Alternative media strategies: measuring product placement effectiveness in videogames

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2006

Authors

Gangadharbatla, Harshavardhan

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Abstract

Product placements have evolved into organized promotional tools from the early days of brand inclusions in motion pictures. Product placements offer numerous advantages and consequently, many researchers and practitioners see great potential for this alternative media strategy. One area that is becoming increasingly important is product placements in videogames. Research on product placement effectiveness, however, has concentrated mostly on motion pictures, with very few studies examining placements in videogames. Studies that did look at placements in videogames mainly adopted recall measures with no particular emphasis on the factors that effect recall. This dissertation looks at some cognitive and affective measures frequently used in measuring advertising effectiveness to compare and contrast product placements in videogames under two different modes of consumption—active and passive. Four theories of information processing—active versus passive processing, primary versus secondary task, the limited capacity model, and perceptual load theory are reviewed, as well as their potential influence on recall. These theories are used as a framework to suggest differences in recall due to the mode of consumption—individuals actively playing the videogame, and individuals passively watching the videogame. In addition, psychological reactance theory and the mere exposure effect are examined to determine if any attitudinal and purchase intent differences could be expected as a result of subjects’ exposure to brands in the car racing videogame. An experimental design using four groups—subjects playing or watching the videogame with or without billboards in it—was used. Subjects (N=418) were invited to a laboratory and given instructions to participate in the study. A PC-based (offline) car racing game called TRACKMANIA Sunrise™ with billboards embedded alongside the racing track was used. A posttest-only control group method was chosen and subjects completed a questionnaire after being exposed to a treatment. Several t-tests and bivariate correlations were calculated to test the hypotheses. Findings suggest that individuals do recall seeing products in videogames and this recall is, on an average, approximately 4 times greater when they watch instead of play the videogame. Approximately, 57 percent of individuals who played the videogame and 97 percent of the individuals who watched the videogame recalled at least one brand. Recall scores were negatively related to self-reported levels of arousal, and positively related to the time taken by subjects to finish the race. There were no differences in attitude and purchase intention due to exposure of billboards in the videogame, either in the active or passive conditions. Other factors affecting recall are identified, practical and theoretical implications are drawn, and some future directions for research are suggested.

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