Investigating the Effectiveness of Product Placements in Television Shows: The Role of Modality and Plot Connection Congruence on Brand Memory and Attitude

By Cristel A. Russell. 2002

875 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article develops and tests a conceptual framework for the practice of product placement. The empirical testing introduces a controlled experimental approach called the theater methodology. Results show that the modality of presentation (visual and auditory) of the placements and the degree of connection between a brand and the plot of the show interact to influence memory and attitude change. Memory improves when modality and plot connection are incongruent but persuasion is enhanced by congruency. While congruous placements appear natural, incongruent placements adversely affect brand attitudes because they seem out of place and are discounted.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Marketing, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fcb127a618fe797ee74e55a967ec2f451abdd4b6

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Citations in the corpus

Enjoyment of Advergames and Brand Attitudes (2008, background): “According to a recent report by PQ Media Research, spending on branded entertainment efforts will surpass $25 billion in 2008 (Business Wire 2008).”
How media factors affect audience responses to brand placement (2010, methodology): “These findings are in line with previous studies showing that prominence of the placement leads to increased recognition, but to negative effects on brand attitude (Brennan et al. 1999; Russell 2002; van Reijmersdal 2009).”
A New Branch of Advertising (2009, background): “Russell (2002) showed that modality interacted with plot connection.”
Online Display Advertising: Targeting and Obtrusiveness (2011, result): “This is consistent with findings in the product placement literature (Russell 2002) that contextually appropriate ads can blend into the content, reducing recall but increasing purchase intent.”
The effectiveness of different forms of online advertising for purchase conversion in a multiple-channel attribution framework (2016, background): “…and amusing but less irritating than content-separated activities (Tutaj and Van Reijmersdal 2012), which might explain why product placements in films and on television increase brand awareness, positive attitudes, and purchase intentions (e.g., D’Astous and Chartier 2000; Russell 2002).”
Motion Picture-Induced Visual, Vocal and Celebrity Effects on Tourism Motivation: Stimulus Organism Response Model (2014, positive): “Product placement theory has been used in marketing and advertisement literature to investigate how the placement of products and product attributes in motion pictures influences consumer behavior (Avery & Ferraro, 2000; Russell, 2002; Russell & Stern, 2006; Su, Huang, Brodowsky, & Kim, 2011).”
Brand Placement Recognition (2004, result): “In contrast, the results of studies by Law and Braun (2000) and Sabherwal et al. (1994) support the hypothesis that recognition will be higher for audio-visual than for visual product placements.”
Mitigating the Effects of Advergames on Children (2011, background): “Thus, product placements are expected to be most effective when embedded brands integrate into the program seamlessly without making the marketing motive apparent (Russell 1998).”
Does “Passing the Courvoisier” always pay off? Positive and negative evaluative conditioning effects of brand placements in music videos (2008, background): “Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar 931 Given that previous studies provided evidence for persuasive effects of commercials without recognition (e.g., Russell, 2002; but see Tom, 1995), one may wonder whether recognition is a necessary condition for the attitudinal influence of brand placements.”