Brand Game Research Articles

Stepping Up Your Brand Game in the Platform Age: How to Build a Commoditization SHIELD

Stepping Up Your Brand Game in the Platform Age: How to Build a Commoditization SHIELD

Brand embeddedness in advergames through brand–game congruence and brand prominence: a typology of ways to design a game around a brand

Advergames allow advertisers to build an entire game around the brand. This study explores how brands can be embedded in advergames through brand–game congruence and brand prominence in the game. A typology of 112 existing advergames uncovers three types of advergames in line with ways of persuading detailed in the hierarchy-of-effects theory: (1) affective, (2) cognitive, and (3) conative. The findings provide an explanation for the contradictions found in various studies, such as when only one congruence or prominence dimension is considered.

Immersive gaming in the fashion arena: an investigation of brand coolness and its mediating role on brand equity

PurposeThis study's aim was to investigate the role of the perceived values of gaming on consumers' perceptions of brands as cool as well as the impacts on the consumer–brand equity relationship. The study proposed a framework highlighting the influences of fashion-branded games on brand coolness and building fashion brands' overall equity. As significant factors affecting gamers, gender and gaming have been studied as moderators affecting the overall proposed framework.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative method was used to assess the significance of the relationships within the proposed model. Partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was implemented to assess the framework's relationships with a sample size of 248 active online gamers.FindingsThe findings indicate that brand equity is positively associated with perceived brand coolness. Furthermore, of the three core online game values, perceived enjoyment was most strongly associated with perceived brand coolness, with other values, such as self-expression and perceived emotional challenge, having a weaker association. The multigroup analysis results further suggest that in the fashion industry, building brand equity through online games is strongly related to perceived brand coolness among female respondents, with the role of perceived brand coolness affecting male respondents to a lesser degree.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study to the existing literature consists in providing a deeper understanding of the impact of branded games on fashion brands' overall equity. The results provide insights for fashion brand managers into the significant effect of fashion gaming collaborations on consumers' behavioral outcomes.

The Contribution of Branded Games for the LEGO Ninjago Brand Narrative

This study will examine how branded games in the LEGO Ninjago franchise communicate the brand narrative through their mechanical, semiotic and referential design. Digital games as communicative tools facilitate a new paradigm of marketing focusing on experience creation through integrated marketing communication plans. The LEGO brand creates highly successful games that communicate the brand effectively. To explore the possibilities and counteract the simplistic use of branded games, this study introduces an innovative framework to formally analyze branded games and their communication of a brand narrative through mechanical, semiotic and referential layers. This framework introduces formal game design to advertising studies, while dragging game studies into branded ecosystems. Using the framework, we analyze LEGO Ninjago the Movie – The Videogame, to identify how this paid digital game expands the Ninjago universe and fulfills specific marketing purposes oriented to LEGO toy sets. Our analysis shows that on a mechanical and semiotic layer, the game presents a standalone experience catering to the universe of the Ninjago movie and the values of the Ninjago brand narrative. However, by framing the whole game as LEGO– in its materiality and interactable objects – the LEGO brand narrative of creative construction informs the act of play. The referential design in these games makes use of playful disruption of rules to instill additive comprehension in the player related to purchasable sets and content.

The impact of casual gameplay on health attitudes and behaviors: examining persuasion in a branded game about nutrition through narrative, gameplay, and flow

ABSTRACT This project tests the ability of narrative and gameplay to persuade in a casual health game, through two experimental studies. Study 1 (N = 212) explores how independently manipulated narrative and gameplay factors can persuade people to have healthier attitudes and behavioral intentions; Study 2 (N = 353) also investigates how narrative and gameplay (difficulty) factors might improve attitudes and behavioral intentions toward an in-game brand. Both studies consider the role of flow, an immersive and inherently rewarding psychological state, as potential mediators between game factors and persuasive outcomes. In both studies, results show improvement in both attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health and the brand; however, the cause of those changes is not clear, as the manipulated narrative and gameplay factors do not influence the persuasive outcomes, and the mediating variable flow influences the persuasive outcomes inconsistently.

Regulatory fit/nonfit and in-game advertising effectiveness on children

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to see whether children’ regulatory fit/nonfit can moderate the implicit influence of in-game advertising.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment was done with 418 children (aged 7–11) from three primary schools in a middle-size city in China that voluntarily took part in the experiment. Children were randomly allocated to the following four conditions: playing a game without any brands (a control group), playing the same game and exposed to a subtle in-game advertising (a test control group), playing the same branded game with regulatory fit (regulatory fit group) and playing the same branded game with regulatory nonfit (regulatory nonfit group).FindingsThe results first suggest exposure to in-game advertising makes children more likely to choose it afterward, despite most of them are not aware being exposed to it. The results further suggest children’s regulatory fit does not further increase children’s choice of the focal brand, suggesting linking the focal brand to fun and engaging game experiences is sufficient to influence their brand choice. However, children’s regulatory nonfit attenuates the implicit influence of in-game advertising.Originality/valueBy focusing on children’s game strategy, this research complements the extant literature that only focuses on advertising features and/or game character to document the implicit influence of in-game advertising. In addition, by focusing on regulatory fit/nonfit, this paper provides initial evidence how contextual factors such as children’s game strategy may help them cope with advertising influence built on affect transfer.

Supplier evolution in global value chains and the new brand game from an attention‐based view

AbstractResearch SummarySuppliers from emerging economies have been particularly active in acquiring brands from advanced economies. We analyze changes in the global value chain (GVC) of the sports shoe industry and show how hollowing out the asset bases of brand‐holding firms through increasing outsourcing has enabled the emergence of rising power firms, as well as a new brand game and a market for brands. These developments in the GVC might be a future challenge for traditional brand‐holding lead firms. We show that managers focused on branding and distribution issues were myopic towards the strategic initiatives of suppliers. Managers need to pay attention to the potential long‐term consequences of outsourcing and offshoring activities, as suppliers could become competitors or acquirers of their order‐giving firms, leading to the question: Are we approaching a state of dual GVC leadership, or do lead firms risk being kicked out by their suppliers?Managerial SummaryWe explore the emergence of rising power firms from the peripheries of GVCs. An increasing number of major brand‐holding companies from traditionally industrialized economies have been acquired by suppliers from newly industrialized economies due to some fundamental changes. First, the emergence of a market for brands makes brands more volatile. Second, continuous outsourcing and hollowing‐out of the lead firm's asset base has reduced their ability to control the GVC. Through a longitudinal case study analysis, by adopting an attention‐based view, we investigate the behavior of the traditional lead firms. Lead firms were not only myopic to the activities of their suppliers, but their focus on downstream activities created increasing opportunity spaces upstream for rising power firms while weakening the defense capacity of brands.

CREATING BRANDED COMPUTER GAME ELEMENTS AS A FORM OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

Nowadays companies want to engage customers in all possible ways to better meeting their needs. New media gave managers opportunities to interact with people and establish cooperation. Present paper is aimed to give an outlook on creating branded computer game elements as a customer engagement behavior. The author carried out 20 in-depth interviews with users of three computer games: The Sims, Second Life and Euro Truck Simulator 2. The results show that players create branded game modifications with interference only into audiovisual presentation and interference in the game code. Inside the games, it can be find also a wide range of fictitious brands that replace the real one, among others for legal reason. The authors tried to answer the question why people engage in creating branded game elements. Based on some players statement during the interviews it can be assumed that players create branded elements for few reasons. They want to diversify the game, create some items as an entertainment activities, want to raise the realism of the game, need to belong to some community and also create add-ons to earn money.

A Consumer-based Taxonomy of Digital Customer Engagement Practices

Consumers can engage with brands online in a variety of ways, ranging from playing a branded game to writing a review or viewing branded content. This work presents a consumer-based taxonomy of these digital engagement practices. By means of a literature review and expert surveys, we created an overview of the ways in which consumers digitally engage with brands across different media formats and platforms. A consumer sample then classified all practices into five distinct types of digital engagement practices (for fun practices, learning practices, customer feedback, work for a brand, talk about a brand). A subsequent survey on another consumer sample showed that the five types of practices are differently related to the three motivational states of customer brand engagement (cognitive, emotional and behavioral). The taxonomy of digital engagement practices integrates prior research. We provide implications for managing digital customer engagement.

Do you take credit cards? The attitudinal and behavioral effects of advergames targeted at children

AbstractAdvergames are a promotional tool that confronts children with brands in an entertaining and playful setting. The present study adds to the existing knowledge by analyzing an advergame placement that is usually not targeted at children: credit cards. Based on an emotional conditioning process premised on the positive gaming experience, we argue that advergames lead to an increase in brand evaluation and brand choice. In addition to changes in brand outcomes, we investigate how playing a game promoting credit cards can impact children's spending behavior. For that purpose, children either played the traditional version of Monopoly paying with cash money or they played the banking version, promoting Visa credit cards. Results indicate that exposure to the branded game enhanced preference for Visa. In addition, children's spending behavior increased in an online shopping task. As another important contribution to the literature, we found the behavioral and attitudinal effects to be independent of children's age. In light of young consumers' high debt, our findings raise concerns about targeting children with credit card placements in advergames. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Marriott targets millennials through social‐media game

PurposeThe aim is to describe an employee‐engagement social‐media game that is helping to make Marriott Group a less forbidding place for local people from developing countries to apply to work.Design/methodology/approachThe article explains the background to the development of the game, the form the game takes and the results it is designed to achieve.FindingsIt is found that that players of the My Marriott Hotel game run a successful kitchen that services an invisible but implied dining room. This entails balancing such elements as hiring staff, equipment acquisition, ingredient sourcing, customer satisfaction and quality control.Practical implicationsThe article explains how the tool is helping Marriott to attract more millennials – those between the ages 18 and 27 – to its workforce, by showcasing the opportunities and growth potential attainable in hospitality careers, especially in cultures where the service industry might be less established or prestigious. It highlights a tool that could help to make multinational companies a less forbidding place for people from developing countries to apply to work in.Originality/valueThe article describes what is believed to be the first branded game on a social medium.

Children's Awareness of Online Advertising on Neopets: The Effect of Media Literacy Training on Recall

This pilot study explored the inherent ability of 4th and 5th graders to identify online advertising on the Neopets Website. The same children were then given a brief media literacy training session and retested on the ability to identify embedded online advertising. Only 23% of children were initially able to identify the purpose of branded games as advertising. Recognition of embedded ads within advergames increased 33% and recognition of branded advergames as advertising rather than as entertainment increased 26% following a single, brief media literacy training session. Initially, older children were able to recognize online advertising more readily than younger ones, but that difference leveled when both groups were exposed to media literacy training.

Playing the brand game

Playing the brand game

The brand game: Club vs Country

The brand game: Club vs Country