Avatar-Based Advertising in Second Life

Abstract

Avatar-based, three-dimensional, virtual environments such as Second Life, the most popular and fastest growing environment, offer a promising corporate communication channel for brand marketing, advergaming, and interactive advertising. Drawing on presence literature, this study examines the effects of the presence (versus absence) of spokes-avatars that provide product information and consumers’ multimodal interactions with these spokes-avatars on improvements in the consumers’ product involvement, attitude toward the product, and enjoyment of the online shopping experience. In addition, this study investigates the effects of spokes-avatars’ physical characteristics in terms of humanness (versus non-humanness) on consumers’ evaluation of their physical attractiveness and the information value of the advertisement message. A path analysis reveals a mediating role of spokes-avatars’ physical attractiveness.

Keywords:

• avatars
• advergames
• multimodal interaction
• virtual shopping
• e-commerce

Additional information

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Seung-A Annie Jin (Ph. D., Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Boston College. Her research revolves around the social psychological effects of new media and interactive communication technologies (e.g., 3D virtual reality, video/computer games, robotics, haptics) in e-commerce and e-health. Her work has been published and is in press in Journal of Communication, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Health Psychology, CyberPsychology & Behavior, and Journal of Game Industry and Culture, among others. E-mail:[email protected].

Justin Bolebruch is a graduate of Boston College, where he studied communication and computer science. His research has focused on the impact of communication technology on e-commerce and the workplace. E-mail:[email protected].