Investigation of Embedded Brand Placement within Esports

Abstract: The video game and esports industry has grown exponentially over the past few years.“During recent years, esports have become one of the most rapidly growing forms ofnew media driven by the growing provenance of online games and onlinebroadcasting technologies” (Hamari and Sjöblom, 2017). Sponsors have identifiedmarketing opportunities in this rapidly growing advertising medium. Brand placementin esports is gaining momentum as a means to target audiences in an indirect andengaging way. In our study we have defined embedded brand placement in the contextof video games and esports as the practice of including a brand name, signage or otherforms of trademark merchandise integrated naturally within the game and in return,visibly featured in the esport broadcast. The aim of this study was to examine howembedded brand placement performed during different spectating scenarios whichpossess different distraction levels and in-game dynamics (audio and visual). Ourstudy explores the effectiveness of embedded brand placement within esports byemploying an eye tracking methodology as well as a brand recall exercise inconnection to participant's prior involvement with the video game, League of Legendsand the respective esports scene. The practical implications from the results of thisstudy hope to assist advertisers in making a better informed decision aboutcollaborating with esport events and uncover a better perception in regards to howthey might expect their advertising messages to perform. Through our study, we havesuccessfully contributed to the foundation of research surrounding embedded brandplacements within esports through our investigation of practical factors affecting towhich extent viewers are able to consume these advertising messages. These factorsbeing prior involvement, how differing spectating scenarios, distractions and in-gamedynamics affect fixations on advertising messages and finally how the above factorscontribute to overall brand recall as well as long-term versus short-term brandrecollection.