This research contributes to increase our knowledge of the antecedents of
consumers’ intentions to use advergames. Results suggest that attitudes and
ethical concerns play a main role in consumers’ intentions to use advergames.
Regarding attitudes advertisers should try to increase positive attitudes toward
advergames (e.g., educating consumers about the benefits of advergames: free
entertainment, non-intrusive advertising…) in order to assure consumers
acceptance and use. The fact that attitude toward advertising has no effect on
attitude toward product placement in video games suggests that consumers may
not clearly identify product placement as a persuasive tool. Nevertheless
consumers’ ethical concerns about using video games as a promotional tool has
an effect on both attitude toward advergames and the presence of brands and
products for commercial purposes in video games, suggesting that advertisers
should be careful when trying to use advergames as “advertising in disguise”.
On the contrary, consumers should be properly informed about the goals of
advergames so they could freely choose to get involved in advertising
messages in an entertainment-based context through video games. Regarding
limitations, culture moderates ethical concerns on product placement (Gould,
Gupta & Grabner-Kräuter, 2000) so future research should test the proposed
model on a cross-cultural framework. Future research should also explore other
factors such as utilitarian and hedonic perceived value of advergames on
consumers’ intentions to use advergames. Because men and women behave
different when using advergames (e.g., men and women differ in video game
genres preferences) the moderating role of gender should also be analyzed.