Effectiveness of in-game advertising in sports video games among old gamers

Abstract

The ways people consume sports have changed over recent years. With more people consuming sports through sports video game (SVG) over watching it on television, the number of in-game advertisements has also increased accordingly. However, studies

conducted on old gamers 50 years old and above are lacking even though they are possibly the second largest group of video game consumers. Thus, the aim of this study is to understand the effectiveness of in-game advertising on old gamers. It was hypothesis that there will be a difference in in-game advertisements recall/recognition rate among young and old gamers. To begin, 58 participants from the generation Y (n=31) and baby boomers (n=27) age groups were conveniently selected for this study. Participants were instructed to play a racing game and followed by answering a questionnaire consisting of recall/recognition questions. Results revealed that the difference in advertisement recall/recognition rate among the age groups was significant. With the statistical analysis showing values of t(47)=1.72, p=.092 for the difference in recall rate, and (56)=3.33, p=.002 for recognition rate, the null hypothesis was rejected, and it was suggested that current in-game advertising is less effective on old gamers. This study can serves as a foundation for future researchers who are interested in related studies, and also for sport marketers who want to use in-game advertising in SVG to reach out to old gamers.