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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• advergame
• congruence
• prominence
• embeddedness

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Evanguelia Tsiapkolis for her help with the coding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Amélie Joassard upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the Magellan Research Center, University of Lyon.

Notes on contributors

Amélie Joassard

Amélie Joassard is currently a doctoral candidate at Iaelyon School of Management – Magellan Research Center, University of Lyon. Her research focuses on advergaming and commercial communication. In 2019, she won the award for best French marketing research master’s thesis and was selected by the AAA for the 2020 PhD student support program.

Sonia Capelli

Sonia Capelli holds a doctoral degree in marketing from Grenoble University and is a Full Professor at Iaelyon School of Management – Magellan Research Center, University of Lyon. She is the co-director of the Chaire Lyon3 Cooperation, a research chair on cooperatives. Her research focuses on communication and digital advertising. She has published in international (eg European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Psychology & Marketing, Public Management Review, Technological Forecasting and Social Change) and French journals.