Too many product placements? What factors explain the behavior of Internet users towards product placement on YouTube?

Details

Supervisors

STEILS, Nadia

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This Master thesis aims to understand the consequences of too many product placements on consumers’ behavior by analysing the usage of YouTube videos for this practice. As product placements are increasingly present nowadays, it is essential to understand the influence of excessive use of product placements on the brand attitude and engagement of the audience towards the placed brands, the community, and the videos they watch. The literature review of this document analysed existing research on influencer marketing, influencers, and product placements. As a result, five hypotheses were defined around the brand attitude and engagement of consumers. These were assessed by means of a quantitative study with a questionnaire, responded to by 536 participants. The collected data were analysed using the IBM SPSS 27 statistics tool. The results of the analysis revealed that most consumers accept up to two product placements per video. When this threshold is exceeded, the average brand attitude and engagement towards the brand weakens. In addition, the more this threshold is surpassed, the more the consumer is aware of the advertising technique, which lowers brand attitude even further. Finally, concerning perceived influencer fit, the more the influencer fits the products it has placed in his videos, the more positive the opinions towards the included brands will be.