From the Lab
Product Placement Ads Much Better
Well not definitively but some research by cognitive scientist Mark Changizi (R.P.I) suggests that product placement advertising actually makes a person desire to obtain the product more so than if one were to see a 30 second advertisement 10 times in a week for the same product. Why is this?
According to Mr. Changizi’s article in the journal Perception our minds are constantly calculating an effort vs. value formula where value is based on perceived availability. If something is deemed more valuable we humans are willing to exert more effort to acquire the product. This kind of makes sense if you apply the logic to other metaphors or examples: If there are 100 glowing emeralds in a chest then you may not work too hard to obtain one of them. However, if there is only 1 emerald in the chest than maybe you would actually go out of your way to try and acquire it. I think a better analogy would be art but I don’t feel like rewriting this paragraph so I will leave it to you to build that example.
Bringing this tangential stream back to the headline, the research suggests that product placement in advertising is more successful because it only communicates that a product is useful or valuable and probably available, for after all you just saw it so why would you not be able to get it. Traditional advertisements devalue the product by suggesting wide availability either through explicit announcements e.g. a man dressed as a king screaming “in stock, in stock, hurry” or repeated viewings, the same ad 3 times during 1 sitcom. Any of these situations may lead us to the conclusion that the product is widely available and therefore is of less value, perhaps so much that the effort outweighs the reward. So while you view the strategically placed products your 3lb cranium is constantly calculating desirability under the assumption that those products are valuable and not overly available.
Speaking of product placement advertising, I recently attended the ITP Winter show and ran across this great web application idea: Reverve. Essentially what they propose is a system that enables you to purchase products you see within a television show. Pretty cool.