Virtual Goods Increase Brand Awareness, Ad Awareness and Purchase Intent
Virtual goods are being pushed to the forefront of many discussions, thanks to the likes of Facebook, Zynga (and its big investor Google) and Foursquare. Businesses who aren’t in those discussions yet may want to start gearing up for them after seeing the latest findings from Appssavvy, which found that virtual goods significantly boost brand awareness, ad awareness and purchase intent.
The study used Powermat as its subject. Appssavvy’s goal was to help Powermat drive awareness and purchase intent by using the location-based mobile app MyTown. Check-ins and virtual goods were measured from May 11 through June 2. The findings were quite telling.
For those exposed to the campaign, aided brand awareness was 70 percent, compared to just 25 percent for the unexposed control group. For this section, both groups were asked, “Have you ever heard of the following brands of electronics? (Check all that apply).”
Mobile ad awareness for the exposed group was 74 percent, compared to just 14 percent for the control group. Both groups were asked, “Which electronic item was advertised on the virtual items that you just viewed.”
Purchase intent for the exposed group was 63 percent, compared to just 31 percent for the control group. For this, both groups were asked, “Which of the following items do you recall receiving in the past week? (Check all that apply).”
These boosts in aided brand awareness, ad awareness and purchase intent for Powermat dwarfed the boosts resulting from overall mobile, mobile Internet, SMS, mobile video, online tech and online video norms.
The study also found that exposed respondents were more likely to recall the branded virtual goods they received, and that they were more likely to agree with positive attribute statements about Powermat.
For example, 52 percent of the exposed group agreed that Powermat “effectively charges my devices wirelessly,” compared to 34 percent of the control group.
Also, 39 percent of the control group agreed that the brand “works simply with my iPhone,”compared to 25 percent of the control group.
Fifty-nine percent of participants were male, and 41 percent were female. For aided awareness, ad awareness and purchase intent, females displayed bigger differences between the test and control groups.
Test-group respondents between the ages of 35-44 displayed the highest responses for all three brand metrics.
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