Students should learn about product placement, says researcher

Product placement is the indirect promotion of branded goods and services by integrating them in TV programmes, movies or other media. Verhellen examined how product placement can be used effectively in various online and offline media. He analysed the effect of combing product placements with other forms of advertising in cinemas, on YouTube and in TV broadcasts.

One of his first conclusions is that product placement works well if it is combined with very short messages, just before a TV programme. “It usually has a connection to the story or the action in the TV programme,” he said.

The way the placement is carried out plays a role as well. “It costs a lot of money to prominently showcase a brand,” said Verhellen, “but that is not always the best method”. For famous brands, this strategy actually works against it because viewers have the feeling that their viewing activity is interrupted. For lesser known brands, the strategy works better because it is conceived as a new experience.

Verhellen also pointed to the social responsibility to protect youngsters. A study among teenagers, he said, demonstrated that 31% didn’t recognise sophisticated combinations of product placement and other forms of advertisement as convincing communication techniques, while they were in fact very much influenced by them. “Policymakers should develop educational kits specifically focused on this issue,” he said.

Photo: product placement in the hit American TV series Breaking Bad