Heard but Falsely Remembered? The Attention and Memory Effect of Product Placement in TV Episodes.

Abstract

While product placement has been widely used in various media contexts, there is no consensus on how or why the perceptual modality and story plot converge to determine its effectiveness in communication. From the theoretical views of situated comprehension and false memory, the present study investigated the attention and memory effects caused by verbal mention and plot connection of product placement. An experiment using different types of product placements in TV episodes as stimuli showed that: (1) high plot connection placements gained more attention and had better brand memory performance than their low plot connection counterparts; (2) verbal mention exerted a reverse effect on brand memory performance of high or low plot connection placements. The present study concluded that the theoretical perspective of situated comprehension and false memory successfully explained the cognitive effect of product placement, thus offering a plausible approach to future media research and providing practical implications for industry.

儘管產品置入普遍出現在各種媒體情境，迄今對感官特性和情節因素「如何」及「為何」影響置入成效仍缺乏共識。本研究以情境理解和偽記憶的理論觀點為基礎，透過實驗法探討口語指涉和劇情連結兩項因素對電視劇產品置入注意力和品牌記憶的影響。結果顯示：（1）高劇情連結置入比低劇情連結置入有更優異的注意力和品牌記憶表現；（2）口語指涉對高、低劇情連結置入的品牌記憶效果產生相反作用。研究結論指出情境理解和偽記憶的學理觀點可成功解釋產品置入的認知效果，並對傳播研究和實務應用提出相關建議。