The Gamification of Branded Content: A Meta-Analysis of Advergame Effects

Abstract

Advergames are generally believed to be an effective advertising format due to their gamified and engaging nature. The empirical evidence for this, however, is inconclusive, with several studies reporting nonsignificant or contradicting results. The current study aimed to address this research gap by providing a meta-analysis of five advergame effects (i.e., ad attitude, memory, persuasion, choice behavior, persuasion knowledge). A systematic search procedure was used and 38 relevant data sets were identified. The results indicate that, generally, (1) consumers have a more positive attitude toward advergames than other types of advertising; (2) brand and product information seems less likely to be remembered by consumers when it is communicated via an advergame versus different types of advertising; (3) advergames seem to be persuasive and (4) drivers of choice behavior; and (5) compared to other types of advertising, advergames are less likely to be recognized as advertising; finally, a metaregression model showed that (6) consumers’ age mitigates the persuasiveness of advergames, meaning that younger consumers seem more susceptible to the persuasive effect of advergames than older consumers are.