Acceptance of Branded Video Games (Advergames): A Cross-Cultural Study Spain-USA

Abstract

Advergames are free branded video games used by advertisers to target audiences with marketing communications in a playful, interactive, and engaging way. Despite its advantages for consumers (i.e., free entertainment content) advergames can also cause concern in consumers (i.e., advertising clutter) making it necessary to explore consumers’ attitudes that lead to acceptance of advergames. This chapter analyses the factors that lead consumers to accept advergames as an advertising format analyzing three variables related to consumer-media relationships: i) consumer attitude toward advertising, ii) consumer attitude toward the presence of brands in video games and iii) previous experience with video games. The moderating role of culture is also analyzed. To do so an empirical research study involving American and Spanish students was developed. Findings suggest that attitude towards advertising is the primary factor affecting advergame acceptance for the Spanish sample while attitude toward product placement in advergames is the primary factor affecting advergame acceptance for the American sample. These results suggest cultural differences related to advergame acceptance.