What we know about product placement
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Examines key insights on product placement, the subtle form of advertising for promoting branded products and services, which can enhance brand awareness, recall and drive sales.
Product placement is typically used to enhance brand awareness, recall and ideally drive sales. Studies indicate it can play a subtle and implicit role and have a positive impact on brand perceptions and recall, particularly when used in conjunction with TV advertising. Product placement can be passive whereby the product appears in the program or film or it can be active where the brand becomes part of the storyline. As digital technology advances it will enable individual product placement to target by demographic or buying habits.
Definition
Product placement is a subtle form of advertising used to promote branded products or services in a non- traditional way. In contrast to explicit TV advertising, product placements usually appear in movies, TV shows, a game, and increasingly, in online content. A company typically pay a fee to the media company to have their product mentioned, discussed, used or significantly featured in a film or show. The goal is to generate positive feelings towards the advertised brand.
Key insights 1. Product placement plays a different role to traditional TV advertising
Research by Channel 4, the UK broadcaster, found product placement works more implicitly as it doesn't prime consumers to change attitudes or behaviours. Rather, it is more subtle, and less direct compared to traditional TV advertising spots. Placement can reinforce existing preconceptions around brands by showing them in everyday situations, therefore viewers are less aware they are being sold to, and interact with a less questioning mindset.
Read more in: Thinkbox "Closer to Content 2011": Key insights on the UK product placement TV market 2. Brands are taking product placement to online, non-TV content
McDonald’s partnered with online game live webcast platform Twitch and presenter Gshan in Taiwan to launch its Dual Combo menu. This enabled it to target a hunger need state which met by the new offering and home delivery service. The product placement was supported by banner and video ads.
Read more in: McDonald's: Dual Combo on Twitch 3. Product placement can be active or passive
As the media landscape has become more fragmented, and the power of the traditional 30-second TV spot is called into question, in-narrative product placement can be a powerful way to engage with consumers. With product placement, greater consideration is given not just to the medium, but to the appropriate message environment or context of a communication. Some product placements are passive such as the brand appearing in the program, or someone mentioning the brand. More active placements are where the brand becomes a discussion point, or part of a scene in the show or film.
Read more in: Starcom, Turner refine booming product placement business 4. Brand recall might be enhanced by a combination of product placement and TV ads
A study found unaided recall was higher when people saw a 30-second TV ad than when they watched a prominent brand placement. However, the study also revealed product placements in TV sitcoms elicit similar levels of brand recognition as a 30-second TV ad shown during a commercial break in the show. This suggests there are beneficial synergistic effects of using a mixture of promotional tactics and that combined use of commercials and brand placements appears to be more effective than the single use of each method.
Read more in: Comparing Brand Placements and Advertisements on Brand Recall and Recognition 5. Brand perception can shift by association with a presenter or TV character
Research commissioned by Channel 4, the UK broadcaster, found a key benefit of product placement was the ability to shift perception of a brand through association with a presenter or character. Moreover, seeing brands used by well-known characters has a powerful normalising effect. For example, when Jamie Oliver, a celebrity chef strongly associated with healthy eating, used Uncle Ben's Express Rice in one of his recipes, viewers were more likely to agree the product was natural, and tasted like home cooked rice. Oliver's use of the product was a powerful implicit endorsement of it. Elsewhere, Nokia Lumia had extensive product placement in Hollyoaks, the UK soap drama, with many characters using the mobile handset. The exposed sample was far more likely to mention the Nokia Lumia as a model that characters in Hollyoaks would use. In addition, research found uplifts in brand recall and purchase intent for respondents exposed to product placements.
Read more in: Channel 4: The implicit impact of product placement 6. Product placement can be brought to life by branded content
Coca-Cola, the soft drinks company, enjoyed a long product placement partnership with AMC, the producers of Mad Men, the hit US TV show which is set in the 1960s US advertising industry. When the brand was asked to supply a copy of the iconic 1971 “Hilltop” TV ad to feature in the final episode of Mad Men, it saw an opportunity to tell the story of how the iconic ad was made. Activation was via Journey, the brand's content website. The video of the “Hilltop” story received over 170,000 views in the first 24 hours with earned media in publications such as The New York Times. Furthermore, Coca Cola was able to tell the story via its own voice.
Read more in: Coke's behind-the-scenes Journey with "Mad Men" 7. TV Sponsorship and product placement can work together to drive sales
Developments in product placement and second-screen content give advertisers the ability to take a sponsorship association and activate it across all aspects on the path to purchase. Online fashion retailer, very.co.uk, sponsored Channel 5's Big Brother TV show in the UK. The strategy included product placement of over 100 very.co.uk products in the Big Brother house – giving viewers a shop window to a wide range of very.co.uk products. A fashion makeover task was set within the programme with links to both brand and broadcaster click and buy sites closing the gap between sponsorship engagement and transaction. This approach increased visits to the site and directly increased sales of specific featured products.
Read more in: TV planning: 360-degree sponsorship 8. Viewers are more likely to recall a product placement if the brand is relevant to their
Interests
Technology has been developed that allows for the embedding of personalised product placement when viewing television on demand. Targeting can be undertaken by demographics and by purchasing habits. Further, findings from eye-tracking research suggests that product placement is particularly effective in reinforcing existing knowledge of a brand. Relevance was found to be key, with viewers much more likely to recall products relevant to their interests. It was also found that viewers do not question how broadcasters will be able to target them with relevant placements and say that they are used to being targeted in this way online based on their internet behaviour.
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