Receptiveness of Gamers to Embedded Brand Messages in Advergames

Advergames are increasingly being used as part of a marketing campaign to promote products and brands. Previous research investigating the extent to which game players absorb messages in interactive environments has focused on video and more general online gaming environments. Using a snowball sampling technique we examined the level of recall of products, brands, and companies in advergames and whether the acceptability of product placement in advergames is related to attitude towards advertising in general. Our investigation shows recall of products and companies is high and that being negative about advertising in general has a stronger influence on attitude towards product placement in advergames than being positive about advertising. We conclude that advergames might work more effectively for products and brands that are already known to the game players and that advergames may be more suited to enhancing and altering brand impression rather than building awareness of products that are new to the target audience.