Premium
Catch and Shoot: The Influence of Advergame Mechanics on Preference Formation
Author(s) -
Kuo Andrew,
Rice Dan Hamilton
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
psychology and marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.035
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1520-6793
pISSN - 0742-6046
DOI - 10.1002/mar.20770
Subject(s) - popularity , extant taxon , psychology , perception , banner , preference , cognitive psychology , promotion (chess) , fluency , product (mathematics) , advertising , social psychology , mathematics , business , mathematics education , history , statistics , geometry , archaeology , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , politics , political science , law , biology
The use of advergames for the purpose of brand and product promotion is growing in popularity as the mobile gaming industry expands. The extant research on advergames, however, has focused primarily on factors influencing the effectiveness of in‐game advertising (e.g., banner and pop‐up ads appearing beside gameplay). Therefore, this research seeks to examine the impact of branded content integrated directly into the mechanics of a game. Across two studies, the influence of common game mechanics (e.g., shooting, collecting, avoiding) on affective and attentional processes are investigated by manipulating the design elements of a custom advergame. The results suggest that advergame mechanics can influence subsequent choices through perceptual fluency and affective transfer. Additionally, perceived difficulty was found to moderate the relationship between affective response and choice.