This chapter discusses the relationship between engagement actions during the experiences in game advertising, with the aim to investigate the elements that support consumer action in a Virtual Reality (VR) game developed for Oculus Rift. Since VR can be understood as a potential investment in advertising platform, the proposal of this chapter is to comprehend the experience of engagement with brands inside the game, including aspects about VR gameplay and immersion. For that, the researchers developed a game with different levels of brand integration in a VR environment. In order to measure engagement levels in this experience, the researchers have invited 24 participants to play the game to observe their behaviors. As a result of this study, it is suggested that the VR can be a useful environment to insert advertising for multi-platforms experiences, since it can promote an emotional and cognitive experiences around the brand and not only a simple exposition of the advertising.
TopIntroduction
Advertising and games have more in common than the dialogic productions between the two axles, such as advergames and gamification. There are intrinsic elements in their own natures that allow them to be central in terms of importance, influence and involvement in contemporary culture. One of these elements is related to the experience of being part of the activity proposed, especially when it comes from a kind of advertising which is currently growing, taking advantage of the multi-platform to capture the attention of the consumer. It is the multiplatform advertising that invites the consumer to navigate through the various media in order to experience the content in an integrated manner, encouraging greater engagement in advertising campaigns.
One way to build engagement in advertising is through games and game-like activities, such as gamification (i.e. the use of game design elements into non-leisure contexts) (Deterding et al., 2011). Games have particular structures, despite different games genres: a specific goal, rules, feedback systems and voluntary actions (McGonigal, 2011). Once the goal, rules and the real-time feedback are accepted, players are voluntary involved in the game. Game design techniques could help to evoke people’s engagement, since games are a combination of human nature, design, entertainment and rewarding systems (Werbach & Hunter, 2012). Research in advertising and games involves advergames, which are games designed around a brand message (Svahn, 2005). Evolved from traditional forms of product placement, advergames can be developed in order to build emotional connections between the game, the brand and the consumer (Dahl, Eagle, & Baez 2009). Since advertising is shifting towards multi-platform campaigns and new interactive media such as games, it is crucial to understand the influence advergames and gamification in advertising engagement.
More than an attempt to measurement scales (Vivek, 2009), the purpose of this chapter is to understand the intrinsic elements of games that can foster the engagement of multiplatform advertising. Taking as its first definition, engagement consists of activities based on proposed mental models from goals and manifested in the form of interest and attention, curiosity and motivation that turn into actions (O'Brien & Toms, 2008). Thus, engagement is associated with an affective processing of an action.
This chapter proposes to investigate what are these engagement actions by advertising and what are the elements that support and stimulate consumer action in a Virtual Reality Game developed for Oculus Rift, trying to execute the insertion of the brand in three levels proposed by Chen and Ringel (2001): Associative, Illustrative and Demonstrative Levels. How can we explore the multi-platform in a Virtual Reality and how the brand can enter within this environment designed? From this central issue, this chapter, through a qualitative study based on a survey applied after the game experience, seeking to understand how the user can interact and feel the brand in a game designed to Oculus Rift, exploring the possible of multi-platform within a virtual environment.