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3 April 2015

The Faster the Advergame, the Lower its Impact

Keywords: advergames, advertising, brands, games, persuasion, India & Southern Asia, advertising literacy, brand placement, gaming, literacy, young adults,

A study presented for the Association of Indian Management Scholars reveals that higher pace of an online "advergame" decreases young adults' memory of the advertised brand, but increases liking of the brand. In addition, players who are aware of the commercial intent of advergames, remember the advertised brands better, but are less positive about them then other players. The overall explanation might be that players are critical about in-game advertising, which then reflects on the advertised brands.

Take aways

  • Young adult game players remember brands advertised in an online video game better when the speed of the game is low than when game speed is high.
  • However, they also like the brands better when game speed is high.
  • Players who understand that advergames have a commercial intent remember the brands better, but are less positive about them than players who do not understand advergames' commercial intent
  • For policy makers with interest in advertising defenses it’s important to know that understanding of persuasive intent makes young adults more critical toward the brands.
  • Developers of online (adver)games should know that young adults could be critical towards commercial advergames.

Study information

  • The question?

    Are the speed and young adults’ understanding of the persuasive intent of the game linked to brand memory and attitude towards brands placed in advergames?

  • Who?

    224 young adults aged 18 to 24 years from a large Indian University

  • Where?

    India

  • How?

    Participants played various advergames, which were either high or low paced. Afterwards they filled out a questionnaire about their understanding of the persuasive intent of the game, brand memory (i.e., recall the names of the brands that appeared in the advergames), and attitude towards the brands in the advergame.

Facts and findings

  • Young adults remembered the brand more often when they:
    • played slow-paced advergames;
    • had a better understanding of the persuasive intent of the advergame.
  • The players' attitudes towards the brands were more positive when they:
    • played fast-paced advergames;
    • had lower understanding of the persuasive intent of the advergame.
  • According to the authors, an explanation for the findings concerning the speed of the game is that when playing a fast paced game players are not able to consider the persuasive intent of the advergame, which results in a more positive attitude towards the brand compared to playing slow-paced advergames.
  • As for persuasion knowledge, the authors explain that players with a greater understanding of the persuasive intent of advergames will raise their critical defenses while playing the game.