Abstract

Viral campaigns widely use online promotional games. They are an innovative and a compelling way to capture
the attention of the target audience, and encourage consumers to interact with brands. The goal is to offer
consumers a content that influence customer behaviour. As more immersive games are developed, online
promotional games possess a number of features that make them a compelling opportunity for the study of flow.
Flow is a mental state of operation in which a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. In this way,
this research proposes to evaluate the impact of online promotional games on the willingness to communicate
personal and social data (word-of-mouth) in respect with an approach focused on flow. A study is carried out on
a sample of French individuals from a mega base of e-mails for promotional offers. Respondents were invited to
play to a branded online promotional game created for a viral marketing campaign. The results show that the
flow experience depends on the balance between the perceived skill ability and the perceived challenge. Flow
experience is positively related impact the decision to diffuse the message and to share personal information with
the brand.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.