utilitarian game rewards to strengthen the impact of cooperative vs noncooperative advergame format on brand sacredness through enhancing BRQ and intention to prosume among the target advergamers.

This research applies game theory in the advergaming context to manoeuvre game format and rewards so that a sustainable prosumption culture is built, which has strong beliefs about the sacredness of the brand.

Advergame as a new approach in advertising has recently attracted the attention of many researchers and practitioners. Despite the growing investment, managers still do not have a comprehensive understanding of the success factors of advergames. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies that address success factors in advergames. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore the success factors of advergames to enhance the markets' insight regarding the implementation of advergames.

This study investigates the success factors of advergames implementation using the mixed-method approach. For this purpose, along with a literature review, some semistructured interviews with experts were conducted and the obtained data were analyzed using the thematic analysis. Then a survey was conducted to validate the extracted factors and criteria. The quantitative data were analyzed by Student t-test and factor analysis.

The results indicated that the main success factors of advergames are game design factors, brand/product-related factors, players' personality-related factors and technical factors. The rank orders of the mentioned factors and their subcriteria were identified using their respective variance.

In advergame initiatives, technical issues must be considered along with game design factors, brand/product-related factors and players' personality-related factors simultaneously. The findings can assist managers to understand all aspects of advergames adaptation and assess the weaknesses and strengths of adervgame projects.

Although the intersection between digital games and advertising has had a growing trend in both practical and academic contexts, there are few studies on what factors must be considered during advergames development and implementation. The main contribution of this study is to explore the important aspects of advergames success and their priorities. The findings provide a comprehensive insight on the interdisciplinary aspects of advergames.

Based on flow theory, the purpose of this paper is to explain why the use of mobile advergames can enhance players’ brand perceptions and purchase intentions, as well as the factors that affect players’ flow experience.

Data from 212 participants who played a mobile advergame was analysed. Structural equation modelling with PLS was used to test the research model.

The results reveal that challenge, interactivity, focused attention and telepresence significantly influence the flow experience while playing mobile advergames. Results also show that the greater the flow, the more positive the attitude towards the featured brand and the greater the purchase intention.

The findings of this study are important for advertising practitioners and advergames developers as understanding the key game features that promote flow is crucial to designing engaging mobile advergames that persuade players most.

This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides new insights into the effectiveness of mobile advergames, which is an under-researched area. Second, it offers a conceptual framework based on flow theory for understanding why the use of mobile advergames can enhance players’ brand perceptions and purchase intentions.

Advergames, or integrated brand messages within digital games, have received considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. Despite increased use of advergames as a brand promotion strategy by a range of well-known brands, limited understanding exists about a number of issues related to the effective use of such games. This paper aims to critically review the literature on advergames by performing a detailed analysis of existing research in this area and propose an organizing framework. Based on this framework, the authors discuss key issues with current understanding and propose important questions for future research.

This literature review follows Webster and Watson’s (2002) concept-driven systematic review methodology elaborating on the key antecedents and consequences identified in advergame studies (what we know: current knowledge), followed by the discussion of key factors that should be investigated as antecedents and consequences (literature gaps).

This paper presents a review and synthesis of advergame studies based on Terlutter and Capella’s (2013) integrated marketing communication framework. It identifies game, individual and social factors and suggests how these factors could affect a consumer’s brand-related cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral responses. The authors further propose an advergame framework that identifies two different “unit of analysis” (antecedents and consequences of game factors and antecedents and consequences of individual and social factors), which can be used by scholars to center their research efforts in a more detailed fashion.

Research questions posed in this literature review indicate that future research in the area of advergames should focus on investigating the effects of various game, individual and social factors on consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioral responses.

The advergame framework provided here provides firms with a guide to the factors that may affect their consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioral responses and helps them in developing effective advergames.

The paper provides a comprehensive review of the advergame literature that has not been done before and develops a general advergame framework that can be applied in all contexts and will guide future studies in the area. Overall, the study helps the researchers to identify critical issues and concepts related to advergames and shapes future research in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the content of food advergames and the nutritional quality of foods promoted in those advergames with the presence of child visitors.

This study integrates three different sources of data, first, characteristics of the audience from internet audience measurement metrics; second, an analysis of food advergame content; and third, an analysis of the dietary quality of the foods in advergames.

The results show that 83.2 percent of the total 143 advergames are sponsored by CFBAI participating companies and 79.5 percent of the total 44 advergames reaching children are sponsored by those companies. About 87 percent of the advergames reaching children do not include age limit specification. By contrast, about 71 percent of the advergames reaching children include ad breaks and about half of the advergames reaching children include healthy lifestyle information. Compared to the total, advergames reaching children seem to have a higher level of brand integration. Moreover, most foods that the advergames promote are classified as unhealthy. Finally, the results show that ad breaks and number of brand identifiers are the two significant predictors of food advergames with child unique visitors.

Despite the increased attention to and scrutiny of innovative and interactive food marketing targeting children, little is known about the extent to which such techniques actually reach children, nor about the content and nutritional quality of foods they promote. This study attempts to fill in the gap by focussing on food advergames.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how healthy eating involvement (HEI) impacts the evaluations of branded food advergames.

This paper invokes the elaboration likelihood model and reactance theory to explain the effects of different levels of brand integration within a food advergame on individuals with different reported levels of HEI. Undergraduate students were assigned (non-random) to play one of three different advergames with varying levels of brand integration. Furthermore, participant’s health involvement was measured and incorporated as a moderating variable on brand and advergame attitudes. Regression analyses were used to analyze the data.

The results showed significant interaction effects between HEI levels and level of brand advergame integration. Individuals with higher levels of HEI showed more negative attitudes toward the brand and game when integration was high. However, lower levels of brand advergame integration resulted in positive effects among lower HEI individuals.

Limitations of this research are that gamer experience was not measured prior to game play. Also, that no control of advergame playing time was conducted. However, a manipulation check was conducted. Future research should examine the impact of healthy advergames on individual’s reactions and information processing.

Editors and creators of advergames must be more aware of the impact that branded items have within a gaming situation. Individuals may not always positively evaluate the brand integrated within a fun online environment. Furthermore, better consumer targeting will likely lead to higher message acceptance based upon individuals levels of self-congruency with that message.

This study provides needed examination of contextual and individual level variables in responses to advergaming content.