In-game ads ineffective in violent games, study finds

A study conducted by the University of Texas reveals that in-game advertising is far less effective in violent video games than in more tame forms of interactive media.

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You've run out of ammo, and two Nazis are chasing you with their laser-equipped zombie dogs. You run into an adjacent room, attempting to hide behind a Mountain Dew vending machine. Alas, the zombies maul your body, forcing you to reload from the last checkpoint. After you're done, do you want to pick up a Dew?

Probably not. A study conducted by the University of Texas reveals that in-game advertising is far less effective in violent video games than in more tame forms of interactive media.

The study used a playable demo which featured a room, adorned with a number of video game-related brands. In one group, players would walk through the environment and interact with non-threatening NPCs. In the other group, players were shot at, and the floor featured puddles of blood.

GameSpot reports that "the study found that those who witnessed the violent scenario had a significantly lower score when it came to brand recall and perception."

The study concludes that games would be wise to avoid advertising in violent games. So, when you're curb-stomping someone in Gears of War 3, don't expect a potpourri of Crate & Barrel logos to explode out of their dead body.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 1, 2011 6:30 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, In-game ads ineffective in violent games, study finds.

    A study conducted by the University of Texas reveals that in-game advertising is far less effective in violent video games than in more tame forms of interactive media.

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      September 1, 2011 7:04 PM

      Hey, if in-game advertising can fit and blend seamlessly into my gameplay experience, I'm all for it.

      Supposedly there was some in-game advertising in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but I didn't notice any. Not to say that I didn't notice a lack of brand names EVERYWHERE, but I just assumed they were all fictional.

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      September 1, 2011 7:13 PM

      I don't know about that, I would totally buy some Spunky Cola given the chance.
      Spunky Cola: If it’s legal to use shouldn’t it be legal to sell?

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      September 1, 2011 7:13 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 1, 2011 7:18 PM

      That makes sense, it's not like all game scenarios are created equal. If I'm walking around town in an RPG or something mundane and there are ads, my experience is comparable to seeing a billboard in real life. If I'm in the middle of a Quake match, it's about like asking an NHL player if they noticed the Tim Hortons logo roll by on the boards. I wouldn't expect the players to notice ads so much in an environment that requires concentration. It would be interesting to do a similar study but to look at how people respond watching a "violent" video game stream. For single player games, results like this should help focus things a little better if they want to keep trying it.

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      September 1, 2011 7:22 PM

      I wonder if they took into consideration subliminal memories of the items. I know when I play some games there might be, lets say a burger on a desk in the game, later on I go to eat and I feel like a burger.
      So whose to say if it had been a Burger King wrapper with it that I would feel like that.

      The study is kind of flawed with the recall being the basis. Its like asking people to describe a bank robber, all the peoples descriptions boil down to "guy with gun" not "guy with a Smith and Wesson wearing Armani suit".

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      September 1, 2011 7:29 PM

      Remember how publishers and developers said in game advertising would "lower retail costs on games!"? Haha.

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      September 1, 2011 7:30 PM

      Good. It never made games any cheaper and it was always done so poorly. The only time where ads in games aren't distracting are in sports games, so I'm ok with it there.

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      September 1, 2011 7:47 PM

      Another video games n' violence study with a gaping hole in it. I'm surprised this passed in a doctoral program.

      From the GameSpot article:

      [CORRECTION:] This article originally reported that participants in the study observed, but did not interact with, the violent and nonviolent imagery onscreen. In actuality, participants controlled a character that was either being shot at in the blood-soaked environments or not being shot at in identical water-soaked rooms. GameSpot regrets the error.

      In other words, the experiment was not scientific at all and lacked a proper control. It's not necessarily the violence itself that affected the ad effectiveness. It's more than likely the fact that the test subject was occupied with a challenge during one test, and not occupied with one in the other.

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      September 1, 2011 8:37 PM

      In-game ads ineffective in violent games, study finds

      fixed

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      September 1, 2011 10:15 PM

      If I was being shot at and need some life, and Mountain Dew gave me +10hp, I would certainly remember it.

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        September 2, 2011 12:10 AM

        LMAO... good point.

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        September 2, 2011 6:52 AM

        Yeah, they'd get more results from proper product placement as opposed to simple advertising.

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        September 2, 2011 11:12 AM

        I'm still waiting for an RPG to feature items like Nike Running Shoes of Speed +20. You know you want to do this with WoW, Activision-Blizzard. Admit it.

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      September 1, 2011 10:18 PM

      I think the link to violence is assumed. How do the researchers know that it was the games violence and not its intensity?

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      September 1, 2011 10:48 PM

      I think they mean INEFFECTUAL IN FAST-PACED GAMES.

      Because nobody sees the ads, or any other details, while they're busy shooting or running from things.

      Which is pretty bloody obvious.

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      September 1, 2011 11:45 PM

      So they've discovered that putting things to look at and do in a game distracts people from other things to look at, where a game that has only adverts to look at, helps people to look at adverts.

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      September 2, 2011 12:28 AM

      Game are all about interactivity and as long its just another texture on a mesh that is standing around no one cares.

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      September 2, 2011 6:12 AM

      [deleted]

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      September 2, 2011 6:16 AM

      Perhaps if the enemy wore branded clothing. Like, I'm on Team Coca-Cola and we're fighting the Pepsi Squad, or something. Or The United States of Colas vs. the European Lemon-Lime Beverages Union.

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      September 2, 2011 6:58 AM

      The Burger King ad in NFS:U always made me crave McD's.

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      September 2, 2011 8:11 AM

      "The study concludes that games would be wise to avoid advertising in violent games."
      Eh? You mean companies would be?

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