Product placement in movies: perspectives from motion picture firms

ABSTRACT

This study recognises the importance of product placement in film financing and marketing from motion picture firms’ perspectives. Thus, this study builds a theoretical model that allows motion picture firms to predict the number of product placements in movies. It also empirically tests the model, employing a sample of 398 U.S. movies. Results suggest that intrinsic cues are more important than extrinsic cues in predicting the number of product placements in certain genres of movies. Specifically, the number of product placements in a movie depends on the genre, distributor type, and rating.

KEYWORDS:

• Product placement
• movie
• film
• cue utilisation theory
• intrinsic cue
• extrinsic cue

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jiyoung Cha

Jiyoung Cha, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University. Her research aims to understand the competitive dynamics of the media marketplace, how new media change audiences’ media consumption patterns and the business principles of media firms, and why audiences adopt or reject new communication technologies. She earned her Ph.D. in mass communication with a minor in marketing from the University of Florida.