Journal of interactive marketing [1094-9968] 9(1), 14-29.

Kevin Wise, Paul D. Bolls, Hyo Kim, Arun Venkataraman, Ryan Meyer (2008).

Advergames are a fairly recent phenomenon in the advertising industry.  As a hybrid between internet games and product placement advertising, advergames use the entertainment value of such games to draw in consumers who are then exposed to a brand as they play.  This article investigates the role of the relevance of brands used to the games on attitudes about the advergame itself and the brand advertised.  The authors theorize that positive attitudes about the advergame arising from entertainment get transferred to the brand, and that a close conceptual connection between the game itself (e.g. a footrace) and the brand (e.g. Nike) will facilitate this transfer, leading to increased positive attitudes about the brand.  The authors conducted an experiment with adults in which half played advergames relevant to the brand and half played advergames that were irrelevent.  Attitudes towards the advergames and toward the brand were measured.  Results indicated that the transfer of positive affect from advergames to the brand was stronger with relevant advergames.

While the main focus of this article is on features of advergames, this article partially expounds on the role motivation for internet use may have on the effectiveness of online advertising.  It shows how advertisements which provide some utility, particularly entertainment, to consumers may be better received and more effective.  It also describes a mechanism by which this happens: the transfer of positive affect.  It raises questions of how this may be applied to more traditional advertising which often do not serve entertainment purposes.  The results of this study may also be used within the framework of social contracts by theorizing that consumers feel an exchange of attention and exposure to advertising for entertainment may be a fairer, more agreeable contract, while exchanging these resources for information, for example, may be less welcome.  The focus on relevance as an ad characteristic which may have a positive effect on attitude and ad effectiveness is also useful, and can also be seen in Moresco's article on video ads, which bear similarities to advergames in their close tie to entertainment.