Browsing by Author "Akcan, Duygu"

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Engagement and Brand Recall in Software Developers: an Eye-Tracking Study on Advergames
(Mdpi, 2024) Akcan, Duygu; Yilmaz, Murat; Gulec, Ulas; Ilgin, Hueseyin Emre
Advergames represent a novel product placement strategy that surpasses traditional advertising methods by fostering interaction between brands and their target audiences. This study investigates the unique engagement opportunities provided by video games, focusing mainly on the 'flow experience', an intensified state of immersion frequently encountered by players of computer games. Such immersive experiences have the potential to significantly influence a player's perception, offering a new avenue for advertisements to impact and engage audiences effectively. The primary objective of this research was to examine the influence of advergames on players who are deeply immersed in the gaming experience, with a specific focus on the subsequent effects on brand recognition over time. The study involved 44 software developers, who were evenly divided into two groups for the experiment. Both groups were exposed to an identical gaming environment with the task of locating a designated product within the game. However, one group interacted with an enhanced version of the game, which included additional stimuli-such as dynamic music, an engaging narrative, time constraints, a competitive leaderboard, and immersive voice acting-to intensify the gaming experience. The experiment strategically placed various products within the game, and their detectability was assessed using eye-tracking technology. Following gameplay, participants completed questionnaires that measured their experience with flow state and brand recall. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and correlation analysis to facilitate comparisons. The findings indicated that the product associated with the primary task achieved the highest recall rate between both groups. Furthermore, eye-tracking technology identified the areas in the game that attracted the most attention, revealing a preference for mid- and high-level placements over lower-level ones.
Flow experience and achievement of advergames on software developers: An eye-tracking analysis
(2019) Akcan, Duygu
The idea of using advertising in games has been emerging recently, along with the software and hardware improvements in recent years. The game industry also got benefits from these improvements and became more widespread. Therefore, while the games started to reach more people, putting advertisements in games, or creating games just for promoting brands began has grown profitable. These games are called "Advergames," which are designed for a specific advertising concept. This study demonstrates and analyses the achievement of advergames on software developers in different conditions. These advergames are created with different game elements and measure the flow of players with the flow state scale questionnaire. They also provide the suggestion of where to place the brands using the eye-tracking analysis. Firstly, to be able to demonstrate the benefits of advergames, a total of 44 software developers were selected. They divided into two groups; each group played one of two advergames which were developed. The difference between the two games was the number of game elements included. The second game had a reduced number of game elements that were music, voice acting, story, time, and leaderboard. While they were playing games, an eye-tracker followed and recorded their eye movements. For both groups, when each individual finished their tasks, data was collected from questionnaires of flow state scale, recalled brands and their products and eye movements of players. Collected data was measured using the Mann-Whitney U test and correlation analysis methods. For measurement of the flow, data was obtained by using the flow state scale questionnaire, and analysis was conducted based on the collected data. Lastly, for providing a suggestion about where to place brands, eye-tracking technology was used to determine the places where players commonly look. To be able to decide on the most looked places, the eye-tracking data of each individual was combined, and heat maps were created. As one of the results of this study, for both groups, promoted brands and their products were recalled more than non-promoted brands and their products; and there was a significant difference between them. Secondly, during the measurement of flow, it was observed that both groups had flow experience at different dimensions. Besides, when analyses were made on eye-tracking data; the results were showing that the players were mostly gazing at the mid and high-level shelves and ignoring the bottom level shelves.