The impact of social setting on the recall and recognition of in-game advertising

•Social setting has an impact on the awareness of in-game advertising (IGA).•Social presence partially mediates this relationship between social setting and brand awareness.•Playing games in an increasingly social setting negatively influences recall and recognition of IGA.•Watching others play games positively influences recall and recognition of IGA.

The current paper contributes to the study of in-game advertising (IGA) effectiveness by investigating the 24 impact of social setting on brand awareness (i.e. brand recall and recognition) in a digital game context. 25 An experiment (N = 121) was conducted in which participants played a digital game containing IGA in 26 various social conditions. Results show that a person’s social environment has a significant influence 27 on brand awareness and that this effect can be primarily attributed to two factors: social presence (i.e. 28 the awareness of and interaction with another person) and player interactivity (i.e. the ability to actively 29 control a digital game). Playing in a social setting seems to have a negative influence on the recall and 30 recognition of IGA, with other people serving as a distracting factor. Watching while others play a digital 31 game, however, has a positive impact on brand awareness.