Product Placement

In last the few decades, advertising and marketing company have had to become more creative in the way they promote their products. With the landscape of technology constantly changing, the way consumers receive messaging is shifting alongside it. Consumers of media have become much more savy on how to tune out advertisements when they are unavoidable, and have found ways around them all together in some instances. With ad free streaming services like Netflix, and the seemingly ubiquitous DVR trend that allows you to fast forward through commercials, advertisers are leaning further away from investing in commercials and towards more subtle means like product placement. 

Product placement is when companies pay to have their products integrated within the narrative and setting of typically a television show or movie. We see this tactic used in mediums such as books and video games as well. Because these materials are worked subtly into the narrative, the advertising messages are supposed to translate to the consumers on a more unconscious level. 

This can be done on a number of levels. Most commonly, companies are either name dropped in a exchange between characters or the products are openly and clearly displayed within a scene. The integration of these products are not intended to be overly palpable. However, when you are looking and listening for them, it's unbelievable how present they are.

They've done a number of studies revolving around the best strategies in terms of engaging this devise. Tanner reports in his article for Forbes, "we examined how product placement might affect the audience for subsequent ads in a number of cases. These included a perfect match, which is when the same product features in both the placement and the ad, e.g. the judges on American Idol drink Coke and then a Coke advertisement is shown in a subsequent commercial break. A brand-only match represents the case where different products from the same brand feature in the placement and ad, such as an iPhone commercial following an earlier MacBook Air placement. A competitive-match occurs when a specific product placement is followed by an advertisement by a category competitor, imagine for example if the Coke placement on American Idol was actually followed by a Pepsi commercial." Tanner continues to state, "Our investigation was motivated by the fact that psychological research on priming suggests that brief exposures to visual stimuli can be sufficient to alter how people respond to subsequent stimuli in an entirely nonconscious fashion.  The primary idea we rely on is that when a placement and a subsequent advertisement feature the same brand (perfect match and brand-only match) the placement acts as a prime that activates the brand in the viewer’s memory, thus leading to temporary increases in its accessibility. Several theoretical accounts predict that such increased accessibility should result in increased attention being paid to subsequent advertisements featuring the brand. For example, if there was a box of Cheerios in a kitchen scene in 'Modern Family,' then despite not consciously noticing it, a viewer may nonetheless pay more attention to a subsequent Cheerios ad than if the placement had not been present."

The studies found that consumers being exposed to the products previously did indeed aid in reception to the commercials later, however, much more so in perfect match and brand-only cases. They found within competitive scenarios a slight increase in attention, but found a higher level of interference than synergy with this style of integration.

On a more psychological level, product placement also taps into a number of sensitive spots within our subconscious. According to Dr. Zimmerman, "product placement can affect what’s called implicit self-identification.  Implicit self-identification is automatically associating yourself with an object, for example a consumer brand.  When we watch a liked character use a brand, we can start to automatically identify with the brand as a way to vicariously experience that character’s life. He continues to conclude, "psychologists have actually found we’re more likely to buy something we identify with than something we like...it [also] shows that even when we view placements skeptically they can still give us a favorable inclination toward placed brands."

 These underlying identity pieces play a huge role in the success of this advertising tactic. This also leads one to question whether or not (given how the advertisers chose to integrate a product) product placement in this way could be seen as a form of targeted advertising. 

Ultimately, product placement has been more successful than many would credit as it works more on an unconscious level. Sometimes they are utilized to prime for later more blatant advertisements for the same product or to subliminally translating messages about identity and inclusion. As the digital media landscape continues to shift, it will be interesting to evaluate how the use of product placement evolves alongside of it. 

Sources:http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2014/09/08/synergy-or-interference-how-product-placement-in-tv-shows-affects-the-commercial-break-audience/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sold/201303/product-placement-can-be-lot-more-powerful-we-realize