Brand embeddedness in advergames through brand–game congruence and brand prominence: a typology of ways to design a game around a brand

Advergames allow advertisers to build an entire game around the brand. This study explores how brands can be embedded in advergames through brand–game congruence and brand prominence in the game. A typology of 112 existing advergames uncovers three types of advergames in line with ways of persuading detailed in the hierarchy-of-effects theory: (1) affective, (2) cognitive, and (3) conative. The findings provide an explanation for the contradictions found in various studies, such as when only one congruence or prominence dimension is considered.