Brand placement in Web Series: Assessing consumer attitudes in India

Kavitha Venkatasubramany Iyer,Anupam Siddhartha

doi:10.21511/im.17(2).2021.04

Kavitha Venkatasubramany Iyer, Anupam Siddhartha

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21511/im.17(2).2021.04

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Journal: Innovative Marketing	Publication Date: Apr 28, 2021
Citations: 1	License type: CC BY 3.0

Affiliation: Symbiosis International University

Abstract

Reports indicate that 49% of adults in India spend at least 2-3 hours consuming OTT media, rather than watching conventional television. With such changes in the way the general population is exposed to content, brands have also been adapting to the new patterns that this study investigates. This study was conducted to assess consumers’ attitudes and acceptance towards brand placement in the novel media format of web series based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study, based on a survey of 278 individuals from Urban India settings, was conducted using a self-report questionnaire adapted from F Davis’s Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and User Acceptance of TAM questionnaire (1989). The study supports TAM and recognizes that the frequency of viewing Web Series directly relates to brand recall (R = 0.57, p &amp;lt; .001). Product/brand placement yields brand awareness for unknown or unpopular brands and provide evidence for higher engagement with the placement when the audiences have pre-existing positive attitudes towards the brand (t (277) = 27.11, p = .01). This study also confirms that TAM as a relevant model can be applied to understand how regularity and duration of viewing affect attitudes towards brands and their placement in Web Series. Brand placement in Web Series is perceived as useful and largely determines brand name recall. Thus, marketers should strategically consider using brand placement in Web Series as a part of their marketing communication plan, especially as this media with other related forms of advertisement are important for brands to keep up with the industry’s communication challenges.

Highlights

Advertising, promotion, and marketing are evolutionary, and this evolution is taking place with changing patterns in the economy, technology, consumer preferences, requiring immediate or substantial adaptations
This study aims to extend the technology acceptance model (TAM) for brand placements in Web Series, one of the fastest-growing media in developing countries like India
The data collected from 278 adults showed that brand placement in Web Series is perceived as useful and significantly predicts brand name recall

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Advertising, promotion, and marketing are evolutionary, and this evolution is taking place with changing patterns in the economy, technology, consumer preferences, requiring immediate or substantial adaptations. Web Series and OTT The degree of interaction, information trust, implatforms are rising in popularity, and brand place- agery, vividness and brand image are outlined as ment tie-ins increase where some content is social media effects on consumer purchase intenbeing created with the product as the central point tions (Yeo et al, 2019). Marketing and psychology theories are H4: There will be a higher positive attitude tobrought in as part of the research’s theoretical ward a familiar or established brand than framework, as there are emotional and cognitive an unfamiliar or new brand in Web Series responses to buying that affect consumers attibased on product or brand placement. The unplanned buying behavior, which remains statistically insignificant, is investigated (Koufaris, 2002)

METHODS

Findings

CONCLUSION