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Can Product Placement Break Through the Advertising Clutter?

Written by Tom Ryan11 expert comments

Photo: Unsplash

A new survey finds that 52% of U.S. consumers would prefer to watch a TV program with product placement over traditional advertising.

The study was conducted by BENlabs, an AI-driven product-placement company, and it comes as a massive shift to ad-free streaming platforms has made it harder for businesses to reach audiences through traditional linear TV advertising.

A recent survey of 1,000 North American consumers from Sharethrough found that 66% don’t actively watch TV ads. Of the non-ad watchers, 64% grab their phones during commercial breaks, 21% switch to another channel, and 15% leave the room or do something else.

A key reason for the lack of attention to commercials, cited by 39% of respondents, is that TV ads are irrelevant most of the time and don't bring value to viewers. About 31% find the ads too repetitive, and 31% complain that there are too many ads.

BENlabs’ survey more encouragingly found that 63% of respondents “reported feeling positive emotions (happiness, inspiration, interest, and/or curiosity) after seeing a product or brand in a film or TV programs, while 47% like seeing their favorite brands and products in TV shows and films.” Three-quarters (75%) of consumers have also searched for a product or brand on at least one platform after seeing it on TV or in a film.

A recent study from Merchant Machine found the top 10 brands placed in movies were Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, Sony, Dell, Adidas, Budweiser, Pepsi, Miller, and Samsung. For TV shows, the top 10 product placements recorded in the study were Apple, Nike, Dell, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Sony, Samsung, and Miller.

Challenges include making a product placement fit the narrative of the storyline and avoiding looking like blatant advertising, although brand integrations have long been improving. Recent research by Sortlist revealed that, on average, customers are being sold 12.61 products per movie without even noticing.

BENlabs’ survey found 40% agreeing that product placement makes TV programs and films seem more authentic. Nonetheless, only 33% agreed that seeing a product on a TV show or film would be likely to improve their opinion of that product or brand, fairly close to the 25% who disagreed.

Discussion Thread13

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Neil Saunders
Neil SaundersBrainTrust
Managing Director · GlobalData
Product placement is a great way of getting the attention of consumers. People often see things they like on screen and then search for them online. When they do that, they have already expressed an interest so are more likely to commit to making a purchase if they can find what they want. This makes conversion rates higher than traditional advertising. Of course, product placement is more passive than traditional advertising, its reach isn’t always as good, and the opportunities are more limited. However, it is an effective route to market. Companies like Amazon properly monetize it on their Prime Video service with the X-ray feature which suggests products based on what characters are wearing, etc. 
Paula Rosenblum
Paula RosenblumBrainTrust
Managing Partner · Retail Systems Research (RSR)
Nikki Baird will tell you I’ve said tv was the next selling channel for years. Seriously….what are Top Chef and Project Runway but big product placement shows? I don’t think it’ll work in every case. It’s a little hard for me to se it working in news programs or murder mysteries, but there are some genres that beg for it. and I’m not naive enough to think that all those Macs I see on TV (and iPhones) just happened to get there. Product placement, and buying with QR codes work well in many instances.
K
Ken Morris
Managing Partner · Cambridge Retail Advisors
How many times have you seen an ad that you may even have liked, but had no idea what the product was? It happens to me frequently, but when I see product placements in a movie or TV, they are in context and therefore more sticky. These are dollars well spent. But product placements are getting more obvious than they used to be when a box of cereal just happened to be in the middle of a shot. For example, Apple TV+ productions are all, at some level, feature-length Apple ads. If you watch Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, you'll notice that each episode is sponsored, and then the sponsor's products or concept is worked into the show. Spoiler Alert: when Steve Martin's character keeps going into "the white room" when he freaks out while trying to rehearse his lines, it's no coincidence that there's a paint roller and tray in the middle of the room and absolutely everything is primed white and ready for gallons and gallons of Sherwin-Williams paint. So, let's not get sucked into this as a false dilemma. We are going to see more ads, more product placement, and more interactivity in both. Buckle up! (this phrase sponsored by the Safety Restraint Manufacturers of America).
Mark Self
Mark SelfBrainTrust
Director, Global Partners · Logile
Product placement could increase acceptance if it eliminated commercials. Just have an announcement at the beginning of the show: brought to you by "blah and blah and blah", then feature those products during the story. As for effectiveness, I think that is where my guidance starts to fall apart a bit...because not every product lends itself to placement. For example, I completely remember that Mission Impossible uses very desirable BMW cars and Motorcycles-I want one! But what kind of white t-shirt (they are having a moment) is Tom Cruise wearing in Top Gun? Your guess is as good as mine. Totally agree with Neil regarding the x-ray feature btw. I like it. I am not sure everyone else will but I say yes!
Lisa Goller
Lisa GollerBrainTrust
Strategic Marketing Advisor · Lisa Goller Marketing
From Reese's Pieces in E.T. to pink Crocs in the Barbie movie, more products will emerge as the stars of the show. Subtle product placement can blend seamlessly into our media experience, attracting us without overt promotion. We're more relaxed while watching entertainment; we don't have our guards up to resist or skip ads.
Cathy Hotka
Cathy HotkaBrainTrust
Founder · Cathy Hotka & Associates
With a plethora of available channels, this should be the golden age of product placement. A lot of people would much rather see their favorite sitcom character enjoy a soft drink than see a traditional ad. (Perhaps we can figure out a way to remove those maddeningly repetitive prescription drug ads altogether.)
Gary Sankary
Gary SankaryBrainTrust
Retail Industry Lead · Esri
Product placement, done well, is absolutely going to attract significant attention from marketers, and it should. Using myself as an example, except for live sporting events, I never see ads anymore. I pay extra to have ad-free versions of streaming services and now find myself turning off content where I'm forced to watch ads. I'm an outlier, but somewhere in between are a majority of consumers who are finding that they're no longer beholden to traditional, ad-supported TV. And, given that the ads have become annoying and so frequent, I think the industry has a lot of work to do to earn the eyes and ears of the public.
Nicola Kinsella
Nicola KinsellaBrainTrust
Chief Strategy Officer · Fluent Commerce
Duolingo + Barbie was gold! We will absolutely see more product placement. And it works, feels more authentic, and as long as the content is good, will provide the emotional connection that a lot of brands fail to make in their own advertising campaigns. As for the "Nonetheless, only 33% agreed that seeing a product on a TV show or film would be likely to improve their opinion of that product or brand, fairly close to the 25% who disagreed." comment, self reporting is not a good guide. Most people like to think they are immune to advertising, or like it doesn't affect them as much as others. But if that were the case, marketing wouldn't work. And we all know brand exposure does drive sales, even if we're not self-aware of the impact it's having on us.
Patricia Vekich Waldron
Patricia Vekich WaldronBrainTrust
Founder · Vision First
M&M Mars is still kicking itself for not doing the product placement for ET, while Reese’s Pieces is laughing it’s way to the bank.
Melissa Minkow
Melissa MinkowBrainTrust
Director, Retail Strategy · CI&T
Product Placement is definitely the more modern, successful way to advertise brands. It has to be done carefully though, because if the brand sticks out by not fitting the narrative or the character using it, consumers will be irritated, resulting in negative association.
Kai Clarke
Kai ClarkeBrainTrust
CEO/President with experience as COO, CMO, and C-level Expert, managing global leadership teams · American Retail Consultants
Product placement is only as good as the promotion and marketing that precede it. Product placement demands familiarity of a product and its brand for the placement to bring any value. This requires advance marketing and promotion before the placement, and then repetition of the placement. This is like the chicken vs. the egg argument...
Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
CFO · Weisner Steel Products
I would say product placement is useful for maintaining a brand's image, but it's much less useful at creating one if the brand isn't already known. And of course it's virtually impossible to transmit much info beyond simply being present. So it's a useful tool, but it's not replacement for commercials.
M
MarkBrainTrust
Whole Foods Market
I hate product placements! Quality entertainment does not need this, unless the product is important to the plot. The latest and best/worst example is the new movie Gran Turismo. Blatantly Nissan all through it almost all scenes. The racers wore Nissan clothing, etc. The movie is like an advertisement. Still, I enjoyed it anyway. Product placement was spoofed in the film "Josie and the Pussycats". years ago.