Does playing with a brand make you more attached to it?
Advergames and brand attachment: studying the effect of gameplay on brandattachment while considering gaming experience and repeated exposure
Arthur Pfalzgraf
Address: Hoogte Kadijk, 249 – 1018BK – Amsterdam Contact: +31 681 88 28 49 – pfarthurx@gmail.com
Date of Birth: 10.12.1991 Student ID: 10632190
Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme Communication Science: Persuasive Communication Supervisor: Simon Zebregs MSc
s.zebreg@uva.nl 29.01.2016
Abstract
This study investigates the effect that playing an advergame has over the brand attachment of the player, while taking into consideration the previous gaming experience of the player and a repeated exposure to the game. Using an experiment grounded in an online questionnaire, 100 international participants were asked about their attachment to a popular energy drink brand before and after being exposed to three different experimental conditions. They were either asked to asked to play the advergame once (N = 34), twice (N = 29) or not at all (N = 37). Results show that exposure to an advergame will increase the brand attachment of the player towards the brand featured in the advergame. Unexpectedly, the previous gaming experience of the player and repeated exposure over the course of the experiment did not moderate the increase in brand attachment.
Building on previous research about brand attachment and the use of video-gaming on smartphones as a marketing tool, the study showed that marketers could use advergames as a tool to improve the relationship between a brand and its consumers. Advergames provide individuals an interactive and entertaining medium which fosters the development of an emotional response to the game, and by association, the brand.
Introduction
As mobile devices become a ubiquitous part of daily life in most developed countries, the use of those devices as a medium to display advertising to individuals has become similarly prevalent, as predicted by exploratory research into advergaming as a marketing tool (Gurău, 2008, p. 106). As a form of mobile marketing, advergaming is one of the options companies have at their disposal to market their brand on a mobile platform. While the predominant of most marketing campaigns is to raise awareness of the brand, create loyalty and lead consumers to purchase services or products, advergames focus on creating an enjoyable gaming experience to facilitate the association of positive values to the brand. Since such games are usually provided free of charge, they can reach customers easily.
Using the definitions of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Smith, Sun, Sutherland and Mackie (2014) have described three distinct types of advertising in mobile games, namely around-game advertising, in-game advertising and advergames.
Around-game advertising refers to advertisements interspersed between gameplay sessions – thus not interrupting the flow of play. An example would be a thirty-second video between game sessions, during which the player cannot close or skip the media from playing. Aptly named in-game advertising refers to traditional online advertising forms presented during gameplay. In most mobile games, this takes the form of a small banner at the top or bottom of the screen displaying short animated adverts (similar to desktop advertisements such as those found on websites).
On the other hand, advergames are defined as “a digital game specifically designed for the primary purpose of advertising and promotion of an organisations product, service or brand
played via the Internet or on a compatible medium via a games disc or digital download” (Smith, Sun, Sutherland & Mackie, 2014, p. 98).
As defined by Smith, Sun, Sutherland and Mackie (2014), advergames are further defined in two categories: experiential and direct-response. The former describes advergames where the players associates attitudes developed while playing with the brand in question while the former exists to encourage the player to purchase the brand’s products or services while playing the game. In the current study, solely experiential advergames will be discussed as we will focus on the way playing an advergame can influence the relationship between the player and the brand which created the advergame.
Fairly recent research in the use of mobile devices as a marketing medium have increasingly recommended to marketers to build a personal relationship between their brand and the individual consumer. As smartphones become a pervasive part of daily life, Persaud and Azhar (2012, p. 437) argue that individuals view them as devices used in many facets of life, whether business or pleasure. They have also become an indicator of status, with which individuals are allowed to partly express their identity through customisation with ringtones of their favourites songs, stylish phone cases or wallpapers and specific applications installed on the device. Based on those findings, they recommend that marketers should tap into those motivations and emotional bonds as they try to engage consumers with the brands they market.
At the same time, research into relationships consumers can develop with the brands they interact with has grown in the past year. Marketing research has introduced concepts such as brand love, which describes the emotional connection between a brand and consumer based on passion-driven behaviours, self-brand integration, and positive emotional
connection (Batra, Ahuvia & Bagozzi, 2012). Also noteworthy, brand attachment , which has been defined and studied by Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich and Iacobucci has been labeled as a “critical brand equity driver” (2010, p. 15).
The current research is concerned with the potential benefit playing an advergame created by a well-known brand could have on increasing a player’s attachment to that brand. As both advertising through mobile devices and recommendations to create a relationship with costumers are growing, knowing whether using advergames as a driver of brand attachment would prove useful to both marketers and researchers in the field of persuasive communication.
RQ: To what extent does exposure to an advergame influence the brand attachment of an individual and do previous gaming experience or repeated exposure have an influence on the relationship?
Firstly, this study seeks to understand whether using advergames as part of a
marketing campaign can increase the attachment between the brand advertised and the player. Developing a direct, almost interpersonal relationship between individuals and the brand would in turn increase those individuals’ willingness to purchase the goods or services offered by the brand. Findings from this study would further help develop the growing body of research focusing on mobile marketing and other alternatives to traditional advertising. Secondly, this study would help advergame developers to better understand the underlying psychological effects of the games they create on the relationship between the brand and the player. This would help such developers to create more effective and successful advergames.
Theoretical Framework
To further explore the issue of consumers forming an emotional bond with a brand through an experiential advergame, this research will employ the concept of brand attachment introduced by Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich and Iacobucci (2010, p. 2). Branching and adapting it from the concept of brand attitude strength, it has been defined “the strength of the bond connecting the brand with the self.” Brand attachment incorporates components of interpersonal relationships — most often studied by psychologists — to explain that individuals may develop a cognitive and emotional bond between themselves and a brand. The bond can be influenced by the emotions felt by the consumer when interacting with the brand, such as playing a mobile game developed by the brand itself.
Brand attachment is distinct from brand attitude strength in motivating individuals to purchase a service or product, as it incorporates emotions and self-implications, concepts with stronger effects on behavioural change (Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich &
Iacobucci, 2010 p. 3-4). While brand attitude strength focuses solely on whether attitudes of an individual towards a brand are weak or strong, brand attachment measures the strength of the bond between the individual and the brand. This bond can be weak or strong, but there will always be a bond. On the other hand, brand attitudes can be either negative or positive, regardless of the strength of the attitude. Finally, the authors point out that brand attachment is developed over time — echoing the process of interpersonal relationships — the variable thus measuring a more advanced stage of the connection between a brand and an individual than brand attitude strength.
Researching the importance of matching the personality of a brand with the consumer’s self, Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer and Nyffenegger (2011) have shown that
self-congruence between the brand and the consumer can lead to a stronger emotional brand attachment. Their findings suggests that consumers are more likely to form an emotional connection with a brand that either validates their current self-identity or gives them an opportunity to reach their ideal self. Further, it has been argued that as an interactive media, games enable players to have an entertaining experience, allowing them to have an active control on their emotional and cognitive state (Grodal, 2000, p. 201). Finally, as explained by Hackley and Tiwsakul (2006), entertainment marketing is a tool used to “disguise the
persuasive intent”, meaning to strategically veil the commercial content embedded while still exposing the audience to the brand. Entertainment is thus used to elicit an emotional response to the presence of the brand. While consumers are weary of practices of traditional
advertising (e.g. television commercials), the use of alternative forms of advertising such as brand placement faces lesser resistance, especially with younger individuals (Tiwsakul, Hackley, & Szmigin, 2005).
While mobile game playing sessions tend to be shorter than console gaming sessions (Böhmer et. al, 2011), it is expected that playing an advergame for a short amount of time would influence the emotional state of the players nonetheless. As such, it is assumed that playing a mobile advergame created by a brand to promote specific values will provide individuals with an immediate emotional response to the stimulus provided by playing. In turn, this emotional response is excepted to increase the brand attachment found between the player and the brand.
H1: Exposure to an advergame will have a positive effect on the brand attachment between individuals and the brand advertised.
In an effort to define the nature of advergames, Dahl, Eagle and Baez (2003) have advised that their purpose was to use engage players of online or mobile games through entrainment to create an emotional connection between the brand and the games it developed (p. 2) – further supporting the notion that advergames are a worthy tool to modulate the brand attachment of the intended players.
However, other variables, such as the previous experience the player has with gaming might influence the relationship between playing an advergame and a change in brand
attachment. Indeed, a higher previous experience of games would mean the player could be bored by the simple mechanics of an advergame, translating in less interest in the game and the brand that created it (Gurău, 2008, p. 109). Since the increase in brand attachment after playing an advergame is dependent on the emotions felt by the player, this means that players with a better gaming experience should have a lesser increase in their brand attachment than players that are less experienced.
H2: Individuals with a better gaming experience will have a lesser increase in the strength of their brand attachment.
Repeated exposure to traditional methods of advertising has been discussed in marketing research extensively as a method of increasing effectiveness. For television commercials, repeated exposure increases the viewer’s familiarity with the commercial and the product advertised (Rethans, Swasy, & Marks, 1986, p.58). Research has shown that repeated exposure to the contents of an advertisement would reinforce the associations a viewer has for the brand advertised (Lane, 2000, p. 88). Lane (2000) further explains that multiple exposures to the persuasive stimulus also has a positive effect on how viewers process the information given by the commercial about the brand and product
While these studies focus on traditional advertising methods, the effect is expected to be the same in the case of an advergame being used as the persuasive stimulus. Further, playing the advergame more than once will increase the emotional response resulting from the gameplay, in turn reinforcing the effect of the advergame on the change in brand
attachment. As such, it is anticipated that individuals playing an advergame more than once to experience a higher increase in their brand attachment after playing than individuals who only play once.
H3: Individuals exposed to an advergame more than once will have a higher increase in the strength of their brand attachment than individuals exposed once.
Figure 1: Conceptual model
Methods
The study used a 3-group experimental design. Respondents answered an online
questionnaire in which they were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which exposure to the advergame was manipulated : two-exposure, one-exposure and
control (no exposure). Respondents from the two-exposure group were asked to play the advergame twice during the course of the questionnaire. Respondents from the one-exposure groups were asked to play the advergame only once and respondents from the control group were not asked to play the advergame at all while vein given the same questions regarding their overall brand attachment.
Materials
The advergame used as stimulus during the questionnaire was created by the Red Bull brand and is named Bike Unchained. The game was selected based on its availability on the current most prominent mobile platforms, namely Apple iOS and Google’s Android OS, to allow more respondents to take part in the experiment regardless of the mobile device they use.
Created by Red Bull, mentions of the brand, its logo and colour scheme are present throughout the game and in the app store listing of the game (whether on iOS’s App Store or Android’s Play Store). The helmet worn by a biker on the application icon unequivocally references the brand with its logo shown on blue and white colour blocks – the trademark colours of Red Bull. The same helmet is worn by the avatar the player controls during gameplay. Finally, the balloon arch signifying the end of a bike race which the biker has to pass through is branded with the colours and logo of the brand. See below to see the application icon and a screenshot of gameplay.
The gameplay consists of players being required to hold down certain buttons appearing the screen with their fingers, corresponding to cues from the path a biker takes during a race. The aim of the race is to reach the end of the path as quickly as possible. During the first five minutes of gameplay, players are invited to familiarise themselves with the mechanics of the game and go through a simple trial run. The next five minutes, players are asked to play a
second race of slightly increased difficulty. A screenshot of gameplay can be found below.
!
Sample
An international, English-speaking sample was recruited from the 10th of December 2015 to the 15th of January 2106 employing random sampling followed by snowball sampling. Participants for the questionnaire were recruited through social connections with the help of social media websites.
A first wave of recruitment targeted friends and acquaintances on Facebook and Twitter. People who took the time to answer the questionnaire were also encouraged to share a URL link of the questionnaire with their acquaintances after completing the questions. To enhance the snowballing effect and obtain more responses (Bryman, 2012), a second second wave of recruitment targeted individuals directly through email and messages after the initial wave of recruitment proved less successful than excepted.
Screenshot of gameplay Application icon
Procedure
Each respondent was first informed that they would take part in an experiment focusing on mobile gaming and brands. They were then asked to confirm that they had a mobile device allowing them to play the game required. Specific information about which device could be used for gameplay was advised to the respondent, based on the technical requirements indicated by the game developer.
After giving consent to take part in the experiment, respondents were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions. Respondents were then asked questions measuring their initial brand attachment to the Red Bull brand. Participants in the two-exposure and one-two-exposure conditions were then asked to answer questions about their previous gaming experience, followed by a request to install the advergame on their mobile device and to play for five minutes. Once the first gameplay session was over, respondents were exposed to a distracting animated image unrelated to the research. Participants from the one-exposure group were asked about their brand attachment again. Participants assigned to the two-exposure group were asked to play the game again for five minutes after exposure to the distracting image. The control group was solely exposed to the distracting image and never asked to play the advergame.
After exposure, respondents belonging to one of the exposure groups were asked to indicate whether they succeeded in playing the game for the required amount of time without any problems or difficulties, to ensure reliability of results. Questions related to their
enjoyment of the game and level of concentration were asked as well. Finally, all of the respondents were asked one more time about their brand attachment. Demographic
information such as age, nationality, gender, level of education and annual gross income were measured at the end of the questionnaire as well.
Measures
Brand attachment
Brand attachment was measured with a 6-item scale designed by Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich and Iacobucci (2010) and adapted to discuss the Red Bull brand. Items were measured on 7-point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagreed; 7 = strongly agree). Items asked respondents whether their thoughts and feelings towards the brand were automatic, coming to mind seemingly on their own; if they felt emotionally bonded to the brand; whether it would be difficult to imagine life without the brand; whether they felt personally connected to the brand; whether their thoughts and feelings towards the brand came to them naturally and instantly; whether they would feel distressed would the brand discontinue their products. Brand attachment was measured before and after exposure to the stimulus, giving two instances of the measure. The scale’s reliability for the first measurement (M = 3.60 , SD = 1.52, α = .94) and the second measurement (M = 4.33, SD = 1.68, α = .97) was confirmed.
Previous gaming experience
Previous video game experience was measured using an 8-item scale in which respondents were asked to rate their current perceived level of experience on different gaming platforms on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = poor; 2 = fair; 3 = good; 4 = very good; 5 = excellent). Items
Wii U; iPad or Android tablet and mobile phones. Reliability of the scale was confirmed (M = 3.50, SD = 1.14, α = .85)
Repeated exposure
Based on the experimental condition respondents were assigned to, exposure was either for a single duration of five minutes of gameplay or two instances of five minutes of gameplay separated by exposure to a distracting image in between. Respondents from the control condition were not exposed to the game at all.
Results
Testing hypothesis 1
The first hypothesis stated that respondents exposed to the advergame would have a higher brand attachment than respondents who were not exposed. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the brand attachment of respondents exposed to the advergame (N =
Table I: Sample information
Total sample 145
Excluded 45
Not completed 26
Issues playing the advergame 19
Final sample 100
Sample I - Control (N = 37)
Sample II - One-exposure (N = 34) Sample III - Two-exposure (N = 29)
63) and that of respondents in the control group who had not been exposed to the
advergame(N = 37). There was a significant difference in the mean score for the group that was exposed (M = 4.66, SD = 1.51) and the group that was not exposed (M = 3.77; SD = 1.83); t(98) = 2,61, p = .01.
Testing Hypothesis 2
The second hypothesis assumed that a higher previous gaming experience would positively moderate the effect of playing the advergame on the brand attachment of the player, leading to a higher increase in brand attachment. To test the hypothesis, an ANCOVA was conducted. The predicted main effect of previous gaming knowledge was not significant F(1, 92) = 8.31,
p > 0.5
Testing Hypothesis 3
The third hypothesis expected respondents that were in the two-exposure group to have a higher brand attachment than respondents that were exposed only once. To test the hypothesis, an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the brand attachment of respondents exposed to the advergame once (N = 34) and that of respondents exposed to the advergame twice (N = 29). There was no significant difference in the mean score for the group that was exposed once (M = 4.38, SD = 1.53) and the group that was not exposed (M = 4.98; SD = 1.44); t(61) = 1.57, p = .12.
Conclusion and discussion
Conclusion and reflection
This research set out to explore the effect of individuals playing an advergame on their brand attachment. More specifically, whether playing the advergame would increase the player’s attachment to the brand that developed the game. Using a fairly recent advergame developed by Red Bull, we have demonstrated that individuals playing it only once will have a stronger attachment to the brand than individuals that did not play.
We took into account previous gaming experience as a possible moderator and repeated exposure as potentially influencing the effectiveness of the advergame in increasing brand attachment, which were shown to have no significant effect. Nonetheless, we have demonstrated that using an entertaining and interactive medium such as a games to engage existing and potential customers can assist brands in creating an emotional connection between them and the individual playing the game.
Limitations and future research
While the current research contributes to the growing body of literature investigating the use of new technologies for persuasive communication, there are some limitations of the study that should be acknowledged. To begin with, the data collected resulted from a convenience sampling method composed of responses from friends, extended family and acquaintances as well as the individuals they shared the questionnaire with. This could have a negative impact on the potential generalisation of the study. Furthermore, the advergame used for the stimulus was developed by a third party, rendering the option of controlling the gameplay respondents
experienced impossible. As mobile games often change through updates, this meant the study design was limited in its timespan, as a change in the game’s mechanisms occurring with an update would have rendered the collected data invalid for analysis.
Given enough time and resources, researchers interested in studying the effects of advergames over longer periods of time by developing their own prototype of advergame. This would ensure the reliability and sameness of the gaming experience for each participant and allow for better control of the experience of gameplay – rendering further manipulation and adaption of the stimulus possible. Indeed, as respondents were not observed during the gameplay part of the experiment, there was no possibility to ensure that each respondent took the same amount of time to complete the same tasks asked by the advergame. While the first ten or five minutes of gameplay (for the groups that were exposed to the stimulus) were assumed to be similar, it is possible that some respondents took more or less time to complete the tasks, resulting in different gaming experiences.
While the study showed that there was no positive influence of repeated exposure over a short amount of time in increasing brand attachment more effectively, future research could look at multiple exposures over a longer period of time. Due to time constraints, our study focused on repeated exposure within the same play session, but research has proven that repeated exposure to advertising was more effective when spaced between longer periods of time (Noel, 2006, p. 315). It is also possible that a double exposure to the advergame in a short amount of time being ineffective is caused by the popularity of the Red Bull brand. Since players did not need to play twice to be aware of who had created the game, the emotional response from playing the game twice within fifteen minutes could have been similar to that of participants only paying once.
Brand love, mentioned earlier, is another measure created to understand the importance of the relationship brands form with their consumers. Brand love is defined as having three conceptual components that go more in depth than brand attachment: passion-driven behaviours; which describes the behaviours brought on by emotions, self-brand integration; which describes the desire for consumers to align their identity with the brand’s and positive emotional connection; which assesses how close the consumer feels to the brand emotionally (Batra, Ahuvia & Bagozzi, 2012). Building on the current study, it would be an interesting extension of the research to assess whether using advergames would also have a positive effect on increasing the brand love of an audience through experiential gameplay. Since brand love similarly develops through the creation of an emotional bond between the brand and the consumer, it could be found that advergames are similarly effective at increasing brand love.
Implications
The current study presents both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical standpoint, it reaffirms the development of new areas of study within the field of persuasive communication. In focusing on novel ways the fast-paced development of technology has allowed the development of new marketing tools, such research allows us to understand the underlying psychological implications of using experiential marketing to create emotions.
From a practical standpoint, the study confirms that the use of new ways to advertise to consumers allows for the creation of a relationship between brands and their customers. It also shows that consumers indeed develop feelings and emotions when interacting with a brand. When building upon the relationships, marketers can be use it as a powerful tool to
persuade individuals to invest in the product the brands offer. While the existence of this study relies on an existing advergame, proving that marketers are already ahead of the trend, understanding what makes consumers develop stronger feelings is crucial to improving the efficiency of such marketing techniques.
References
Batra, R., Ahuvia, A., & Bagozzi, R. P. (2012). Brand love. Journal of Marketing, 76(2), 1-16.
Böhmer, M., Hecht, B., Schöning, J., Krüger, A., & Bauer, G. (2011). Falling asleep
with Angry Birds, Facebook and Kindle: a large scale study on mobile application usage. In
Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services (pp. 47-56).
Bryman, A. (2012). Social research methods (4th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dahl, S., Eagle, L., & Baez, C. (2003). Analyzing advergames: active diversions or
actually deception. In Helsinki meetings of the European Financial Management Association.
(Vol. 26, p. 2008).
Grodal, T. (2000). Video games and the pleasures of control. Media entertainment: The psychology of its appeal, 197-213.
Gurău, C. (2008). The influence of advergames on players' behaviour: an
Hackley, C., & Tiwsakul, R. (2006). Entertainment marketing and experiential
consumption. Journal of marketing communications, 12(1), 63-75.
Lane, V. R. (2000). The impact of ad repetition and ad content on consumer
perceptions of incongruent extensions. Journal of Marketing, 64(2), 80-91.
Malär, L., Krohmer, H., Hoyer, W. D., & Nyffenegger, B. (2011). Emotional brand
attachment and brand personality: the relative importance of the actual and the ideal self.
Journal of Marketing, 75(4), 35-52.
Noel, H. (2006). The spacing effect: enhancing memory for repeated marketing
stimuli. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16(3), 306-320.
Park, C., MacInnis, D. J., Priester, J., Eisingerich, A. B., & Iacobucci, D. (2010).
Brand attachment and brand attitude strength: conceptual and empirical differentiation of two critical brand equity drivers. Journal of Marketing, 74(6), 1-17.
Persaud, A., & Azhar, I. (2012). Innovative mobile marketing via smartphones: are
consumers ready? Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 30(4), 418-443.
Rethans, A. J., Swasy, J. L., & Marks, L. J. (1986). Effects of television commercial
repetition, receiver knowledge, and commercial length: a test of the two-factor model. Journal
of Marketing Research, 50-61.
Smith, M. W., Sun, W., Sutherland, J., & Mackie, B. (2014). Game advertising: a
conceptual framework and exploration of advertising prevalence. The Computer Games
Tiwsakul, R., Hackley, C., & Szmigin, I. (2005). Explicit, non-integrated product
placement in British television programmes. International Journal of Advertising, 24(1),
