Consumer neuro-emotional and cognitive reactions to digital game advertisements

The primary aim of this study is to examine consumers’ neuro-emotional and cognitive responses to digital game advertisements using EEG. Within this framework, 18 visual stimuli, totaling 150 seconds, were selected from five publicly accessible online advertisements for PUBG, one of the leading games in the digital gaming market. These visuals were chosen to trigger and measure specific emotional responses. The study focuses on assessing five fundamental emotions identified in Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions: joy, sadness, anticipation, fear, and anger. In the study, the results indicate that participants exhibited varying levels of neural responses to all visual stimuli. Overall, this finding can be attributed to the high average values observed in the frontal region, indicating the active involvement of the prefrontal cortex in attention, planning, and decision-making processes. Notably, this study provides practical implications for advertisers and producers in selecting similar scenes and identifying the most impactful visuals in advertisement production. In this regard, the study can also be considered a useful resource for evaluating advertisement feedback.