This document discusses how product placement in films and television is an outdated marketing strategy. It notes that product placement peaked in the late 2000s, with over $3 billion spent annually, but that viewership habits have changed with the rise of DVRs allowing commercial skipping. The document argues that consumers have become more aware of product placement and develop negative views towards obvious advertisements. A better strategy, it claims, is native advertising, which aims to blend advertisements seamlessly into content without disrupting the consumer experience. When done subtly through transmedia techniques across multiple platforms, native advertising can be highly effective promotion.

1. Leave Product Placement In
The Past
Orlaith Croke-Martin
FILM240
Pexels.com

2. An Outdated Marketing Strategy?
• Product placement is “the purposeful incorporation of commercial
content into noncommercial settings” (1)
Pixabay.com

3. “Given the rise of digital video recorders and viewers who routinely
skip commercials, product placement is becoming increasingly more
of a focus in television advertising.” (4)
Pexels.com

4. Let’s talk numbers…
• In 2006, paid product placement were globally valued at 3.07 billion
(1)
• In 2009, brands spent 3.6 billion on product placement in music
videos (2)
• In 2008, the top 10 most popular TV shows collectively showed
29,823 product placements (2)
Pexels.com

5. Is it worth it?
While product placement is a heavily
invested market and a very popular
marketing strategy, it has received
many criticisms. Pexels.com

6. Increased awareness and annoyance towards advertisement
means that product placement is now an outdated, inefficient
marketing strategy (1, 3)
Pexels.com

7. Advertisement annoyance
Product placement can shift people’s attitudes towards a brand from
positive to negative (3)
Pexels.com

8. Persuasion knowledge
When people know they are being “persuaded” (i.e when they
recognize product placement as an advertisement strategy),
they are likely to shift their attitude towards a brand (3) Pixabay.com

9. Not so subtle…
When product placement is obvious, or when the product being
placed is already heavily advertised in traditional ways, consumers
have an even more negative attitude towards it (3)
Pixabay.com

10. The savvy consumer
As time goes on and consumers are increasingly
saturated with advertising, their awareness of
marketing strategies increase too (3).
Pixabay.com

11. The rise of ad-blockers
The rise of ad-blockers on online media is a demonstration for the
universal dislike of obvious advertisement.
In 2015, 198 million people reported blocking ads using various web
applications (5).
Pixabay.com

12. Time to move on…
It’s obvious that consumers have become more cognisant of product
placement, which decreases the effectiveness of this marketing
strategy.
Pixabay.com

13. Pixabay.com

14. Native advertising
Native advertising is “ a term used to describe a spectrum of new
online advertising forms that share a focus on minimizing disruption
to a consumer's online experience by appearing in-stream” (6).
Pixabay.com

15. The goal of native advertising is to appear seamlessly within its context,
so as not to disrupt the consumer with obvious marketing ploys.
Pexels.com

16. Subtlety is key
In an e-Marketer study, 84% of millennials reported not noticing
advertising (5), which may be due to native advertising techniques
(7). Pexels.com

17. Transmedia strategies
Native advertising goes hand in hand with transmedia strategies, which
use several mediums to promote a brand or product (1,6).
Pexels.com

18. Keeping up with the subliminal advertising
Kylie and Kendall Jenner, from Keeping Up With Kardashians, teamed
up with Seventeen Magazine for several advertorials which show
native advertising and transmedia strategies.
Pixabay.com

19. Thin Ice
However, brand advertisers must be careful to not appear as if they are
trying to trick consumers through native advertisement, or else
consumers develop a negative attitude (1)
Pixabay.com

20. However, if done correctly, native advertisement is the natural “next
step” in subliminal advertising as the more effective and less
expensive alternative to product placement.
Pixabay.com

21. In conclusion, product placement should be replaced by the highly
effective and considerably cheaper option of native advertisement.
Consumers have become too aware of product placement and have
developed negative attitudes to obvious advertisement techniques, while
transmedia native advertising allows for subtle, effective marketing.
Pexels.com

22. Sources
• 1 -Williams, K. et al. Product placement effectiveness: revisited and renewed. Journal of
Management and Marketing Research.
• 2- Nathanson, J. 2013. The Economics of Product Placements. Priceonomics. Retrieved
from: https://priceonomics.com/the-economics-of-product-placements/
• 3 - Cowley, E., Barron, C. 2008. When Product Placement Goes Wrong: The Effects of
Program Liking and Placement Prominence. Journal of Advertising 37(1):89-98.
• 4 -Batchelor, B., Coombs, D. 2014. We Are What We Sell : How Advertising Shapes
American Life... and Always Has. Greenwood.
• 5- Rosenwald, M. 2010. The digital media industry needs to react to ad blockers, or else.
Columbia Journalism Review.
• 6 - Campbell, C., Marks, L. 2015. Good Native Advertising Isn’t A Secret. Business
Horizons 58(6):599-606.
• 7- Matrix, Sidneyeve. “Module Two, Lecture One Advertising Strategies”. 2017.
Presentation