ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses game advertising research and describes what researchers can do in the future to enhance understanding of the effectiveness of this form of advertising. There are many different forms of game-related advertising, but static in-game advertisements, dynamic in-game advertisements, and branded games are the three most common. Static advertisements in games are those that reside in the software, appearing during the course of game play. Dynamic in-game advertising is similar to static advertising in terms of the way it is displayed. Branded games represent a third form of in-game advertising known as advergames. Although video games have reached critical mass and are very popular with a wide audience, tracking the return on in-game advertising expenditures is not as clear-cut. The more that researchers can do to bridge the gap between what is theoretically and what is practically relevant, the more promising the future will be for both researchers and practitioners concerned with understanding the effectiveness of in-game advertising.
