Moonhee Yang (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is a senior researcher, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Seoul, Korea. David R. Roskos-Ewoldsen (Ph.D., Indiana University) is a profes- sor of psychology, University of Alabama. Lucian Dinu (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an assistant profes- sor of communications, University of Louisiana. Laura M. Arpan (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an associate professor of communications, Florida State University. Journal of Advertising, vol. 35, no. 4 (Winter 2006), pp. 143���152. �� 2006 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved. ISSN 0091-3367 / 2006 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/JOA0091-3367350410 The expansion of the video and computer game industry has made advertisers aware of the potential of video and computer games as an advertising vehicle (Kelly 2003). The placement of brands in games is called ���in-game advertising.��� It is re- ported that one game company alone���Electronic Arts Inc. (EA)���recorded $9 billion in annual sales, which is almost the equivalent of yearly box-office revenues for the movie industry in the United States (Young 2004). In addition to the sales of the games, the increasing numbers of game us- ers make video and computer games an attractive format for brand placements. According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA 2005), computer and video game sales grew to $7.3 billion in 2004, with over 248 million computer and video games sold in the United States. Indeed, 50% of Americans play video games, and video game players are found among people of all ages, with 35% of video game players under the age of 18, 43% between the ages of 18 and 50, and 19% over 50 years old. There were 108 million video game players in 2004. This number is projected to grow to over 126 million players by 2008 (eMarketer 2004). In 2000, the average person played 70 hours of video games, and this was projected to grow to 115 hours by 2005 (Census Bureau 2002). Today, more and more brand names are appearing in games, although the placement of brand names in games can be traced back to the late 1980s (Reuters 2002). For the video and computer game industry, the placements of brands in games can mean additional revenue and enhanced realism of the games. In 2003, $79 million was spent on in-game advertising, and it is estimated that by 2008 this will increase to over $250 million (eMarketer 2004). Advertisements were often found to contribute to the perceived realism of the games, particularly in sports games (Nelson 2002 Nelson, Keum, and Yaros 2004). Given the increasing practice of in-game advertising and its potential as an alternative advertising medium, surpris- ingly little research has been done regarding the effects of in-game advertising. Little is known about whether in-game advertising influences gamers��� memory for the brand, attitude toward the brand, purchase behavior, and so forth. Clearly, players��� awareness of the brand name is one of the important goals of in-game advertising (Nelson 2002). Therefore, the current study explored this virtually unresearched area and asked whether in-game advertising influences the memory of the players for the embedded brands, especially among col- lege students���one of the groups that most frequently plays video games. In fact, 70% of college students report playing video games (Jones 2003). Following the practice established in television and movie research, the current study employed measures of both implicit (unconscious) memory (with a word- fragment completion test) and explicit (conscious) memory (with a recognition test) for ads placed in two popular sports games (Law and Braun 2000 Law and Braun-LaTour 2004 Yang, Roskos-Ewoldsen, and Roskos-Ewoldsen 2004). Testing two different types of memory for in-game advertising effec- tiveness is expected to benefit both scholars and practitioners in this area. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ���IN-GAME��� ADVERTISING Comparing College Students��� Explicit and Implicit Memory for Brand Names Moonhee Yang, David R. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Lucian Dinu, and Laura M. Arpan ABSTRACT: In-game advertising has become a major advertising outlet. The current study examined the effect of brand names placed in video games on college students��� memory. Both implicit and explicit memory for brands placed in two sports computer games were tested using a word-fragment test and a recognition task, respectively. The results indicated that college students had low levels of explicit memory (recognition test) for the brands, but they showed implicit memory (word-fragment test) for the brand names placed in the video games.

144 The Journal of Advertising LITERATURE REVIEW In-Game Advertising Versus Brand Placements in Television Programs and Movies The similarities between brand placements in television pro- grams and movies and in-game advertising offer research on brand placement in video games a solid starting point. More specifically, in-game advertising shares many of the strengths of brand placement in television programs and movies. First, brand placements in movies are often associated with well- known actors or actresses, with the result that the placements function as celebrity endorsements (Avery and Ferraro 2000). In video games, brand placements are aided by consumer identification with famous sports figures, such as Tiger Woods in Cyber Tiger or Michelle Kwan in Michelle Kwan Figure Skating (Nelson 2002). In fact, 17.9% of regular video game players consider the celebrities involved in the games as one of the main reasons for playing them (ESA 2005). Second, a brand placed in a movie or television program has a longer lifetime than a typical advertisement (Brennan, Dubas, and Babin 1999 d���Astous and Chartier 2000). The lifetime of brands placed in video games might also be considerable (Nelson 2002), especially in the case of heavy game players. Third, research has found that audiences seem to have more positive attitudes toward brand placements than toward ad- vertisements (Nebenzahl and Secunda 1993). Moreover, some studies report that audiences indicate that brand placements actually enhance the viewing experience by increasing the real- ism of the television show or movie (Avery and Ferraro 2000). Similarly, Nelson (2002) found that the realism of sports games benefited from brand placements (see also Nelson, Keum, and Yaros 2004). Furthermore, most players do not have a critical attitude about brand placements in video games and seem not to consider the practice of brand placements as deceptive (Nelson 2002). One difference, however, lies in the interactive nature of video games (Vorderer 2000). Unlike most television shows or movies that are simply watched, video games require players to respond by manipulating the game controller to progress through the game (Liu and Shrum 2002, 2005). The interac- tive characteristics of video games could interfere with players��� memory for in-game advertising. Indeed, unlike the generally passive audiences of most television shows or movies, video game players are more active, and their attention is divided between what they are watching and the game controls (see, e.g., Grodal 2000), which may interfere with memory for the in-game brand placements (Liu and Shrum 2002, 2005). For example, Shapiro and Krishnan (2001) found that when people���s attention was divided between visually presented advertisements and listening to a broadcast, their memory for the advertisements was diminished. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how the interactivity of video games might influence the effect of brand placements on memory. The Effect of Brand Placements on Memory In television and movies, one of the goals of brand placements is to increase the audience���s familiarity with the brand so that consumers are more likely to remember it (d���Astous and Chartier 2000). Consequently, much of the empirical research on brand placements has focused on viewers��� memory for the brands placed within a movie or television show (Karrh 1998 McCarty 2004 Yang, Roskso-Ewoldsen, and Roskos-Ewoldsen 2004). Generally, the research on the effect of brand placement on brand memory has yielded rather mixed results (Babin and Carder 1996 Ong and Meri 1994 Yang, Roskos-Ewoldsen, and Roskos-Ewoldsen 2004). For example, Ong and Meri (1994) found little improvement in memory for some brand placements and remarkably large improvements in memory for other brands. Seventy-seven percent of viewers recalled viewing Coke while watching the movie Falling Down, but only 18% recalled seeing Hamm���s Beer in the movie (Ong and Meri 1994). Although academic research regarding the effect of brand placements in video games is rare, the influence of in-game advertising on the audience���s familiarity with the brand seems as important in this context as it is in television programs and movies (Nelson 2002). Across two studies using sports games, Nelson (2002) found that players recalled 25% to 30% of brands immediately after playing the game, and 10% to 15% of brands after a five-month delay. In addition, in Nelson���s study, participants��� recall for novel brands or brands that were personally relevant to the game players, such as local brands, was greater than their recall of standard national brands, such as Pepsi. Indeed, in a recent telephone survey conducted by Activi- sion and Neilsen Entertainment, samples of males (only) ages 8 to 34 indicated that more than 25% of gamers could recall in-game advertising from the last game they played (Activision 2004). More interesting to note is that about 33% of gamers in this survey responded that the in-game advertising influenced their brand purchase behavior (Activision 2004). More recently, Chaney, Lin, and Chaney (2004) found that participants playing a first-person shooter game recalled going past billboards in the game, but they had little memory for brands���or even for the product category���on the billboard. Similarly, Grigorovici and Constantin (2004) found a complex relationship among the type of placement (billboard versus the actual object), the players��� immersion in the game, how arous- ing the game was, and brand recall. For example, participants tended to recall brands when they were placed on a billboard but not when they were actually present in the game world, except when the brand was an automobile. Likewise, higher levels of immersion in the game interfered with players��� recall for brands placed in the game.