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Chapter 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-513-7.ch017
Shintaro Okazaki
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Jaime Romero
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Sara Campo
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Capturing Market Mavens
among Advergamers:
A Case of Mobile-Based Social
Networking Site in Japan
ABSTRACT
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. Specifcally, 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 fndings 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.