Marketing communications in social network games: Promotional design considerations in the online era

This paper examines a typology of social network game-based promotion effectiveness utilising postings from an online gaming community message board. Building upon a typology to assess promotional game design1 ‘Marketing promotions in social network games: Making them work’, the authors test the F-M typology framework, which includes the axes of functional congruency (in-game versus out-of-game promotions) and motivational congruency (promotional offering aligns with players’ motivations for playing the game versus a promotional offering that does not align with player motivations for playing the game). To substantiate the typology, this study examined 3,086 message board posts related to four branded promotions within a social network game (Farmville). Additional congruency issues associated with in-game promotions were also discussed.