Kumar Shrayamsa

The identification of product placement as an alternative to traditional advertisements has been growing swiftly on different media platforms. With technological advancement, playing games on mobile phones is very engaging and convenient. The snowballing number of female Indian consumers playing mobile games provides an opportunity for advertisers to gain their attention. Despite the growing significance of mobile games, little research has been done on product placement as an advertising strategy in mobile games. Mobile games are interactive, they establish a continuous sense of enjoyment for the gamers and encourage the learning process and competence of an individual. Additionally, game-product congruency, where products are integrated into the games and gamers interacting with the embedded products needs to be studied. Hence, this research aims to investigate the impact of congruity and enjoyment effects on the effectiveness of product placement strategy through recall and recognition in mobile games, focusing on female Indian gamers. A qualitative approach is used for this research. A mobile game created for the research purpose is given for the participants to play. The players play the game in a naturalistic environment followed by semi-structured interviews. The findings of this research should contribute to knowledge by developing an understanding of product placement effects in mobile games and sheds light on the factors (congruent game narrative and enjoyment) that influence placement effectiveness in far greater depth. This study develops knowledge regarding a substantial yet underrepresented group, female Indian gamers and will provide managerial implications for future product placement strategy.