Enjoyment of Advergames and Brand Attitudes: The Impact of Thematic Relevance

Campaigns increasingly implement advergames to engage consumers with a brand through interactive, entertaining media content. However, little research tests the effects of specific features of advergames on desired advertising outcomes. This article reports the results of an experiment designed to examine how variation in the thematic connection between the game associated with an advergame and the brand affects the relationship between attitude toward the game (equated with attitude toward the ad) and attitude toward the brand. The analysis reveals a stronger positive relationship between attitude toward the advergame and attitude toward the brand when participants play games with a high thematic connection to the brand's product. Therefore, designing advergames that relate thematically to the product of the sponsoring brand should increase the likelihood of positive conditioning of brand attitudes evoked by playing an advergame.