Evolution and Effectiveness of Product Placement: Analytical Essay

Game Appreciation and Industry Analysis

Introduction

The rapid growth in popularity of games has created considerable opportunities for marketers, estimating a global spending of $109 billion on games in 2017. In-Game advertising has become a new successful way of improving and growing revenue, as games become the most common past-time (Kerr, 2017, p. 5). In-game advertising is a popular method of marketing on a vast range of products, from music albums to presidential campaigns (Barnes, 2019). Product placement and advertisement expands from just general pop-ups to more advanced methods of promoting, for instance the promotional use of music involved in video games, and gameplay. An example of in-game advertisement is Worms 3D, advertisement of Red Bull in 2003 (Barnes, 2019). This was advertised within the game, showing it to give the worm more strength and speed. This was used to reinforce the Red Bulls slogan ‘’Red Bull gives you wings’’. Another example of within-game advertisement comes from Burnout Paradise, promoting the 2008 presidential election in the USA, endorsing the Obama campaign (Elsworth, 2008). This essay will look at the effectiveness of in-game product placement, to investigate what makes in-game advertisement effective. The essay will also explore, the evolution of advertisement in videos games and how they have evolved over the years, looking at different marketing techniques and trends. Lastly, this essay will investigate the impact of using CGI within games and advertisements to improve revenue and gameplay.

Evolution of Advertising in Games

Game advertisements continuously evolve and grow, previous adverts utilised a range of different techniques to get viewers’ attention, one of the more common forms of marketing games was the use of humour. Previous adverts using humour have been shown to be successful marketing strategy, however, wasn’t always in tone with the game. An example of this, comes from the ‘Jam Sessions’ Nintendo advert (2007), this featured a child using obscene language and smacking a cake out of his mother’s hands, and then displayed an image of the jam sessions video case with rock music in the background. This advert being quite controversial may attract views, however, doesn’t advertise the game effectively. More recent marketing strategies put the game at the forefront of adverts rather than comedy. Current adverts focus on grabbing the audience’s attention by showing snippets of the game’s storyline, focusing on emotional or dramatic snippets to get the attention of viewers. An example of this comes from the game ‘The Last of Us’ which is set in a zombie apocalyptic world. The marketing technique used to advertise this game shows a compelling storyline, featuring many emotional and violent scenes. The storyline stimulates the audience and manipulate the player's emotions, creating a ‘hype’ for the release date. The effectiveness of this strategy could be related to research which suggests that human tragedies and emotion may help individuals appreciate entertainment, in the idea that life is short, imperfect and at times chaotic (Oliver and Hartman, 2010). The use of emotional attachment to characters is linked to player enjoyment, and emotions have been suggested to create positive gaming experience and are one of the main aims of game design (Yannakakis and Paiva, 2014), this marketing strategy has been shown to be successful (Taylor, 2000).

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As console games develop, so does the audience and users of games. Statistics have shown an increase in female and family gamers, showing more female, and family involvement in purchasing and gameplay. Similarly, research has shown 89% increase in parental involvement in purchasing games intended for children (Galarneau, 2014). These statistics are important to marketing, in monitoring consumer behaviour and ensuring the use of relevant marketing strategies. Target audiences are broader than ever, targeting all ages, gender, cognitive ability, and ethnicities. Games have not only been developed for entertainment, but also for education and inclusion (Cole, 2017). An example of this comes from a Brazilian gaming app aimed at teaching Brazilian numbers in sign language while remaining fun and educational (Pontes et al, 2018). Similarly, research has shown gaming to be successful approach in health promotion. An example of this is comes from Dias et al (2016), who developed a game to help tackle childhood obesity, the game showed positive responses in both gameplay, mechanics, and content, showing it can be an effective way to promote health campaigns. Research has shown that games can be reformed to become an effective educational tool and teaching resource which presents material in an entertaining and fun way. This research shows how games can be transformed into advertisements and campaigns in themselves, for things such as health promotion (Dias et al, 2016).

Consoles, alongside mobile phones, have become a massive revenue for game advertisement, showing approximately 48 million people play games on their mobiles in the USA alone (Galarneau, 2014). This is in part due to the rise in mobile phone use showing 91% of adults own a mobile phone, 50% use a mobile phone as their primary source of internet, and 80% of time spent on mobile phones is used on apps or games (Galarneau, 2014). A significant growth in free-to-play games has generated large success, an example of this is Angry Birds. Using in-game marketing to redefine the marketplace for in-game advertisement, showing a 43% increase in revenue from smartphone games (Gaudiosi, 2015), showing for the first-time mobile phone revenue topped console, from the income produced by advertisement (Gaudiosi, 2015).

The Effectiveness of Product Placement

Advances in technology have made it increasingly easier for consumers to avoid traditional advertising messages. As a result, brands have had to find alternative ways to attract consumer attention (Lee and Faber, 2013). Brand awareness is one of the most common goals organizations want to accomplish using product placement (Karrh et al, 2003). A way in which product placement has been advertised is to utilise celebrity endorsement, to attract more views and target audiences. An example is the NBA 2K basketball video game which was endorsed by a number of professional NBA players, including LeBron James. Product placement has become an increasingly popular way of utilising new technology for marketing. It has been thought that the processing of product placement occurs in a different way, to traditional advertisement (Russell and stern, 2006). This is due to traditional advertisements being more obvious and putting the brand as the primary focus, creating more consumer skepticism and persuasion knowledge, which impacts the efficiency of the advert (Obermiller et al, 2005). In contrast to this, product placement is a more inconspicuous, as the main focus is gameplay. Research exploring the effectiveness of product placement in movies show viewers have a high brand recall (Vollmers and Mizerski, 1994). However, indiscretions have accrued in respect to if the product placement was verbal or visual, where the product placement was used, and if the placement was an important part of the story (Russell, 2002). Furthermore, it was found verbal placements alone are more effective than visual, however visual placements connected to the storyline improved recall and recognition (Russell, 2002). Although, using both verbal and visual product placement significantly shows the most recall and success in brand recognition (Sabherwal et al, 1994). Nevertheless, it has been argued that research of product placement in movies can not directly be associated with product placement in games, due to the interactive quality in games which movies lack (Nicovich, 2005). Research conducted by Lee and Faber (2013), found the more attention a gamer is using in gameplay, the less attention they have left to process product placement, also the study found a difference in processing levels between experienced players in comparison too inexperienced. Showing in-experienced players found it more difficult to process product placement in the peripheral placements due to needing to use more of their attentional resources on gameplay. Additionally, the study found that random product placement had better recall, than more appropriate product placement e.g. bizarre product placements like an advert for fish food in a desert would generate higher recall due to the randomness of the placement (Lee and Faber, 2013). This study shows the importance of where and when product placement is used within a game, to ensure the effectiveness of the placement. A further study exploring the effectiveness of product placement in games found that gamers process the in-game advertised brands much faster than out-of-game brands as ‘good’. Equally, gamers also processed the in-game brands as ‘good’ significantly faster than processing them as ‘bad’ (Glass, 2007). This shows the effectiveness of product placement within game advertisements on the processing and recognition of brands within games.

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) Revolutionised

Video games started with games using two-dimensional perspective (2D). 2D games were very popular when they first game out, a great example of this is Pac-Man (1980) created by Namco. Since then games have been continuously evolving, with the first three-dimensional game, Monster Maze coming out in 1981. Technological advances have since expanded to visual effects and the development of CGI. This has been detrimental for the marketing of games, as it has changed the ways commercials advertise, and consumer behaviour. CGI has revolutionized the quality of gameplay, an example of this is the lighting, creating more realism within gameplay. The lighting in video games is all manipulated through the use of CGI (Garland, 2019). Video games using natural lighting from areas within the game, create a more realistic feel for the player. This also helps correctly represent the shadows within the game. These slight adaptions have changed the gaming experience, creating realism in gameplay and developing the technology and quality of games. CGI has also improved the graphics to stop white pixilation over black screens, this has enhanced gameplay, player enjoyment and thus creates more realistic games. This has forever changed the gaming experience, making the video games more marketable than ever. The advances in technology could be correlated to the positive inclination in more people purchasing games than ever before (Galarneau, 2014). The developments in technology are not only seen in the game, but also in the game adverts. In future adverts we can expect a more realistic and cinematic experience, showing more storyline and attracting consumers with the use of technological advancements to make gaming feel more realistic than before. This can be demonstrated by showing a commercial to a video game or showing a teaser of gameplay, advertising the new technological advancements of gaming technology.

Conclusion

In-game advertisement had progressed in many ways, this essay has explored different topics including; the evolution of advertising in games, product placement and how CGI has been revolutionised. The topics discussed, major ways in which advertisements have developed over the years and continue to advance. Using more inconspicuous techniques such as product placement, celebrity endorsements, emotion and utilising technological advancements to further grow revenue through the use of things like free to play games and CGI. These advancements show many ways video games will continue to progress in the future. This can be seen through the continuous development in graphics and visual effects experienced in new commercials and gameplay. Marketing companies continue to research the phenomena of gaming and find new effective advertising strategies and continue to expand the gaming demographic for a more diverse target audience. With the ever-growing popularity of games and changing demographics of gamers, creates more opportunity for development. The gaming industry will continue to grow with technological advancements, as will the marketing techniques used to advertise games and in-game adverts.

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Games Mentioned

1. 2K Sports, (2019). NBA 2K, Multiplatform, USA.
2. J.K. Greye Software, (1981). Monster Maze, Sinclair ZX81, UK.
3. Namco Networks, (1980) Pac-Man, Arcade, Japan.
4. Rovio Entertainment, (2009). Angry Birds, Mobile Device Game, Finland.
5. Ubisoft, (2007). Jam Sessions, Nintendo DS, Japan.
6. Sony Computer Entertainment, (2013). The Last of Us, PlayStation, USA.