Putting Brands into Play: How Player Experiences Influence the Effectiveness of In-Game Advertising

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship that exists between the effectiveness of in-game advertising (IGA) and one specific context characteristic: player experiences during gameplay. Gaming is an active experience where a person is drawn into a virtual world and confronted with numerous emotions and experiences. It is argued that these player experiences might have an impact on how a player processes the game environment, including in-game ads. An experimental design was employed in which participants had to play an online computer game that contained in-game ads. Results show that manipulating player experiences had an effect on IGA effectiveness in terms of brand recognition and brand likeability, supporting the notion that player experiences are important context characteristics that have to be taken into account while studying the effectiveness of in-game advertising.