Capturing Market Mavens among Advergamers: A Case of Mobile-Based Social Networking Site in Japan

The objective of this chapter is to identify a market maven segment among advergamers on a mobile-based social networking site (SNS). A real online campaign with a multiplayer game is designed for Procter & Gamble’s Pringles, after which online surveys are conducted via mobile device. Finite mixture models are employed to identify clusters. The estimation results suggest four clusters. The majority group belongs to Clusters 1 (67%) and 2 (21%), while Clusters 3 (6.8%) and 4 (4.8%) exhibit the propensity of market mavens. Specifically, the members of Cluster 3 are likely to have been actively engaged in information search, purchased the sponsor brand, and disseminated their brand knowledge of the brand, mainly through personal conversation after the game play. By contrast, the members of Cluster 4 are unlikely to have sought information, nor to have purchased the brand after the game, but are very likely to have spread their brand knowledge through word-of-mouth. Furthermore, they did so via not only personal conversation but also SNS functions (i.e., messaging, blog, and discussion board). Given this, Clusters 3 and 4 could be labeled as traditional and innovative market mavens, respectively. Our findings suggest that online marketers should identify and incentivize market mavens by branded entertainment so that they can then disseminate information, encourage followers, and generate a viral chain of word-of-mouth.