How can Coca-Cola Advertise in World of Warcraft? An Exploratory Examination of Gamers Attitudes towards Around-Game Advertising

Marketing messages are everywhere, even in the digital world of gaming, advertising and product placements make regular appearances. However, not every game is suited to In-Game Advertising and as such companies have had to look at alternative ways of associating their brands with games. The purpose of our study was to examine the attitudes of gamers towards the concept of Around-Game Advertising, which we define as ‘Advertising and promotion linked to video and computer games through non-intrusive around game displays or licensing of game branding with associated third-party products’ (Smith et al., 2014). Participants (N=32) considered to be expert gamers, were exposed to four different brands of carbonated soft drinks or energy drinks as well as viewing eleven associated advertisements which had associations with sixteen different games deemed unsuitable for In-Game Advertising. Data was collected through questionnaires completed before and after participating in a focus group. Results showed that that this form of advertising, gamer attitudes and buying behaviour can be positively influenced through exposure. In addition, a comparison of the ordinal regression models, showed that their influence factors for buying decisions were also influenced.