Year: 2011 Volume: 8 Issue: d

Abstract: In recent years, commercial organizations have shown an increasing interest in advertising their products in video games. While there is some research in this area, the complexities of product placement research, with in-game advertisement research in particular, suggest that more research is needed in this area. The aim of this paper is to add to the literature on the effectiveness of in-game advertisements through recognition and recall tests. By using the same survey instrument for three different games from the same genre, this research allows for comparison across games and findings can be generalized to games in the same genre. The sampling strategy adopted allows for the findings to be compared between genders and addresses one of the common criticisms of earlier studies. In addition, this research also examines whether gamer experience and perceptions of game can influence recall and recognition rates of in-game advertisements. The findings concur with earlier studies that recall rates of in-game advertisements are low, and that gender and gamer experience had no effect on recall rates. The research also suggests that the relationship between perceptions of game in affecting recall rates is complicated and require further research.