The impact of advertisements placement in the computer game on the effectiveness of social campaign messages

Abstract

PURPOSE: The article focuses on two aspects, spatial location of advertisements and the engagement of the player during the gameplay and investigates, how they influence the effectiveness of advertising in the context of social campaign.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The analyses are conducted based on data collected in the survey and recorded by EEG and eye-tracker devices.

FINDINGS: The results obtained for the memorization may indicate that message order (first or last) in a sequence of advertisements has major bearing on attention and recall. The computed outcomes of engagement indices show that, depending on the method of calculation, obtained results can differ. Moreover, research with the use of eye-tracking devices can allow for accurate predictions of advertising effectiveness, at least in terms of recall. Results allow to state that it would be recommended to place social advertisements in such spots where the player has less to do and is not distracted by any tasks required to achieve progress in the game.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The proposed solution of testing the effectiveness of computer games in presenting social campaigns messages can be used both by practitioners that develop such campaigns and by scientists aiming to conduct advertising research.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Taking into account data from two different sources allows to capture both conscious and subconscious opinions about the social advertsising message in the game, which shows the comprehensive image of the advertisement’s effectiveness.