A Comparison of Product Placements in Movies and Television ...

152 HANDBOOK OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN THE MASS MEDIA
person, subscribe to cable, or when they typically watch television. In a
multi-audience setting, there are likely to be more interactions among
the audience members while watching television than while viewing a
movie in a theater. Greater interaction among the people in the room
may also lead to different reactions to a brand placement than when
watching a program alone.
While academicians and scholars are striving for stronger measures
of effectiveness of product placement, advertisers and practitioners are
seeking to justify their expenditures in product placement. A new company,
Brand Advisors, has come up with a pricing model that takes into
account the size of the audience the movie may attract throughout its
life cycle (at the box office, home video, pay-per-view, and television),
and the starring role the brand is offered in the movie (Graser, 2003).
Brand Advisors’ financial assessment of product placement project
states the audience size projections can be reforecast and repriced once
the movie hits the theaters or airs on TV, allowing partners to alter their
arrangement based on actual results as the movie moves into other distribution
windows.
In regards to brand starring role, a car placement would be of greater
marketing value if it is driven by the lead characters and the automaker’s
tie-in sponsorship is included in the movie’s DVD release than a placement
where the car appeared briefly in the movie. However, Ong and
Meri (1994) questioned whether tie-in sponsorship undermines the positive
impact of product placement. They argued the audience may be
sensitized to the point of viewing the brand placement as tacky, too deliberate,
or “not natural.” Their contention of tie-in sponsorships impacting
product placement values unfortunately has yet to be explored
in a research study.
METHODOLOGY
An online survey to assess consumers’ attitudes toward product placement
in movies and in TV programs was developed at a professional
survey builder website (i.e., Formsite.com). The survey was also hosted
there. Following an introduction of the researchers conducting the survey,
and an explanation of the purpose of the survey, respondents were
provided with a brief description of product/brand placements in a
movie or TV show. Respondents were told that the camera would focus
on the brand or logo for a few seconds if the placement was intentional.
They would also likely see the characters in the movie/program using or