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Product Placement Video Games
Product Placement Video Games
Product Placement Video Games
The effect of product placement in computer games on brand attitude and recall
Thomas Mackay, Michael Ewing, Fiona Newton and Lydia Windisch
Monash University
INTRODUCTION
American software sales in the computer and video game category reached US$7.4bn in 2006, an increase of 6% (Entertainment Software
Association (ESA) 2007a). Overall sales have nearly trebled since 1996 (ESA 2007a). In Australia alone, the predicted value of in-game
advertisements has been placed at AU$1.25bn (Manktelow 2005; Schneider & Cornwell 2005). As such, product placement has evolved
from the use of products as props supplied freely by organisations to a multi-billion-dollar industry driven by commercial companies
seeking new avenues to promote their brands (Delorme & Reid 1999; Nelson et al. 2004; Shea 2004). For instance, Coca-Cola recently
announced its intention to move advertising resources away from television advertising and towards video games and DVDs (Grover et al.
2004). Similarly, a multi-game deal was reached in 2006 between game developer Midway and advertiser Double Fusion, emphasising
Midway's desire to expand its use of in-game advertising (The Edge 2006).
The increase in computer/video game technology has provided marketers with the opportunity to create accurate simulations of their
products in games. Games, such as the driving simulator Gran Turismo 4 (Polyphony Digital 2005), afford highly realistic scenarios that
could be equated with a real-world 'test drive' of a particular product. Automotive marketers have shown enthusiasm for the opportunity to
allow members of the community to interact with their products in the medium of computer games (Hill 2005). For instance, the game
Porsche Challenge (Sony Computer Entertainment 1997) coincided with the commercial release of the Porsche Boxster, providing gamers
with the opportunity to drive digital representations of the car.
This paper is set out as follows. First, the extant literature on both product placements and computer games is reviewed. Next, we
introduce and explicate Ehrenberg's so-called 'weak theory of advertising', and draw on it to ground the research hypotheses. The
experimental design is then described, results presented, findings discussed and implications considered. In closing, study limitations are
noted, future research directions outlined and conclusions drawn.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Computer games are emerging as a new medium for advertising. Nevertheless, there has been relatively little empirical and independent
research examining the outcomes of marketing communications using this medium, yet there have been calls from in-game advertisement
placement agencies for empirical evidence to support the use of product placement in computer games (Enright 2007). In a study of the
effects on brand recall of product placement in games, Nelson (2002) found that 19 out of 20 participants spontaneously recalled the brand
of car they drove during the game, although recall declined to zero after a post-play delay of five months. Participant recall of the brands
featured within the game was approximately 2530% of the brands immediately after game play, yet recall declined by more than half
when participants were retested five months post-play (1015% recall). While these findings should be interpreted with caution given the
small sample size, high attrition rate and lack of control for regularity of play, the results suggest that recall of brand placements may not
be long term.
One of the factors that may affect recall is the prominence of the product placement. Using a sample of 46 male Australian university
students, Schneider and Cornwell (2005) found that participants were more likely to recall products that were placed in prominent positions
rather than more subtly placed products. These findings align with Lee and Faber's (2008) later results for products placed either centrally
or peripherally in an online car racing game, and with Gupta and Lord's (1998) results based on film and TV viewer responses to product
placement. Gupta and Lord (1998) found that recall was greater when products were large, placed in a central position on the screen and
integrated into the onscreen action. Qualitative research on product placement in movies has also found that consumers appreciated
realistic use of branded products, were more likely to notice familiar products and responded more favourably to brands that were used by
characters to whom they could relate (Delorme & Reid 1999).
Taking an alternative approach, Yang et al. (2006) examined the differences in brand product recall in terms of explicit and implicit
memory. The authors argued that explicit measures of in-game advertising may underestimate the power of this advertising medium, as
gamers are frequently exposed to brand placements without being consciously aware of them. Using a word-fragment task to assess
implicit memory, the authors found participants had higher levels of implicit memory for brand placement than actual brand recognition
(explicit memory).
There has also been some research examining consumer attitudes towards in-game product placements. Nelson (2002) reported that
participants were generally positive about the practice and did not perceive that it disrupted their experience of the game used in the study.
Indeed, in certain situations some participants have reported that the use of product placements enhances the realism of the game,
suggesting that the medium may add value to the gaming experience. In a later study, Nelson et al. (2004) found a positive association
between player attitudes towards product placement and advertising in general. Research examining consumer attitudes to product
placement in other media supports the contention that consumers are more positively disposed towards brand placements relative to more
traditional forms of advertising (Nebenzahl & Secunda 1993). Nebenzahl and Secunda (1993) found that product placement was rated
favourably by 70% of movie-goers, significantly higher than ratings for pre-movie advertisements.
A gap in the current literature relates to the issue of whether brand placements in computer/video games can shift pre-existing consumer
attitudes towards a specific brand. Research findings suggest a strong association between consumer attitude towards a brand (Abrand ) and
their purchase intentions (Anand & Sternthal 1990; LeClerc & Little 1997; Spears & Singh 2004).
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Adherents of the 'weak theory of advertising' contend that the primary role of television advertising (TVA) is brand reinforcement by
reminding existing customers to buy the brand (Jones 1996; Barnard & Ehrenberg 1997). Ehrenberg (1974) argued that consumers
typically only pay attention to advertising of brands for which they have a pre-existing favourable attitude. As such, repetitive advertising
could best be construed as a defensive strategy useful in reinforcing brand loyalty (see Ewing & Jones 2000). Further empirical evidence
was provided by Rice and Bennett (1998). These authors found that users of 'Brand A had higher awareness and more positive attitudes
towards advertisements for Brand A than non-users of the brand. And the corollary holds, too: consumers loyal to Brand B were least likely
to respond positively towards advertisements for Brand A. The exception was for consumers who liked Brand A but who had not yet
progressed to becoming brand users. These findings reinforce the so-called 'weak theory of advertising' in that users are far more likely to
respond favourably to advertisements for a particular brand than non-users. Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel Laureate in Economics, reached the
same conclusion, namely that consumers watch advertisements about automobiles (for example) even after they have just purchased an
automobile, in order to 're-enjoy' the experience of their own purchase (Becker & Murphy 1993). Indeed, the 'weak theory' holds that
advertising is typically not powerful enough to convert non-users or affiliates towards having favourable brand attitude (Abrand ) and
purchase intentions. However, it remains to be seen whether this same principle holds true for video and computer games. The aim of the
current study is therefore to examine whether product placements in computer games have a 'weak' or 'strong' effect on Abrand and
explicit memory in this instance, brand recall. In line with the 'weak theory of advertising' it is hypothesised that:
H1a: Participants who are positively predisposed towards the brand will become more favourably disposed following exposure to the ingame product placement.
H1b: Participants who are less positively disposed to the brand will not display a change in their brand attitude following exposure to the
product placement.
The nexus between pre-existing brand attitude and brand recall is also of interest. Based on the 'weak theory of advertising' it is further
expected that participants with positive attitudes towards a particular brand would be more likely to recall this brand than those who are
less predisposed towards the same brand.
H2: Participants randomly assigned to the experimental (Holden) group who have a pre-existing high attitude towards this brand will exhibit
higher levels of recall than participants with a low pre-existing attitude towards Holden.
METHOD
A pre-post test experimental design was used to examine spontaneous and prompted recall as well as Abrand levels of 154 Australian
university students and members of the general public exposed to either a Holden Monaro1 or an Audi A4 car embedded in a popular
computer game, Gran Turismo 4 (Polyphony Digital 2005). Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental condition
(Holden Monaro) or control condition (Audi A4).
Measures
The Spears and Singh (2004) product attitude scale consists of five items scored on six-point Likert scales. The theoretical range of total
scores on this scale is 5 to 30. The scales ranged from (i) 1 'extremely unappealing' to 6 'extremely appealing'; (ii) 1 'extremely bad' to 6
'extremely good'; (iii) 1 'extremely unpleasant' to 6 'extremely pleasant'; (iv) 1 'extremely unfavourable' to 6 'extremely favourable'; and
(v) 1 'extremely unlikeable' to 6 'extremely likeable'.
Spontaneous recall was assessed using a single item: 'What products or brands do you remember seeing in the game?' Participants were
asked to list all car brands they could remember seeing while playing the game. Prompted recall was measured using the following
question: 'What brands do you remember seeing in the game? Please tick only the boxes that correspond to brands you clearly remember
seeing.' This question was followed by a list of the 21 different brands that appeared in the game as either cars or products placed on
virtual billboards. Sociodemographic information was collected with respect to participant age, gender, household income and occupation.
Procedure
Review and approval of study materials was obtained from the University Ethics Review Board prior to data collection. Recruitment was
undertaken using flyers distributed around a university campus and in the broader community. Potential participants were requested to
contact the principal researcher. In exchange for their participation, participants received a cinema voucher. Although the participants'
liking for playing computer games was not assessed, the recruitment process undertaken in this study clearly promoted this study as a
computer game-based experiment. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that participants would have self-selected for this project on the
basis of enjoying playing computer games.
All testing was undertaken within the same computer laboratory and each participant completed the experiment on an individual basis.
Participation was voluntary and participants were informed that they could cease playing the game at any point. After random allocation,
participants completed a pre-game questionnaire that included a measure of Holden attitudes developed from Spears and Singh's (2004)
five-item product attitude scale. Foils pertaining to three other car brands Mitsubishi, Toyota and Ford were also included to prevent
participants from perceiving the purpose of the experiment.
Following group allocation, participants received basic instructions about using a PlayStation 2 controller and how to manoeuvre their game
car. During this game orientation period, participants in the Holden test condition were requested to select the 'Holden Monaro' car option
and those in the control condition (ControlAudi ) were asked to select the 'Audi A4' option. All participants were instructed to select the
colour of their game car from a palette of six colours and to then complete six circuits of the game raceway. All participants completed
three laps of the 'Super Speedway' followed by three laps of the 'Clubman Route Stage 5' track. The post-game questionnaire was
administered immediately after each participant completed their six race circuits.
Participants randomly allocated to the Holden experimental group were further sub-classified using a median split of pre-game attitudes
towards Holden. Participants with scores ranging from 5 to 17 were deemed to be less positively predisposed to the Holden brand and were
assigned to the low attitude sub-group (HoldenLow ). Conversely, participants scoring in the range 18 to 30 were classified as being more
positively predisposed to Holden and were assigned to the high attitude sub-group (HoldenHigh ).
In accordance with Tabachnick and Fidell (1996), univariate outliers (cases with standard scores greater than 3.29) were identified within
each group and checked for entry errors. As cases with extreme values have the potential to unduly influence the outcomes of the planned
analyses, those identified as univariate outliers were deleted to improve the skewness and kurtosis of scale distributions. A total of five
outliers were removed, leaving a reduced total data set of 149 cases. Within the experimental condition, 25 participants were classified into
the HoldenLow sub-group and 63 into the HoldenHigh sub-group. A total of 61 participants were randomly assigned to the control condition
ControlAudi . Consenting participants completed a pre-game questionnaire designed to assess their attitude towards specific car brands, and
were classified as either low (HoldenLow ) or high (HoldenHigh ) pre-test attitudes towards Holden cars.
RESULTS
The demographic data for participants in the current study are shown in Table 1. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses were
used to test for differences across the three participant groups: HoldenLow , HoldenHigh and ControlAudi . The participant groups were similar
with respect to age and income classification. A chi-square analysis was used to explore gender representation across the three participant
groups. An adjusted residual greater than 1.96 was indicative of a significant deviation from independence (Agresti & Finlay 1997). The
results indicated that males and females were not significantly differently represented across the three groups.
Table 3: Unaided and prompted recall of the 'Holden Monaro' car brand by group
DISCUSSION
The findings of the current research do not support H la in that participants with a pre-existing positive attitude (HoldenHigh ) towards the
embedded product (Holden Monaro) did not show increases in their brand attitudes after exposure to this brand during their computer
game-play. These findings are not consistent with the 'weak theory of advertising' and may indicate that this theory does not currently
placement within entertainment programmes may be used to specifically target elusive consumer segments with brand communications
seamlessly woven into near real-life simulations, designed to remind consumers that a brand exists as well as providing a means of
interaction. Such advances will broaden the range of product categories that can be used interactively during game play and therefore
enhance the capacity for marketers to foster positive brand attitude dispositions among players with a pre-existing low attitude towards the
embedded brand product.
ENDNOTE
1.
The Australian-designed and manufactured Holden Monaro is currently marketed as a Pontiac GTO in North America.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Thomas MacKay completed his honours degree in the Department of Marketing at Monash University in 2005. He currently works as a
project manager for the consumer sector of Taylor Nelson Sofres in Melbourne.
Michael Ewing is Professor and Head of the Department of Marketing at Monash University. His research interests include advertising
evaluation, the technology communications interface, health promotion and brand management. His work has appeared in Information
Systems Research, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of
Business Research, International Journal of Advertising, Business Horizons, the Journal of Small Business Management and Industrial
Marketing Management.
Fiona Newton completed her PhD in psychology before joining the Department of Marketing at Monash University to pursue her interest in
health promotion and behaviour change communication. Fiona's research has examined the psychosocial well-being of prostate cancer
patients, rural men's health issues, and HIV/AIDS health promotion. Her work has been published in the International Journal of
Advertising, British Journal of Urology, Australian Journal of Rural Health and the International Journal of Urology.
Lydia Windisch is currently completing her doctoral thesis in psychology and is a Research Fellow in the Department of Marketing at Monash
University. Her research covers cross-cultural and indigenous psychologies, social and health promotion, and public policy.
Address correspondence to: Professor Michael Ewing, Head of Department of Marketing, Monash University, PO Box 197, Caulfield East, Vic
3145, Australia.
Email: mailto://Michael.Ewing@BusEco.monash.edu.au
www.warc.com