An investigation of brand placement effects on brand attitudes and purchase intentions: Brand placements versus TV commercials

Brand placements are gradually becoming an important part of promotional toolkit of many major companies. However, despite the increasing volume of research on brand placements during the last decade, several important questions still remain unanswered. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of brand placements in television sitcoms and contrast it with the effectiveness of 30-second commercials. The authors administer a quasi-natural experiment to a sample of research panel participants to investigate how brand placements in television sitcoms affect their attitudes and purchase intentions. Results of the study suggest that people have a more positive attitude toward brand placements than toward traditional television commercials. Moreover, placements can be more effective than 30-seconds commercials when targeting audiences with low attitude toward advertising. Finally, a combination of a brand placement and a commercial within one program doesn't significantly increase brand attitudes and purchase intentions compared with sole exposure conditions.     

Enhancing memorability

Previous research on exposure to TV commercials and recall of the commercials has been done in conditions where viewers did not know the exact duration of commercial breaks. This study is the first to investigate the effects of prompting the remaining duration of embedded commercials in TV programmes on commercial exposure and recall. The study also examined the influence of interactions between the length of the commercial break, the number of advertisements in the break and the type of prompt on commercial exposure. The results show that the use of a prompt influences the effectiveness of the commercials. When viewers knew the exact duration of the commercial break, there were no differences in their commercial exposure irrespective of whether any prompt was used or not. For the same commercial exposure, when compared to not using a prompt, using a prompt giving either the remaining time or the number of remaining advertisements in the form of a duration countdown enhanced viewer commercial memory. These findings provide evidence that prompting the remaining duration during commercial break influences viewer commercial exposure and recall.     

Contextual Priming Effects of Television Programs on Commercials: The Moderating Effects of Age

This study investigated whether age and its associated implicit memory deficits influences responses to contextual television advertising. Prior exposure to the advertised product or brand during a program should improve recall and brand attitude for contextual commercials. The results of a lab experiment, with participants ranging in age from 19 to 78, revealed that unbranded product appearances significantly improved recall, compared to normal unprimed commercials, but only for younger consumers. Branded product appearances did not significantly improve recall, compared to unbranded appearances. Contextual commercials had no positive effects on brand attitude. However, a competitor-brand appearance had a negative effect on brand attitude, for both older and younger consumers. Implications of these results, and their limitations, are discussed.     

The Effects Of Program Involvement On Commercial Exposure And Recall In A Naturalistic Setting

Although program involvement is often found to be an important determinant of commercial recall, studies have produced mixed results. The authors contend that inconsistent findings are, in large part, a result of the degree to which respondents are free to determine their exposure to commercials. It is hypothesized that in studies where exposure is not forced, program involvement has a positive effect on commercial recall. This proposition was examined during the broadcast of four matches of the 2000 European Soccer Championship (N = 344). Results show that viewers who saw a highly involving match recalled commercials significantly better than those who saw matches that scored lower on program involvement. This effect was, in large part, mediated by respondents' exposure to the commercials.     

The effects of television advertising execution on recall,comprehension, and persuasion

The present study fills a gap in the advertising effects literature for a large-sample comprehensive study of the impact of general message factors on recall and persuasion measures of advertising performance. An analysis of executional factors in 1059 television commercials revealed that the presence of a brand differentiating message accounted for more variance in persuasion than other executional factors. Recall and persuasion performance were more closely related for new products than for established products. A brand differentiating claim in the commercial was the most important single executional factor affecting advertising effectiveness.     

Mental Imagery and Sound Effects in Radio Commercials

Abstract

Advertising researchers have not investigated the impact of the imagery-evoking sound effects included in radio commercials on learning, feelings, and attitude formation. Results of the current study indicate that the inclusion of sound effects can increase imagery activity and that there is a relationship between degree of imaging and feelings. Further, it is found that imagery evoking sound effects can result in more favorable attitude toward the commercial and in improved recall and recognition of ad claims. Implications for theory and advertising practice are discussed.     

Make product placement work for you: Get less exposure

Expenditure on product placement has grown faster (170%) than on advertising (15%) over the past 10 years, but some evidence suggests that the return on investment has been declining. For the well-known, fast-moving consumer goods/consumer-packaged goods (FMCG/CPG) food brands typically placed in local TV programming—the context of this article—the management problem of overfocusing on brand exposure hinders gaining brand choice, the ultimate strategic goal of marketing. Managers’ preconditioning, ease of measuring, and assumptions about the value of exposure contribute to their subtle placements becoming blatant or in other problems, as when other promotional devices, like a television commercial or program sponsorships billboard, get bundled into the same TV episode as the company’s own product placement. The higher brand exposure gained can evoke negative mental outcomes in consumers, weakening influences on brand choice. An experiment with a large sample of grocery shoppers supports such an outcome. More strategic value can also be gained from product placements in general by their use longitudinally, in-between campaigns of TV commercials, as an instructive tool and through normalizing a brand’s role in a consumer’s life. We provide eight checkpoints for marketers to consider when planning to use product placement to gain value for their brands.     

Recall of Information from Political Advertising

Abstract

Televised political commercials have frequently been criticized for stressing idealized image characteristics of the candidates rather than issues. Content analyses of political advertising, however, have shown that these commercials generally contain both image and issue material. Given both types of content are present in political ads, this study was designed to determine what people recall from these ads in a natural environment. A telephone study during the last week of a gubernatorial election revealed that the amount of free recall exhibited was greater for information from a preferred candidate's commercials than from his opponent's. However, one-third of the respondents were unable to recall anything from either candidates' political commercials. Recall was more highly related to attitude variables than most demographic variables or total television exposure.     

Building brand knowledge structures: Elaboration and interference effects on the processing of sequentially advertised brand benefit claims

Two experiments are reported that examine the effects of an ad campaign designed to link two different benefit claims to a brand. The findings indicated that recall for a subsequently advertised claim depended on the strength of existing brand–benefit links in memory. If prior advertising strongly established a benefit claim in memory, then proactive interference effects inhibited the recall of subsequently advertised benefit claims unrelated in meaning. Additional analyses suggested that these interference effects appeared to be a result of difficulties with encoding the newly advertised claims. If the original benefit claim was not as strongly established in memory, however, then unaided recall of the subsequently advertised benefit claims was actually higher than if there had been no prior advertising at all. In fact, less accessible and memorable claims, whether they preceded or followed more accessible and memorable claims, enhanced recall of the stronger claims. Additional analyses suggest that these elaboration effects occurred because prior or subsequent advertising improved brand awareness and thus later brand claim recall as a result.     

Book Review

Media fragmentation and proliferation, in concert with declining television advertising efficacy, has engendered interest in developing more effective ways to reach consumers – particularly non-users of a brand. This study explores the effect of active product placement in computer games on both brand attitude (A_brand) and recall. Findings suggest that exposure to a particular brand in a computer game can increase A_brand among consumers whose pre-existing attitude towards the brand in question is fairly low. We conclude that product placement within computer games is an effective means of fostering high spontaneous brand recall and even of influencing consumers less positively predisposed towards a brand (analogous to non-users). These findings have promising managerial implications for firms looking to grow their customer base through acquisition and conversion.     

Product Placement Versus Conventional Advertising: The Impact on Brand Choice of Integrating Promotional Stimuli into Movies

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasingly favorable environment enjoyed by product placement, the question of whether this technique produces stronger behavioral effects than conventional advertising remains largely unexplored. Based on the transportation-imagery model, we hypothesized that, among users of well-established products, promotional stimuli produce stronger effects on brand choice when integrated into movies than when presented as independent ads, while among nonusers, no differences are expected. Our hypotheses were confirmed in a field experiment that compared the effects of a Coca-Cola placement within the movie Ways to Live Forever with the same Coca-Cola stimulus shown as a usual commercial.     

Consumers’ responses to native vs. banner advertising: moderation of persuasion knowledge on interaction effects of ad type and placement type

Applying advertising contextual theory, we examined the conditions under which native advertising embedded in a news website was more effective. With the use of college students (n = 189), a 2 (type of ad: native vs. banner) × 2 (type of ad placement: solo vs. duo) × 2 (persuasion knowledge: high vs. low) online experimental design was employed. In the solo condition, native advertising was evaluated more favorably than banner advertising in perceived fit, ad credibility, brand attitudes and click intention. Significant interaction effects between ad type and placement type were found on all dependent variables, with native advertising showing a significant decrease in duo (vs. solo) placement. These interaction effects appeared to be more pronounced for consumers with high persuasion knowledge, confirming its moderating role. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed regarding the strategic placement of native advertising in news websites.     

Effects beyond click-through: Incidental exposure to web advertising

While Web advertising tends to be based on a direct response model, there is a growing debate about the brand building potentials of Web ads. Click-through rates (CTR) are disappointingly low, but Web ads can be effective at brand building in an environment where Web ads are outside of consumers' attentional focus. With this in mind we conducted two experiments. The first experiment examined the effects of incidental exposure to banner ads. Subjects who were incidentally exposed to banner ads reported greater priming effects induced by implicit memory, more favorable A_ad, and greater likelihood for the advertised brand to be included in a consideration set over no exposure to the ad. These effects were found without significant improvement on explicit memories (i.e. recall and recognition) and click-through intention. The second experiment to assess the conditions conducive to incidental exposure examined two advertising strategies: format (animated vs. static) and placement (congruency vs. incongruency). Findings suggest that the level of congruency between an advertised product and Webpage content play significant roles in affecting consumers' responses to incidentally exposed banner ads. This paper examines the results of these two experiments before discussing the implications for the role of Web ads on brand building and directions for future research.     

The Effect of Program Context on Commercial Performance

In order to assess the effects of program context upon television commercial “performance,” two proposed attributes of both television programs and commercials—content and style—were operationalized to establish four viewing packages. Each typology represented a different content-style relationship between the commercial and the program carrier. It was hypothesized that consistent contextual relationships would result in individuals reacting more favorably toward, though providing lesser recall of, the commercial/ product advertised. Post-viewing questionnaire responses obtained from 279 experimental subjects indicated that the content-style relationship between a program and commercial yielded no major commercial impact effects, although the stylistic dimension may have certain communication effectiveness consequences.     

Advertisement pacing and the learning of marketing information by the elderly

This study investigates how pace of information presentation to the elderly influences learning of marketing information. The learning task involved recalling or recognizing brand, product, and commercial information from three advertisements which were mechanically manipulated through time compression or expansion to expose a subject to the commercials at different paces. In order to test the total time hypothesis of Cooper and Pantle (1967), the total time of exposure was held constant by varying the repetitions of the advertisement. Results indicate that elderly consumers remember less than younger subjects, but support the total time hypothesis of no pacing effects for older subjects. Some support was also found for applicability to younger subjects.     

Entertainment Marketing and Experiential Consumption

The placement of brand references within mainstream entertainment (called here ‘entertainment marketing’) is a rapidly evolving marketing communications field in its scale and sophistication. Much previous research in the field has conceptualized entertainment marketing as promotion and focused on measuring consumer attitudes, purchase intentions and brand recall in response to brand exposure. This conceptual paper suggests that there is also a need for understanding the quality of consumer engagement with brands in the context of mediated entertainment. The paper draws on phenomenological/existential research traditions in order to begin to theorize the role that entertainment marketing techniques may play in facilitating consumer self‐concepts and identity formation through brand exposure within dramatic portrayals of characters and lifestyles.     

Using Internet Behavior to Deliver Relevant Television Commercials

Consumer footprints left on the Internet help advertisers show consumers relevant Web ads, which increase awareness and click-throughs. This “proof of concept” experiment illustrates how Internet behavior can identify relevant television commercials that increase ad-effectiveness by raising attention and ad exposure. Product involvement and prior brand exposure, however, complicate effective Internet-targeting. Ad relevance matters more for low-involvement products, which have a short pre-purchase search process. For the same reason, using Web browsing behavior to make inferences about current ad relevance is more accurate for low-involvement products. Prior brand exposure reduces information-value, even for relevant commercials, and therefore dampens ad relevance's effect on attention and ad exposure.     

Why Narrative Ads Work: An Integrated Process Explanation

We propose and test an integrated process explanation for why narrative ads in general are more persuasive than non-narrative ads. A study involving a random sample of 25 narrative and 25 non-narrative TV commercials and 484 nonstudent research participants confirmed that a set of four process variables—emotive response, ad hedonic value, ad credibility, and perceived goal facilitation—collectively mediate the positive effects of narrative (versus non-narrative) ads on attitude toward the ad (A_ad) and brand attitudes. The results also supported moderated mediation processes, with type of featured product and product involvement as important moderators. Implications for theory as well as practice are discussed.     

More than meets the eye

A growing research literature suggests that visual brand placements need not be recalled in order to have an impact on brand attitudes. In an experimental study working with an authentic television broadcast, the authors investigated the influence of frequency of placement exposure, viewers’ involvement and viewers’ persuasion knowledge on the attitudes towards the brand and brand recall. Results clearly indicate a mere exposure effect. A frequently presented brand placement can have a positive effect on brand evaluations although viewers do not recall the brand. However, this effect can only be found when there is a high involvement in the programme and low persuasion knowledge. In contrast, when persuasion knowledge is high and involvement is low, frequently presented placements lead to a deterioration of brand attitudes.     

“时间总长假设”对广告媒体策划的启示

认知心理学中的“时间总长假设”（Total Time Hypothesis）认为，人们掌握（主要指记忆）一定的信息所需要的时间是基本固定的。当总的时间长度固定时，对于这段时间的分配方式并不影响记忆的效果。本文对这个假设在广告行业中的应用进行了论证。文中所分析的数据采集于对美国观众在2002、2003和2006年进行的有关“超级碗”球赛广告的电话访谈。研究结果显示，当广告的时间总长固定时，广告重复的次数对广告的传播效果没有显著影响，从而印证了时间总长假设。文章对如何在广告媒体策划中应用这一结论也进行了相应的讨论。