Gamified Brand Building: Brand Empowerment in Video Games
(2024) BUSN39 20241Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- Purpose: To explore the phenomenon of brand building in digital media, specifically within online video games. The overall aim of this paper is to gain insights from the perspective of the corporations and the users so as to advance the understanding of brand communications that strengthen corporate brand building efforts within video games. We achieved our purpose by exploring the components contributing to the strategic planning of brand communications ultimately leading to building strong brands in video games. The research questions we used to fulfill our purpose were:
• What is in-game brand building?
• How does in-game brand building happen?
• Why use in-game brand building?
Methodology: A qualitative multiple case study... (More) - Purpose: To explore the phenomenon of brand building in digital media, specifically within online video games. The overall aim of this paper is to gain insights from the perspective of the corporations and the users so as to advance the understanding of brand communications that strengthen corporate brand building efforts within video games. We achieved our purpose by exploring the components contributing to the strategic planning of brand communications ultimately leading to building strong brands in video games. The research questions we used to fulfill our purpose were:
• What is in-game brand building?
• How does in-game brand building happen?
• Why use in-game brand building?
Methodology: A qualitative multiple case study supported by the journalistic method proposed by Pöttker (2003) which leads to a cross-case analysis approach proposed by Eisenhardt (1989) resulting in the development of a framework. The cases of the companies represent four distinct types of in-game advertising (IGA): Advergames, Co-branded Skins, Advertising Boards and Imitation branded skins. We employed a multi-method approach to collect empirical data for the multiple case studies.
Theoretical perspective: We introduce a new conceptual framework that was developed grounded in the realms of video games, brand building, identity and integrated corporate communications.
Empirical data: We conducted focus groups that consisted of 13 participants to obtain data from the gamer perspective as well as a literature review to obtain data about the 4 corporations’ IGA efforts so as to gain insights about in-game brand building, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Ferrari and Nissin Foods.
Conclusion: Brand building is an attractive option for corporations because people are accepting advertisements in games more so than traditional and native. Based on our findings, gamers are annoyed by certain types of communications. However, a surprising discovery is that gamers expect brands to appear in video games contributing to the realism component needed to fully immerse themselves in the world of video games. It is of utmost importance for brand managers to adapt their in-game communication strategies to the video game environment in order to create an immersive value adding experience for the audience. To assist brand managers in their brand building path within video games we introduce a new framework that provides the necessary guidance resulting in outstanding results for everyone involved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9168594
- author
- Papangeli, Dimitra LU and Fredmark, Ida Xing LU
- supervisor
-
- Mats Urde LU
- organization
- alternative title
- Gamified Brand Building: How to build stronger brands in video games
- course
- BUSN39 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Brand building, Video games, Identity, In-Game Advertising, Co-branding, Metaverse, Product Placement, Skin, Bundle, Billboard, Strong Brand, Gamers
- language
- English
- id
- 9168594
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-28 11:45:16
- date last changed
- 2024-06-28 11:45:16
@misc{9168594,
abstract = {{Purpose: To explore the phenomenon of brand building in digital media, specifically within online video games. The overall aim of this paper is to gain insights from the perspective of the corporations and the users so as to advance the understanding of brand communications that strengthen corporate brand building efforts within video games. We achieved our purpose by exploring the components contributing to the strategic planning of brand communications ultimately leading to building strong brands in video games. The research questions we used to fulfill our purpose were:
• What is in-game brand building?
• How does in-game brand building happen?
• Why use in-game brand building?
Methodology: A qualitative multiple case study supported by the journalistic method proposed by Pöttker (2003) which leads to a cross-case analysis approach proposed by Eisenhardt (1989) resulting in the development of a framework. The cases of the companies represent four distinct types of in-game advertising (IGA): Advergames, Co-branded Skins, Advertising Boards and Imitation branded skins. We employed a multi-method approach to collect empirical data for the multiple case studies.
Theoretical perspective: We introduce a new conceptual framework that was developed grounded in the realms of video games, brand building, identity and integrated corporate communications.
Empirical data: We conducted focus groups that consisted of 13 participants to obtain data from the gamer perspective as well as a literature review to obtain data about the 4 corporations’ IGA efforts so as to gain insights about in-game brand building, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Ferrari and Nissin Foods.
Conclusion: Brand building is an attractive option for corporations because people are accepting advertisements in games more so than traditional and native. Based on our findings, gamers are annoyed by certain types of communications. However, a surprising discovery is that gamers expect brands to appear in video games contributing to the realism component needed to fully immerse themselves in the world of video games. It is of utmost importance for brand managers to adapt their in-game communication strategies to the video game environment in order to create an immersive value adding experience for the audience. To assist brand managers in their brand building path within video games we introduce a new framework that provides the necessary guidance resulting in outstanding results for everyone involved.}},
author = {{Papangeli, Dimitra and Fredmark, Ida Xing}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Gamified Brand Building: Brand Empowerment in Video Games}},
year = {{2024}},
}