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This paper aims to examine branding strategies directed at child consumers, used by six high fat, sugar and salt food brands across three different digital marketing platforms. It identifies brand relationship building potential in this digital context.

This study analyses the contents of branded mobile phone applications, branded websites (including advergames) and branded Facebook sites to understand the nature of young consumer–brand relationship strategies that marketers are developing in this digital media marketing environment.

The use of sophisticated integrated branding strategies in immersive online media creates the potential for marketers to build relationships between young consumers and brands at an interactive, direct and social level not seen in traditional media. Categories of relationships and brand tactics are identified as outcomes of this analysis and linked to brand relationship building potential.

The results suggest that branded communication strategies that food companies use in the online environment are creating conditions that appeal to young consumers, fostering new ways to build brand relationships. As this is a dynamic medium in a fluid state of change, this exploratory study identifies and categorises the marketing strategy, but not the young consumers’ response to such branding strategies (a limitation).

This study details the potential for child–brand relationship building in the context of online branding environments. It identifies the potential for longer-term effects of embedded advertising directly to young consumers, within and across three digital media platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the combined effect of game-interactivity and game-product congruence on consumers’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance in the context of in-game advertising.

A 2 (interactivity: high or low)×2 (game-product congruence: high or low) between-subject measures design is used. In total, 140 students participated in the study. A 2×2 between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance is used to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that for a high-interactive game, congruent condition results in higher brand advocacy and superior brand acceptance than the incongruent condition. However, for a low-interactive game, both congruent and incongruent conditions will result in the same level of brand advocacy as well as equal levels of brand acceptance.

This paper provides implications for theory as well as practice by providing the empirical evidence of the combined effect of game-interactivity and game-product congruence on consumers’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance from the perspective of attention and elaboration. If higher brand advocacy and greater brand acceptance are the objectives of the brand managers, then a high interactive with congruent brand placements would be the right approach for effective advergames.

This investigation contributes to non-traditional advertising media literature, specifically to the area of branded entertainment, like brand placements in digital games by examining and exploring the influence of game-specific factors on players’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance. Moreover, this paper is one of the first to reveal the real-time roles of game-specific factors in generating gamers’ brand advocacy and brand acceptance from the perspectives of attention and elaboration, in an emerging marketing context, like India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of interactivity and game-product congruence on the players’ feelings of presence and their brand attitude in the context of in-game advertising. Specifically, this research illustrates the conditions under which the brand placements in digital games create attention, engagement, subsequent feelings of presence and brand attitude by drawing the insights from the “limited capacity model of attention,” the “vividness effects theory” and the “transportation theory.”

A 2 (interactivity: high or low)×2 (game-product congruence: high or low) between-subject measures design is used. In total, 152 students participated in the study. A 2×2 between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance is used to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that for a high game-product congruent game, high interactivity results in greater levels of feelings of presence than a low-interactivity condition. However, for a low game-product congruent game, both high- and low-interactivity conditions result in the same level of presence. Furthermore, the findings also show that for a high game-product congruent game, high interactivity results in more favorable brand attitude than a low-interactivity condition. On the other hand, for a low game-product congruent game, both high- and low-interactivity conditions result in the same level of brand attitude.

This paper provides implications for theory as well as practice by providing the empirical evidence of the combined effect of game-product congruence and interactivity on feelings of presence and brand attitude from the perspectives of attention, engagement and transportation of experiences in an emerging marketing context like India. The findings are useful for marketing practitioners in terms of effective in-game advertising, designing and execution. Future research can be conducted by exploring the in-game advertising effects of various other variables, such as product-involvement, game-involvement or game-repetition.

This investigation contributes to the literature of non-traditional advertising media, specifically to the area of branded entertainment, like brand placements in digital games by examining and exploring the influence of game-specific factors on the players’ feelings of presence and brand attitudes. Moreover, this paper is one of the first to reveal the real-time roles of game-specific factors in creating gamers’ feelings of presence and brand attitude from the perspectives of attention, engagement and transportation of experience in an emerging market context like India.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of game-product fit on brand advocacy and mediating role of thought favorability in fit and brand advocacy relationship in the context of in-game advertising (IGA) using congruity theory and heuristic systematic model. This expounds the conditions under which in-game brand placements form favorable or unfavorable thoughts about the game and the advertised brand, and following brand advocacy.

A total of 144 student-gamers participated in the study. One-way ANOVA and a path analysis were used for hypotheses testing.

Results showed that the high-fit game resulted in higher thought favorability and greater levels of brand advocacy than the low-fit game. Furthermore, results also revealed that thought favorability mediated the relationship of game-product fit and brand advocacy among players.

Research on IGA is still in its relative infancy, and how gamers respond to brand placements in games has yet to be fully established. This paper’s theoretical implications are primarily in the context of in-game advertising and explain the role played by game-product fit as an originator to thought favorability that further adds value to thought favorability and brand advocacy relationship.

The study offers important implications for marketers, advertisers, policy-makers in terms of effective game-designing and IGA execution.

Since very little research has been done focusing on mediating role of thought favorability in game-product fit and brand advocacy relationship in the context of IGA from attention and elaboration perspectives, this paper scores as a pioneering study of its kind in India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of in‐game placements on the explicit memory of Indian gamers and understand their attitude towards this form of communication. It attempts to find out whether the memory effects differ due to the nature of the games. The avenues for in‐game placements for the rapidly growing Indian video gaming industry are discussed.

The effect of the nature of the game on the recall and recognition is measured using a sample of 240 gamers; two games of different nature (fast versus slow) are used as stimuli and the recall and recognition of the in‐game placements are compared. Subsequently the perceptions towards this type of placement are tapped. The moderating effect of gaming experience on the explicit memory is also tested.

The paper finds that in‐game placements do affect the explicit memory of gamers. Games with lower perceptual load (slow game) result in a significantly higher recall and recognition as compared to the games with higher perceptual load (fast game). Indian players have a positive attitude towards placements in this medium and do not find this practice either intrusive or unethical.

Further research using different combinations of games is required to confirm, expand and generalize the findings.

This medium provides an opportunity to brand managers and game developers as an alternative communication vehicle. In‐game placements provide an avenue to companies as they are cost effective, they facilitate building brand awareness and are not viewed negatively.

The arena of in‐game placements is an unexplored one in India. This study is the first step towards understanding views and effects of in‐game placements on Indian gamers and may encourage more research in this field.

Despite the proliferation of casual advergames on web sites, there is relatively little scientific evidence on which product‐placement qualities and individual consumer characteristics allow a positive affect transfer from game to brand. The purpose of this paper was to examine the influence of placement conspicuousness, exposure duration, and player gender in an experiment with Spanish‐speaking adolescents under real‐world conditions.

Three versions of a casual advergame were created and posted on the popular web site www.jetix.es. Two of the versions embedded ads for M&M chocolate candy, each of which had a different degree of conspicuousness (less versus more conspicuous), and the third version showed no brand placement at all and was used as the control condition. The versions were randomly assigned to 405 participants, and changes in their attitudes to M&Ms were measured.

The positive affect induced by the casual advergame transferred to M&Ms when it was not inhibited by negative reactions to the brand placement. The transfer of affect occurred after both a brief exposure to the prominent placement and a long exposure to the subtle placement, but no transfer was observed under the opposite set of conditions. Significant transfer in female adolescents but the absence of transfer in their male counterparts suggests a strong gender bias.

There are two implications for marketers who want to persuade adolescents through casual advergames. First, these marketers should segment their casual advergames by designing subtle placements for games with lasting appeal and prominent placements for games with brief appeal. Second, to strengthen male adolescents' brand preferences, marketers should not focus on casual advergames but search for more appropriate entertainment vehicles.

The theoretical framework relies on an unprecedented combination of classical conditioning and psychological reactance theories. The results are of interest for marketers trying to persuade adolescents as well as for public policy advocates trying to protect this vulnerable target group.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how simultaneous use of devices such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones impacts the sponsors that receive brand integration during the broadcasts. Advances in technology now allow fans to consume broadcasts of televised events almost anywhere via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. These devices are also frequently utilized as “second screens” to communicate with fellow consumers on social media, access additional content or otherwise multitask during televised consumption.

An initial study served to test the applicability of the theoretical framework of a dual coding theory in this new context, followed by a 3 × 2 between-subjects design utilized to advance understanding of the influence of second screens on brand awareness of the sponsors of televised events.

Results demonstrated that both brand recognition and recall were reduced by second screen activity across nearly all audio or visual consumption experiences. Further, while second screen use in an audiovisual setting did not interfere with consumers’ ability to recognize brands, indicating they were able to multitask and were not distracted, it inhibited their ability to recall brands from memory. This result provides evidence that second screen use may interfere with elaborative rehearsal and reduce cognitive capacity.

Given that marketers are investing more resources than ever to achieve brand integration during televised events, these findings suggest that brands face challenges in achieving a requisite return on their investments.

This study represents the first empirical investigation of the impact of consumers’ use of second screens in the academic literature, and has important implications for the sponsors of televised events.

Employing the conceptual framework of play themes, this study examined and reported the product categories that presented branded entertainment the most, the different types and features of branded entertainment, and how various play themes were incorporated in branded entertainment in the context of Facebook brand profile pages. The major findings were consistent with the conceptual framework and literature on branded entertainment. Some unexpected findings were also provided and discussed. The line between entertainment and marketing communication has become increasingly blended or even erased during recent years, particularly in the Internet context. Researchers and practitioners are highly interested in the marketing potential of branded entertainment since it may boost brand awareness and build strong consumer‐brand relationships. Little academic research to date has been conducted to systematically study branded entertainment on the Internet. This study is a nascent attempt to understand branded entertainment in user‐centered social networking websites (SNWs), since young users are shifting away from other online media to SNWs. Branded entertainment may help marketers gather segmented yet fun‐seeking SNW users and deliver nonintrusive marketing messages to them.

This paper refines the Digital Media–Arena (DMA) framework to address the diversity of stakeholders contributing to the production, (re)appropriation and (re)distribution of organisational messages in digital environments. It also presents a case analysis for the purpose of demonstrating the applicability of the revised conceptual framework to a critical situation.

Grounded in key public relations, corporate communication and strategic communication research, this study first extends the DMA framework by introducing six new forms of media-arenas. Next, the study takes a public sector perspective to analyse the revised framework against a critical situation involving the Finnish prime minister in summer 2022.

The application of the revised DMA framework to analyse the critical situation shows the importance of mapping and understanding diverse discourses across multi-arenas and their communication role in a rapidly unfolding scandal surrounding the prime minister of Finland. Findings also reveal the diversity of stakeholder voices forming their own versions of organisational messages and sometimes converging organisational messages within and across DMAs.

The DMA framework can offer practical suggestions to guide communicators to make strategic choices in what, where, how and with whom they can communicate.

The revised DMA framework contributes expanding the field's knowledge of the strategic communicative use of the digital environment in typically highly volatile and multi-vocal situations by offering instrumental understanding of the conflicting challenge between subjugating and liberating organisational messages across the digital spectrum.

Virtual reality (VR) is of increasing interest to marketers because it can be used to explore and proactively shape long-term futures, co-create value with consumers, and foster consumer-brand engagement. Yet, to date, the field lacks a cohesive framework for approaching VR research; thus, the objective of this systematic literature review is to provide such a framework and highlight research opportunities.

First, after conducting a systematic literature review, we highlight VR themes instrumental to flow and propose a typology for VR research using realism-fantasy and immersion as dimensions. Next, we review the current state of empirical research for each quadrant. Finally, we synthesize research within each quadrant, specifying criteria and considerations for conducting research. In doing so, we propose an agenda for marketing research, centered on methodological, future studies, and consumer-related contributions.

VR themes instrumental to flow include the avatar, application quality, and interactivity. We find, contrary to some conceptualizations of VR, that all applications are capable of producing flow. Conflicting research and gaps are highlighted in the findings section and summarized in Table III. Additionally, while prior research seems to draw from findings of other VR applications in advancing knowledge in general, the results of the literature review suggest that VR applications should be treated uniquely. Finally, we propose highly immersive VR applications as more conducive to future studies research.

Scholars can utilize the findings to prioritize future research studies in marketing. By following the typology and research opportunities, scholars can advance marketing theory and enhance the external validity of research studies through VR applications.

Managers can utilize the findings to ascertain consumers and societies‘ responses to various marketing stimuli, with implications for product development, branding, retail/service experiences, adoption of new technologies, tourism, and many other domains. VR applications offer managers more ways of testing concepts and processes in realistic fashion without the costs and risks associated with more traditional methods.

The objective of this paper is to examine varying opportunities for VR research given flow and fantasy potential and to prioritize VR research.