Christine M. Kowalczyk

Are Products More Real on Reality Shows? An Exploratory Study of Product Placement in Reality Television Programming

The integration of products and brands into movies and television has been around since the early days of these media; however, to date limited research has examined product placement in reality shows. The purpose of this exploratory study is to empirically assess attitudes and behaviors toward a product placement in a reality program, as well as to examine the concepts of perceived realism and skepticism. Using an example of unique product placement featured in the reality show The Biggest Loser, we propose and test a series of nine hypotheses through structural equation modeling. Full or partial support was found for seven of the nine hypotheses advancing the concept of product placements in reality shows. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

I Don’t Think It’s Real: Exploring the Genres of Reality Programming: An Abstract

Various issues regarding television viewership have been studied in the marketing literature, including media violence (i.e., Shanahan et al., 2003), children’s programming (i.e., Wright et al., 2005), and advertising regulation (i.e., Calfee & Ringold, 1994). Viewers have increasingly turned their attention to a new genre of television entertainment – reality television (“TV”). Reality TV is characterized by the concept that ordinary people, as opposed to professional actors, serve as the main characters of a television program (Reiss & Wiltz, 2004).

Driven By Big Data: Are Our Students Prepared? Requiring Technology Coursework in University Sales Programs: An Abstract

The challenges faced by organizations trying to adopt and implement new technologies within their sales forces continue to grow, despite the widespread attention given to them by academics and practitioners. Increasingly sophisticated advances in hardware and software are creating unprecedented expectations and requirements for not only current salespeople but future selling professionals, too. This paper suggests current university-based sales programs may not be supplying their students with the applicable knowledge and skill sets related to sales technology they will need not only for their success but their employers’ success as well.

Current Native Advertising Practices and Disclosures: An Abstract

Native advertising, or paid content that is assimilated with the visual design and function of nonpaid content on a publisher’s site, is growing in popularity. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) asserts widespread advertiser and publisher agreement regarding clear and prominent disclosure that native ads are paid content. The disclosures are important because they help prevent scrutiny about whether native advertising is misleading or deceptive, which could trigger policy intervention. However, by definition, native ads, including their disclosures, are designed to match the experience provided by other content. So, it is not clear (a) if consumers know native ads are sponsored content or (b) whether consumers care about the source of the content. Thus, the initial research questions are How are advertisers using native advertising? How are they disclosing their sponsorship of the content? To begin to address this gap in our understanding of native advertising, the article begins with a report of current native advertising formats and practices. It then reviews 122 examples of native ads from identified native advertising leaders over a 31-day period on October 2014. The report summarizes ad format (video, content, picture), industries that used native ads, the amount of engagement with the content during the 31-day period, and, perhaps most importantly, how the sponsorship was disclosed in each case. Most native ads that were recognized were in-stream ads that used words (vs. video or pictures). However, videos had higher levels of engagement (as measured by social media). Videos also seemed more likely to use celebrities and emotional appeals. Technology companies were the dominant users of native ads during the time period. Substantial variation existed in words used, shading, colors, capitalization, contrast between text and background color, font size, and timing/placement of disclosures. The manuscript contributes to the conceptualization of native advertising, provides an overview of disclosures currently used, and provides directions for next steps and future inquiry by marketers, policy makers, and policy influencers.

Milk, juice, or cola? Exploring the effect of product placement on children’s attitudes and behavior

ABSTRACT Childhood obesity is a significant public health concern, and scholars and academicians have proposed the use of successful marketing and advertising tactics as a means of influencing healthy behaviors. This research investigates product placement to assess its potential effects on attitudes and behavior when utilized in an animated children’s television show. Results from an experiment suggest that multiple product placements may affect children’s attitudes toward certain drinks, but also suggest that a child’s existing favorite drink is a stronger predictor of actual beverage choice. Implications are provided.

Exploring the Concept of Celebrity Brands Amongst College Students

For more than 150 years, celebrities have been used by companies to endorse products. Today celebrities appear in approximately 20 % of advertisements in the United States (Solomon 2009). Using celebrities as endorsers in advertising is not a new concept. In recent years, however, there has been ambiguity between the celebrity as a person and the celebrity as a marketable brand. Thus, the result is the concept known as “celebrity brands,” which has been coined by pop culture, but relatively ignored in academic research. The purpose of this work is to expand the knowledge of celebrities as more than endorsers and to identify and understand conceptually how consumers perceive celebrity brands. More specifically, this work addresses the following research questions: (1) how do consumers define celebrity brands; (2) what positive associations do consumers have about celebrity brands; and (3) what negative associations do consumers about celebrity brands. To address these research questions the authors conducted an exploratory study.

Facebook vs. Traditional Print Advertising: Examining Influence Over Information

Mass media advertising is more complex and fragmented today than ever, contributing to the already difficult task of targeting and reaching consumers in an effective and efficient manner. Conventional marketing methods, such as television, print and radio, are not as effective as they were just 10 years ago (Smith, Coyle, Lightfoot and Scott 2007). Thus, marketers of goods and services continually search for more productive communication channels through which to advertise their messages to the relevant audiences. For example, in today’s environment, a myriad of people including public health officials and academicians are trying to promote positive attitudes and behaviors related to the environment and sustainability.