The Economic Worth of Product Placement in Prime-time Television Shows1. (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Begy, Genevieve; Talwar, Vishal
• Is Part Of: International journal of market research. Volume 58:Number 2(2016)
• Page Start: 253
• Page End: 275
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: Marketing research -- Periodicals; 658.8305
• DOI: 10.2501/IJMR-2015-026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-7853

Abstract

Product placement is fiercely being courted by firms as a consequence of the declining credibility of traditional broadcast advertising and the '30-second spot'. Very little research analysing its economic worth exists outside of the realm of film, however. This paper responds by applying a consistent measure of placement effectiveness to television through use of event analyses. It finds a mean cumulative abnormal return of 0. 79% in a sample of 264 placements from the 2011-12 prime-time season, confirming that product placement in television is positively and significantly associated with movement in firms' stock prices. Placement in a season premiere has significantly higher mean returns than in a non-pivotal episode, irrespective of whether the firm places the product in both episodes. A cross-sectional analysis of placement, episode and show factors suggests that the duration of placement and one-hour show length are positively associated with stock price movement. Placement in a show's debut season is adversely associated to worth.