Undergraduate Dissertation

Copyright © 2016 Patrick Cole
Could product placement replace traditional
commercial breaks for video-on-demand
providers in order to optimise impact and
brand awareness in millennials in 2015: A
case study of University of Chichester
students.
Submission date: 06/05/2016
Student No. 1301526
The Business School
University of Chichester

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Executive Summary
Recent changes to the viewing behaviours of millennials has resulted in increasing
disengagement with commercial break advertisement, consequently limiting the
methods which marketers can use to target this demographic. After acknowledging
that millennials have switched to online platforms such as video-on-demand (VOD),
product placement is presented as a viable alternative.
The aim of this management project was to ascertain if millennials would prefer to be
targeted through product placement advertisement when using VOD platforms.
Furthermore this project discusses the current attitudes towards commercial break
advertisement as wellas types of product placement which are acceptable to students
in order to identify if they should be implemented by VOD providers.
In order to achieve this, an online questionnaire was used to research the views of
230 out of a possible 4190 University of Chichester students aged between 18 and 21,
to produce both qualitative and quantitative data.
An analysis of the research data resulted in the following key findings:
 Respondents clearly disliked commercial break advertisement, however most
felt indifferent or slightly positive towards product placement advertisement.
 Respondents mostly favoured verbal placements, however expressed positive
attitudes to other forms especially when used subtly.
 Respondents considered product placement advertisement to be deceptive
and subliminal, however were still positive towards it.

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In light of these research findings, the following recommendations were made:
 VOD providers should directly replace commercial break advertisement with
product placement.
 Verbal placements should be the primary placement used, however it is more
important to incorporate placements into storylines.
 Ethicalconsiderations of product placement should not be taken into account.

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Acknowledgements
This project would have not been possible without the encouragement, support and
guidance of the people mentioned below, and many more who are not.
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Jorge Gutic for his support and guidance
throughout this project. These thanks are extended to all staff at the Business School
whose knowledge has been invaluable to me during my time at the University.
I would liketo thank allrespondents that participated in the research process, without
whom it would not have been possible to obtain the findings nor carry out the
subsequent analysis.
I wish to personally thank Ryan Farmer whose help and support has been continuous
for the last three years as well as throughout this project. In addition I would like to
thank Mark Cole.
Last but not least I wish to thank my wonderful family who have always encouraged
and supported me with everything I do, especially my parents for giving me the
confidence to achieve my goals.

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Table of Contents
Contents
1. Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................... 1
1.1 Research problem/ justification.......................................................................... 1
1.2 Location background........................................................................................... 3
1.3 Research aim and scope...................................................................................... 5
1.4 Research objectives............................................................................................. 6
1.5 Structure of the management project ................................................................ 6
2. Chapter Two: Literature Review............................................................................ 7
2.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 7
2.2 The decline of commercial break TV advertisement .......................................... 7
2.3 Why is product placement relevant to the advertising model used by VOD
providers?.................................................................................................................. 8
2.4 Advantages and disadvantages of using product placement ........................... 10
2.5 Product placement management ..................................................................... 15
3. Chapter Three: Methodology .............................................................................. 17
3.1 Research approach/ paradigm.......................................................................... 17
3.2 Ethical issues ..................................................................................................... 18
3.3 Access issues ..................................................................................................... 19
3.4 Sampling and subject selection......................................................................... 20
3.5 Data collection tools.......................................................................................... 21
3.6 Data analysis...................................................................................................... 22
3.7 Limitations of research design.......................................................................... 22
4. Chapter Four: Results and Analysis ..................................................................... 24
4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 24
4.2 Background information ................................................................................... 24
4.3 Key findings in relations to objectives .............................................................. 25
4.3.1 Assessing the attitudes of University of Chichester students towards
product placement replacing commercial advertisement used by VOD providers.
............................................................................................................................. 25
4.3.2 Indication of the type of product placement that University students
consider acceptable............................................................................................. 29

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4.3.3 Development of management recommendations to identify which product
placement model should be implemented in order to target University students.
............................................................................................................................. 32
4.4 Chapter conclusion............................................................................................ 40
5. Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................... 41
5.1 Conclusions........................................................................................................ 41
5.2 Recommendations ............................................................................................ 45
5.3 Reflection on research process......................................................................... 47
5.4 Professional development ................................................................................ 48
6. Reference list....................................................................................................... 49
7. Appendices .......................................................................................................... 54
Appendix A: Ethics Review Form............................................................................. 54
Appendix B: Cover page of questionnaire stating informed consent ..................... 65
Appendix C: Blank copy of online self-administered questionnaire ....................... 66
Appendix D: Image used for demonstrating a active placement in the
questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 71
Appendix E: Image used for demonstrating a passive placement in the
questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 71
List of Tables
Table 1.1: UK population by single year of age and total amount of fulltime
undergraduate students. Source: Statistics adapted from Office for National
Statistics (2015) and Higher Education Statistics Agency (2015). ................................ 5
Table 4.1: Limited meaning analysis of respondents who stated ‘other’ to a word
they associated with product placement. .................................................................. 27

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List of Figures
Figure 2.1: The process of product placement affecting buying behaviour. Adapted
from Williams et al. (2011). ........................................................................................ 11
Figure 4.1: Limited content analysis of the word most associated with commercial
break advertisement................................................................................................... 25
Figure 4.2: Limited content analysis of the word most associated with product
placement advertisement........................................................................................... 26
Figure 4.3: Limited content analysis for respondents views of replacing commercial
breaks with product placement.................................................................................. 28
Figure 4.4: Limited content analysis of respondents’ attitudes towards acceptability
of product placement ................................................................................................. 29
Figure 4.5: Respondents views on the of acceptability of passive product placements
..................................................................................................................................... 30
Figure 4.6: Respondents views on the acceptability of active product placements .. 30
Figure 4.7: Respondents perception of acceptability of verbal product placements 31
Figure 4.8: Respondents perceptions of product placement subtleness and
favourability ................................................................................................................ 32
Figure 4.9: Respondents’ behaviour when a commercial break comes on................ 34
Figure 4.10: Respondents’ views towards product placement .................................. 35
Figure 4.11: Respondents’ views on the effect of using real brands to create more
realistic shows............................................................................................................. 36
Figure 4.12: Respondents’ views on usage of fictitious brands over real brands ...... 36
Figure 4.13: Respondents’ views on whether product placement advertisement
affects buying behaviour ............................................................................................ 37
Figure 4.14: Respondents views whether product placement is perceived as a
‘disguised’ advertisement........................................................................................... 38
Figure 4.15: Respondents’ views if product placement is perceived to subconsciously
influence VOD audiences............................................................................................ 39
Figure 4.16: Respondents’ views if advertiser using branded items is misleading
viewers ........................................................................................................................ 40

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1. Chapter One:Introduction
1.1 Research problem/ justification
The purpose of this research was to understand the perceptions of University of
Chichester students towards product placement replacing traditional commercial
breaks used by video-on-demand (VOD) providers, in order to support the possibility
of a new business model which allows companies to successfully target millennials
through VOD channels. VOD is defined as “a service or technology that enables TV
viewers to watch programmes or films whenever they choose to, not restricted by a
linear schedule” (Office of Communications, 2015, p416).
The reasoning behind the research is due to the shift in consumer viewing behaviours
amongst millennials who have switched from watching live television to online
platforms (Glennie, 2015). Consequently, millennials arenot engaging with advertising
through traditional commercial breaks due to a variety of reasons, including digital
technology advancements and the growth of online streaming services (Hughes,
2015). The change in viewing patterns has caused several issues for many
stakeholders including marketers, advertising agencies, broadcasters as well as
television viewers.
In addition, current events also support the case for further research into this topic as
demand for digital services from the next generation of digital natives will increase as
they become further reliant on digital technology. Matrix (2014) note that companies
which produce TV shows for children, such as Disney and Nickelodeon, have been
utilising VOD providers to distribute their shows to target audiences, consequently

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leading to increased digital viewing by future generations. In addition, a review by
Coughlan (2016) on the television viewing habits of shows that the daily time spent
online by 15-16 year olds was 4.8 hours, suggesting that advertisers need to adapt in
order to meet the changing viewing patterns of future viewers. With this in mind, the
VOD market is expected only to grow, therefore at present there is an opportunity to
research the perceptions of millennials regarding the use of product placement by
companies within their viewing content in further detail.
The decrease in the effectiveness of commercial break advertisement is reflected by
the loss of ad revenue of broadcasters. Lafayette (2015) cites figures from Standard
Media Index which show a 4% reduction in American total ad revenue and broadcast
primetime ad revenue decreasing by 9% during the 2014-2015 season. The main
reason attributed to this reduction was due to the growth of digital advertising and its
displacement of televisionadvertising, therefore supporting the beliefthat millennials
are being specifically targeted through digital mediums.
The previous discussion illustrates the lack of sustainability in the current advertising
model for most broadcasters and thus suggests that opportunities exist for a new
advertisement stylesuch as product placement (Millar, 2013). Notably, digitalproduct
placement enables broadcasters to implement advertisement directly within the
viewing content and therefore limits the ability of the viewer to circumvent adverts,
such as using digital video recorders (DVR) (Soba & Aydin, 2013).
The findings from this research are relevant to millennials in general and University
students in particular since the implementation of a VOD business model which
focuses on using product placements, as opposed to traditional commercial breaks,

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could provide additional benefits for viewers, for example by not having to pay for a
subscription in order to view content such as with Netflix and Amazon Video. In
addition students could benefit by not having to watch adverts through traditional
commercial breaks and therefore would have a better consumer experience. The
research also provides benefits for other stakeholders, notably to VOD providers by
developing an economically sustainableadvertising model and to companies targeting
young student demographics by being able to advertise directly to millennials.
The outcomes of the research are particularly relevant to VOD providers which
currently do not utilise subscriptions or commercial break advisement such as
Demand 5 and could therefore implement product placement advertising with relative
ease, providing an additional dimension to the revenue stream without risking the
poor reception from viewers if commercial breaks were employed instead.
1.2 Location background
The research was undertaken at the University of Chichester. The majority of full-time
UK University undergraduates are aged 20 or under (Higher Education Statistics
Agency, 2015) and therefore are a significant segment of the millennial demographic,
who as digital natives will be competent in using transformational technologies to
access VOD services.
During the period of 2014/2015 there were 870,690 people aged 20 and under
enrolled as full-time undergraduate students in the UK, with this age group making up
62.6% of total full-time undergraduates (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2015).
Since 18 is the typical age to enter higher education in the United Kingdom, it can be
concluded that the vast majority of the ‘20 and under’ age group are between 18 and

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20 years of age. With this in mind, in 2014 the total population of UK 18-20 year olds
were 2,398,320, thus showing that around 36.3% of the age group are students and it
can therefore be concluded that students can be deemed to be a reliable
representation of millennials.
Savil (2016) confirmed that 4809 undergraduate first degree students enrolled at the
University of Chichester in 2015/16. From those, 4006 were between the ages of 18-
20, meaning 83.3% of first degree undergraduate students fitted the target age group
for this research. When 21 year olds are considered, the population size increases to
4190 and represents a total of 87.13% of undergraduate first degree students at the
University.
This project also considered the UK VOD industry as part of its location background.
The VOD industry has developed considerably in recent years, with the Office of
Communications (2014) noting both free and paid VOD represented 8% of the daily
viewing time of adults in 2014. Moreover The Office of Communications (2014)
statistics show the industry is strongly concentrated.

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Table 1.1: UK population by single year of age and total amount of fulltime undergraduate
students. Source: Statistics adapted from Office for National Statistics (2015) and Higher Education
Statistics Agency (2015).
Age Total Combined total
Enrolled
students
between 18-20
18 781,757 781,757 -
19 790,575 1,572,332 -
20 825,988 2,398,320 870,690
21 835,000 3,233,320 -
Total 3,233,320
1.3 Research aim and scope
Straus and Howes define the term ‘Millennial’ as a person born between 1982 and
2004 (Strauss & Howe, 2000).
However for the purpose of research accessibility, the researcher used Chichester
University students as representative segment of the millennial generation.
Moreover, the age group for respondents were people aged between 18 and 21,
despite the point noted earlier in section 1.2 about people aged 18-20 being the
largest age group of undergraduates, students can have gap years and placements,
and thus for sampling purposes this age range was used to maximise the population
for this research.
The project did not analyse the financial viability of replacing a commercial break
model with product placement in the VOD market, however assessed the perceptions
of students using such a model, in order to identify their attitudes towards it.

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1.4 Research objectives
 To assess the attitudes of University of Chichester students towards product
placement replacing commercial advertisement used by VOD providers.
 To identify the type of product placement that University of Chichester
students consider acceptable.
 To adviseVOD providers if aproduct placement model should be implemented
in order to target University of Chichester students.
1.5 Structure of the management project
This management project encompasses five main chapters and is structured as
follows:
Chapter one is an introduction to the report and provides the research justification.
Chapter two is the literature review and covers an evaluation of millennials’ TV and
online media viewing habits. Chapter three is the methodology which sets out to
explain the reasoning for the chosen data collection types. Chapter four consists of
the results and analysis of the findings from the online questionnaire. Chapter five
features conclusions and recommendations, and presents a summary of the findings
of the report as well as the professional development of the researcher.

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2. Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
After the previous chapter discussing the research justification as well as the
objectives and structure of the report, chapter two examines existing literature in
relation to the decline of commercial break advertisement, the relevance of product
placement to VOD providers and the advantages and disadvantages resulting from it.
2.2 The decline of commercial break TV advertisement
Since the emergence of online TV, companies have struggled to advertise to
millennials through traditional methods such as commercial breaks due to changes in
their viewing habits whereby they have switched to online media methods (Bond &
Garraham, 2015). Office of Communications (2015) shows that people aged between
16 and 24 spend 50% of their viewing time watching traditional TV, significantly lower
than the 65+ demographic who spend 82% of their viewing time watching traditional
TV (Office for Communications, 2015). Millennials have replaced traditional TV
viewing with non-subscription VOD services such as BBC iPlayer, subscription
streaming services such as Amazon Video and Netflix, and apps on smart technology
(Office of Communications, 2015). Millennials favour home use of mobile phones and
computers which are compatible with VODservices,over Generation Z,X and the baby
boomers (Nielson, 2015).
The demise of commercial break advertisement can be traced back to the launch of
the BBC iPlayer in 2008, which receives an average of 700,000 request to view a day
(BBC, 2008). In addition, despite Netflix just starting to operate in the UK in 2012, it

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was estimated to have had 3,040,000 paying subscribers by 2014 (Statista, 2016),
illustrating the transition from traditional television viewing to VOD platforms as a
result of VOD services being introduced to the UK market.
Furthermore, consumers are increasingly blocking commercial break style
advertisements and thus reducing the effectiveness of this advertising style, as
suggested by the rise in people choosing to purposely circumvent advertisement
through downloading ad blocking software (BBC News, 2015). According to research
by PageFair & Adobe (2015) the usage of ad blockers grew by 48% in the U.S. within
the last year, meaning that 45 million users utilise ad blockers in this country.
Moreover, Europe has seen a 35% increase in 2015 as there were 77 million users of
ad blocking software in quarter 2 of 2015. The increasing membership of streaming
services alsosuggests thatthe increasing dislikeof advertisements is such that viewers
are willing to pay a premium in order to avoid it. This is supported by research from
BARB which shows that 3.6% of all households in 2014 had a head between the ages
of 16-24, however these households account for 9.3% of allthose subscribed to Netflix
(Broadcasters Audience Research Board, 2014).
2.3 Why is product placement relevant tothe advertising modelused by VOD
providers?
Ofcom (2010) figures show that 79% of respondents believe that the current levels of
advertisement of commercial breaks interferes with the enjoyment of their
programmes, while only 68% of respondents agreed that television advertisement is
informative.

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Research by Arris (2014) shows that 84% of people surveyed wanted to fast forward
advertisement, whilst 66% of respondents said fast forward more than 50% of the
time they watch TV, suggesting that there are negative social attitudes towards
commercial break advertisement.
This issue might be aggravated by what Rainey (2015) describes as a ‘binge watching’
culture amongst younger viewers who are using streaming devices such as Netflix,
showing that 61% of its subscribers admitted to regularly binge watching online. This
therefore illustrates that viewers are trying to maximise their watching time as much
as possible and therefore it can be expected that viewers may wish to skip
advertisement in order to achieve this.
Findings from Arris (2014) show 60% of respondents from their survey stated they
dislike commercial break advertisement, thus indicating that there is a growing
aversion towards commercial break advertisement. This increase in negative attitudes
towards traditional commercial breaks advertisement illustrates that current
advertisement models may not be sustainable if current trends continue and thus
suggest that a new advertisement model such as product placement could be more
appropriate.
After establishing the changing viewing behaviour of millennials in section 2.1, that is,
the transition to VOD platforms, it is important to note why targeting millennials is of
importance. Fry (2015) notes millennials are expected to overtake baby boomers as
the largest living demographic in the U.S. this year and thus are of significant value to
the advertising, broadcasting and VOD industry.

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Ghosh et al. (2013) note the emergence of digitalvideo recorder (DVR)technology has
enabled viewers to fast forward commercial breaks when watching television,
however marketers that opt to use product placement on VOD will ensure that their
advertisement is not circumvented as it does not allow viewers to deselect
commercial content (Soba & Aydin, 2013).
Wells (2015) argues mobile usage is at its highest during primetime television hours.
Moreover the ‘spike’ in mobile usage has been attributed to coincide when ad breaks
occur every 15-20 minutes in their time slot. Consequently this supports the notion
that when adverts are not being circumvented with DVR, they are still not being
watched. It is for these reasons it can be expected that in homes with multiple digital
screen devices,the increasein ‘dual screening’displaces the viewing patterns and thus
reduces the effectiveness of commercial break advertisement (Dredge, 2012).
2.4 Advantages and disadvantages of using product placement
Williams et al. (2011) argues that a main benefit of using product placement is its
ability to alter the perceived attitudes of a brand by viewers and thus create
favourable buying behaviours at the point of purchase (Figure 2.1).

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Figure 2.1: The process of product placement affecting buying behaviour. Adapted from Williams et
al. (2011).
There are many benefits to using product placement, with Fernandez (2009) arguing
that it is an effective way of promoting brand exposure to specific groups and thus
creates a return on investment for companies using this advertising style. Research
findings from Lewis (2013) show that viewers of Channel 4 experienced positive
changes to the perception of certain brands as a result of the implementation of
product placement. Notably, this was due to the halo effect of brand association with
popular TV shows thus leading to increased consumer purchase intent from viewers.
Precourt (2015) argues that another benefit of employing product placement when
used in a typical environment can enable realismas part of a set,for example Precourt
suggests that it would seem odd not to have advertisement on a bill board at a bus
stop and therefore this a perfect opportunity for product placement being successfully
integrated into the script of the viewing content and thus appears in a natural
environment. Alternatively this could involve using a product in the actual storyline by
Product placemnt is
implemented
Creates audience
exposure
Creates interest
Increases brand
awareness
Increases consumer
memory and recall
at point of purchase
Changes the viewers
buying behaviour

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a character. Precourt (2015) further argues that product placement can add to the
authenticity of the viewing content, for example with an actor asking for a co-star to
“pass the M&Ms”, which seems more authentic to the content than “pass me a piece
of sugar covered chocolate candy”.
O'Reilly (2014) notes that product placement leads to increase brand awareness. A
case study of the television show Hollyoaks demonstrates this as before using Nokia
Lumia handsets, 5% of viewers were aware of the headset, whereas this rose to 12%
after viewing the product placement.
O'Reilly (2014) further notes a case study which illustrates product placement
increasing brand consideration. Prior to Sky 1 “Got to Dance” program’s product
placement campaign demonstrating Kindle Fire, 22% of viewers considered the brand
for purchase, but this rose to 32% after watching the product placement
advertisement.
Fernandez (2009) states that product placement could be more suited to VOD rather
than live TV due to having a wider scope for metrics, allowing marketers to target
specific audiences, analysing time of day for watching trends and the environment in
which the content is being watched. With this in mind, Plunkett (2010) notes that the
biggest preoccupation of commercial break advertisements is measurability.
However it is important to note there are some drawbacks to product placement. For
example, Fernandez (2009) notes that broadcasters have struggled to exploit the VOD
industry for product placement advertisement due to the industry still being in a
relatively early stages of being used as a sales tool.

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Another potential disadvantage of using product placement is noted by Gillespie et al.
(2012) who state that when used ‘blatantly’, product placement can lead to
unfavourable attitudes towards it. Despite this, it shows a stronger response to brand
recognition than when used in a subtle context. However this factor can be mitigated
against, as Lehu (2007) noted that a well-integrated product placement can be
characterised as a ‘stealth placement’, meaning viewers are unaware of the
advertisement and could perceive it as a product used to ‘set the scene’, thus causing
the advertisement to go undetected and mitigate against negative attitudes and
criticism towards it. Findings from Arris (2014) show that 47% of the UK population
were aware of product placements, thus suggesting that product placement does not
irritate viewers because more than half of them are not informed of product
placement usage.
In addition, for a product or brand to be subtlety advertised through the product
placement advertisement but still remain recognisable would require the brand to be
established and therefore limits the brands which could advertise through this
medium. That is, brands who are not well known will struggle to be identified by
viewers.
There are also ethical implications attached to product placement that disadvantages
the useof this type of advertisement. Williamset al. (2011) argue that implicit product
placements are perceived as less ethical than other forms of product placements. This
said, Kramolis & Drabkova (2012) posit that it is ethical if the product is appropriately
integrated into the context of the viewing, therefore steps can be taken to mitigate
against viewer confusion and ethical barriers.

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Williams et al. (2011) further acknowledges that there is greater ethical controversy
added to product placement where products such as cigarettes and alcohol are
considered. Furthermore, BBC News (2011b) state that leading doctors feel that
product placement could promote unhealthier life styles. This therefore limits the
products which could be advertised through product placement mediums.
When considering the advantages and disadvantages of product placement it is
important to note that viewers often associate the brand with content they are
watching and therefore can enhance the brand being advertised, particularly if it is an
iconic scene.However it could equally attach anegative stigmatowards the brand and
thus not be received well amongst viewers (Nathanson, 2013).
Lehu (2007) calls for caution when using product placements within VOD platforms as
series are often used on VOD and therefore viewers may only watch the
advertisement once and not again. In addition there could be future time issues
regarding mixed communication messages of the brand. With this in mind, the
importance of this issuecan be challenged due to recent technological advancements,
notably dynamic ad insertion software which is now compatible with VOD platforms
and therefore offers opportunities for VOD providers to use ‘up to date’ adverts in
their shows and mitigates againstinappropriate branding being advertised (BBC News,
2015; Digital Strategy Consulting, 2014).
When looking at the managing process of product placement, it is important to note
the structure of communication strategies as this is essentially the purpose of product
placement, that is, enabling brand integration through ‘branded entertainment’

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(Lehu, 2007). However, ‘stealth placements’ could actually pass viewers without them
consuming the brand and therefore could be a disadvantage.
2.5 Product placement management
Existing case studies show the success of product placement, notably with the ‘The
Lego Movie’ which used product placement to advertise several of its toy sets sold by
Lego and was accredited with a sales increase of 11% to over $2 billion in 6 months
after its launch in 2014 (Sauer, 2015). Furthermore, Nathanson (2013) estimated that
total expenditure for product placement was $7.55 billion in 2010, whilst the wealth
created as a result is believed to be estimated at $14 billion.
In comparison, the exploration by Tieran & Roman (2015) of television viewing habits
in Romania show that only 5.9% of urban respondents watched the commercial
breaks, whilst 56.1% of viewers changed the channel and 38% left the television
running but participated in another task. From these figures it can be concluded that
further support for the commercial break model is not an effective method of
advertising. In addition their research showed a positive correlation of the amount of
shows watched with product placement and the increase in brand awareness from
viewers of the product advertised.
From the information discussed in this chapter it can be concluded that the current
demise of commercial break advertisement can be attributed in part to VOD displacing
millennials’ viewing patterns (Bond & Garraham, 2015). Consequently, the current
commercial break advertisement model is no longer engaging millennials and thus in
its current form is not sustainable (Arris, 2014). This said, the aforementioned

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advantages of product placement support the notion for its implementation by VOD
providers.

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3. Chapter Three:Methodology
Having addressed the literature towards product placement and VOD services in
chapter two, this chapter discusses the chosen data collection tools by the researcher
and the justification for choosing them, as well as discussing how the data was
analysed and any limitations resulting from this research.
3.1 Research approach/ paradigm
The research strategy required an approach with mixed methods due to the need for
collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. A quantitative approach was chosen
as it allowed a larger population of University Chichester students to be researched
and thus generated a large amount of basic views which could be analysed to
determine trends. This was achieved by utilising pre-coded questions which provided
pre-determined choices for respondents to choose from (Fisher, 2010).
The research also analysed qualitative data in order to identify the specific views of
University of Chichester students towards commercial breaks and alternative styles of
advertisement. This was enabled by using ‘open questions’ which allowed participants
to respond in their own words (Fisher, 2010) and thus provided more precise opinions
from the respondents. However, this project followed an approach that supports the
notion that the research paradigm had a deductive approach as suggested by
Saunders et al(2007), who noted that surveying opinions inthe form of questionnaires
is usually associated with a deductive approach.
Due to collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, the research can be deemed
as being both positivistic and interpretive in nature. Notably the research shared

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characteristics associated with a positivistic approach due to using a questionnaire
based research strategy which enable analytics of statistics, however also used
qualitative data which is predominantly associated with an interpretive approach.
3.2 Ethical issues
Firstly, in order to carry out research on behalf of the University of Chichester the
researcher ensured his adherence to the University’s ethical procedures in relation to
carrying out research, as noted by the ethics form (University of Chichester Ethical
Guidelines, 2014).
To ensure that participants were not giving their informed consent, they all were made
aware of the purpose of the research and were informed of what their participation
involved, thus gaining their informed consent. Despite informed consent usuallybeing
implicit when someone completes a questionnaire (Fisher, 2010), the researcher
ensured that the content was explicit by stipulating all the concerned details needed
on the front cover of the online questionnaire, in the form of a consent form and
information statement (See appendix B).
The issue of informed consent closely links with the right for participants to withdraw
from the research process. This was made possible at any stage of the research
process up until the processing of collected data, at which point participants no longer
had the right to withdraw. In line with ethical standards, this was also made clear to
prospective participants as part of the information statement on the consent form
(See appendix B).

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Another ethical issue which required addressing was that of guaranteeing the
anonymity of respondents. This issue was managed by implementing an anonymous
questionnaire which did not request any personal details such as names, student
numbers or information which could enable a participant to be traced.
In order to avoid the possibility of poor response rates, an incentive was used in the
form of a £20 gift card and this is discussed in greater detail in section 3.4. The ethical
issue surrounding this is not the provision of inducements but instead the need to
keep track of contact details of participants in order to give the winner their incentive,
whilst still providing anonymity. To mitigate against this issue, a separate list of email
addresses were used and kept apart from the research data, thereby allowing the
researcher to contact the individual and maintain anonymity to participants.
A strict process was implemented in order to ensure that respondents’ data was fully
protected. All data was stored on the University of Chichester’s I.T system as this can
be deemed to be a reliable system to store information.
3.3 Access issues
Due to the target group of this research being fellow students, the researcher did not
need to seek permission from a gatekeeper in order to gain access. Furthermore the
target group were over the age of 18, thus meaning no parental permission was
needed.
With this in mind, to carry out the research the researcher asked respondents for their
permission for participating at the start of the questionnaire. Before being able to fill

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in the online questionnaire allrespondents were required to agree to the stated terms
and conditions on the front page statement.
The research population (students) were accessed through two methods, which were
email and social media. Emails were sent to the University of Chichester first, second
and third years cohort requesting their participation in the questionnaire, with the
emails consisting of a link to the questionnaire as well as information stating the
purpose of the research, whilst providing an accurate timeframe for the data
collection in order to mitigate against any confusion occurring.
Furthermore potential respondents were also accessed through social media. The
researcher used his personal Facebook account to message friends asking if they
would participate in the questionnaire. In order to mitigate against people who did
not fit the requirements of the research participating, the researcher directly
messaged participants with a link to the questionnaire as opposed to using a publicly
broadcast status whereby people who do not fit the criteria could participate. Despite
using this method to reduce inadequate respondents, this has consequently created
further limitations which are discussed in section 3.7.
3.4 Sampling and subject selection
The research used a self-selection, convenience access sampling method due to the
ease of accessing data and because it is the most efficient sampling method for
accessing data based on basic attitudes of a subject.

21
The research used a full population as stratified sampling was not required as the only
requirement for participation was that respondents were University of Chichester
undergraduate students aged between 18-21.
Statistics from Savil (2016) show there were 4809 University of Chichester students
who fitted the participant criteria of this research and thus could have potentially
been approached to collect data. The sample size for the research was 230
respondents, this figure was chosen in order to enable a 7% margin of error.
Furthermore, a minimum of 200 respondents was needed in order for the research to
be a representative sample of the views of Chichester University students and
therefore can be interpreted as a representative view of a segment of millennials.
When considering the aforementioned point of using a £20 gift card to increase the
number of respondents, it is important to note how the winner of the financial
incentive was chosen, as all participants who left an email address were listed and
assigned a number. From this, all the numbers from the lowest to the highest were
entered into a number generator to determine a random number and thus enable a
winner from the ‘draw’.
3.5 Data collection tools
The data collection tool for the research was aself-administered online questionnaire,
which was chosen due to its ease of distribution and wide availability. This is
supported by Ng & Coakes (2014) who state that online questionnaires can attract a
higher number of respondents through being easily accessed via email and social
media. A further benefit of using this tool included the anonymity of participants. Due
to this, it could be expected that respondent rates would increase when compared to

22
non-anonymous data collection tools. Had any issues been encountered which
prevented an adequate level of respondents being achieved, interviews would have
been used instead.
The questionnaire was made availableusing BristolOnline Service (BOS)and therefore
was self-administered. The online questionnaire was pilot tested in order to assess if
improvements were required. The pilot test was carried out on 10 participants in order
to determine if the questionnaire was appropriately structured and was easy to use in
line with Saunders et al (2007) recommendation, as this pilot enabled the researcher
to refine the questionnaire so as to ensure that it was not excessively time consuming
as there is alinear correlation between time taken to complete and overall completion
rate. Furthermore, pilot testing allowed a preliminary analysis of the collected data to
determine if the questions were answered and thus completed the chosen objectives
of the research.
3.6 Data analysis
Once the data was processed on BOS, it was exported to Microsoft Excel and Word for
data sorting and charting, thereby enabling further visual analysis of the data.
Quantitative data was predominantly processed into charts and graphs, whereas
qualitative data was processed by categorising. (Sekaran, 2003).
3.7 Limitations of research design
When looking at the limitations of the research, it is important to note the effects of
using an online questionnaire and therefore the issue of self-selection sampling. This
approach could have created a self-selection bias from people with strong views on

23
the research topic, and thus the respondents may not have been representative of the
population and thus limits the claims that can be made on the larger population (Horn,
2009).
In addition, as a result of the researcher messaging his friends asking for their
participation, there are some limitations to the results of the research. Despite the
researcher using a website link which provided anonymity to respondents and thus he
could not have known ifspecificrespondents had participated, it can be expected that
a response bias has occurred as respondents could have only participated due to being
friends with the researcher.
Furthermore, it was possible that the questionnaire could be completed by people
who did not fit the target group criteria without the researcher knowing, thus affecting
the reliability of the results. In order to mitigate this effect, the questionnaire link was
only sent to students via email or direct messages on Facebook and thus there was
not an open platform for the public to participate. Moreover, the likelihood of this
occurring was considered and it was determined that there would be very little chance
of such an issue arising as there would be no vested interest in an individual
participating in the questionnaire.
As a result of using a £20 gift card as a financial incentive in the research, there are
some limitations to the reliability of the research as people may be completing it just
to take part in the draw. However after considering this limitation the researcher
chose to continue to use this method in order to increase the expected response rate.

24
4. Chapter Four: Results andAnalysis
4.1 Introduction
This chapter explores the results and analysis ofthe research, including both expected
research similarities from the findings in the literature review as well as unexpected
findings. Moreover, the findings in this chapter are presented in three sections which
are aligned with the objectives of the research to help assist the analytical process.
4.2 Background information
The online questionnaire received 269 responses, however 39 had to be excluded due
to these respondents stating at the start of the questionnaire that they did not know
what product placement was. Following these exclusions the questionnaire data used
was comprised of 230 valid responses. Despite there being 230 respondents, due to
the questions not being mandatory there are some differences in the number of
participants of each question, therefore the ones which are different will be noted by
‘N’ along with the value. In addition, the only demographical data used was formed
from the participation criteria, that is, all respondents were between the ages of 18-
21.

25
4.3 Key findings in relations to objectives
4.3.1 Assessing the attitudes of University of Chichester students towards product
In order to identify the results of objective one a basic analysis was required to
measure general attitudes towards commercial break advertisement and as such a
limited conceptual meanings analysis was used to identify students’ initial opinions.
Figure 4.1 concludes that 73% of respondents stated that they ‘dislike’ commercial
break advertisement, whilst the second largest answer group (12% of respondents)
stated that commercial break advertisements were ‘intrusive’. Furthermore 2% of
respondents felt that the advertisement stylewas deceptive, thus meaning that atotal
of 87% of respondents had negative opinions of traditional commercial break
advertisement.
1%
0%
5%
74%
4%
2%
12%
4%
Enjoy
Like
Useful
Dislike
Intresting
Deceptive
Intrusive
Other
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Wordofassociation
Pecrentage of respondents N=230
Figure 4.1: Limited content analysis of the word most associated with commercial break
advertisement.

26
Respondents were asked which word they most associated with product placement
and were presented with the same limited conceptual meanings content scale as in
figure 4.1. Figure 4.2 shows that respondents’ answers were much less concentrated
than in figure 4.1, notably that 24% of respondents thought product placement was
interesting, whilst 21% believed it was useful. However, there was also some limited
indication of negative words of association, including 17% of respondents who felt
product placement was deceptive, 10% who thought it was intrusive and 7% which
stated that they dislike it.
Figures 4.1 and 4.2 indicate that there is a significant difference in respondents who
‘dislike’ commercial breaks as opposed to product placement.
A qualitative based analysis was also used to identify the specific feedback from the
21 respondents which chose to answer ‘other’ when they were askedto identify which
words they most associate with product placement and therefore were asked to
elaborate (Table 4.1). From the 20 answers given, 15 were categorised into five key
Figure 4.2: Limited content analysis of the word most associated with product placement
advertisement
2%
10%
21%
7%
24%
17%
10%
9%
Enjoy
Like
Useful
Dislike
Intresting
Deceptive
Intrusive
Other
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Wordofassociation

27
meaning words and a further 5 words could not be categorised and are therefore
presented as ‘N/A’.
Table 4.1: Limited meaning analysis of respondents who stated ‘other’ to a word they associated
with product placement.
Category of
answers
Annoying Uninterested Indifferent Clever Comical ‘N/A
Number of
Participants
3 2 6 2 2 5
Figure 4.3 illustrates overwhelming support in favour of respondents preferring
product placement advertisement to traditional commercial breaks, with 39% of
respondents stating they strongly agree and 30% moderately agreed, totalling 69% of
respondents which prefer product placement over commercial breaks. Furthermore
when considering the 18% of respondents who stated that they neither agreed nor
disagreed that traditional commercial breaks should be replaced with product
placement, the case for replacing commercial break advertisement is made stronger,
as whilst these respondents are indifferent to product placement they still
demonstrate negative attitudes towards commercial break advertisement.
This supports Arris (2014) findings which illustrates a growing aversion towards
commercial break advertisement. In addition to this, when considering the ‘binge
viewing’ culture discussed in section 2.3, this form of advertisement is not well suited
to the VOD market as audiences want to watch as much content as possible in one
viewing, subsequently resulting in commercial break advertisements being fast
forwarded or completely circumvented when possible.

28
The findings from figure 4.4 shows that the majority of participants (58%) stated that
they were ‘neither in favour nor against’ product placement advertisement and
therefore it was not possible to draw any definitive conclusions. This said, participants
have clearly expressed a disliking of commercial break advertisement (figure 4.1).
Therefore it could suggest participants that participants who are ‘not against’ product
placement are better than those who openly dislike commercial breaks and thus aids
the case for VOD providers using product placement.
Figure 4.3: Limited content analysis for respondents views of replacing commercial breaks with
product placement
39%
30%
18%
9%
3%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Strongly agree
Moderately agree
Neither agree nordisagree
Moderately disagree
Strongly disgaree
AxisTitle

29
4.3.2 Indication of the type of product placement that University students consider
acceptable
This section discusses attitudes towards product placement acceptability. In order to
measure the level of acceptability and attitudes towards the product placement, the
questionnaire included three questions in relation to examples of the different
product placements as proposed by Kramolis & Drabkova (2012), who argue that there
are three forms of product placement: active placements (product is being used by a
character), passive placements (product is captured in a shot) and verbal placements
(product is being discussed). (See appendix C and D).
Figure 4.5 shows strong support in favour of using passive product placements with
40% of respondents (94 people) stating that they strongly agree and 40% (91 people)
of respondents indicated that they moderately agree that passive product placement
is acceptable. Only 7% of respondents (15 people) stated they either moderately or
strongly disagree that this form of advertisement is acceptable.
Figure 4.4: Limited content analysis of respondents’ attitudes towards acceptability of product
placement
Unacceptable
3%
Moderatelyagainst
16%
Neither in favour
nor against
58%
Moderatelyin
favour
11%
Acceptable
12%

30
Figure 4.6 illustrates active placements are considered widely acceptable by the
majority of respondents, with 40% of respondents stating that they strongly agree and
33% moderately agree, meaning 77% of respondents believed to some extent that the
advertisement was acceptable. In contrast, only 10% of respondents somewhat
disagreed that active placements are an acceptable form of product placement.
Figure 4.5: Respondents views on the of acceptability of passive product placements
41%
40%
13%
6%
1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Strongly agree
Moderately agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Moderately disagree
Strongly disgaree
Pecrentage of respondents
N = 229
Levelofacceptabilty
Figure 4.6: Respondents views on the acceptability of active product placements
39%
33%
18%
8%
2%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Strongly agree
Moderately agree
Neither agree nordisagree
Moderately disagree
Strongly disgaree
Percentage of Respondents N=228

31
Figure 4.7 shows that 40% of respondents strongly agreed and 42% of respondents
moderately agreed that verbal product placement was acceptable, whilst 16% stated
that they neither agreed nor disagreed. Given that only 3% of respondents stated that
they somewhat disagreed that verbal product placement was not acceptable, and this
shows that these type of placements are acceptable by the vast majority.
The findings illustrated in figure 4.8 show that when used subtly, product placement
was perceived more favourably by respondents and thus supports Gillespie et al
(2012) argument (section 2.3) that ‘blatant’ cases of product placement lead to less
favourable attitudes of product placement.
Figure 4.7: Respondents perception of acceptability of verbal product placements
39%
42%
16%
2%
1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Strongly agree
Moderately agree
Moderately disagree
Strongly disgaree
Percentage of respondents N=224
Respondentsopinion

32
After analysing the different types of product placement which were deemed to be
acceptable by respondents, it is important to analyse the context of how the product
placement is carried out. Notably, this involved determining whether there was a
correlation between subtle and obvious product placements and how they were
perceived. Figure 4.8 shows that 47 students strongly agreed and 91 students
moderately agreed that they would be more favourable towards product placement
advertisement if it was carried out subtly, meaning that 60% out of 230 respondents
showed some positive attitudes towards subtle product placement.
4.3.3 Development of management recommendations to identify which product
placement model should be implemented in order to target University students.
After analysing attitudes to both advertisement types, an assessment of the
effectiveness of commercial breaks was required. In order to gather analytics which
are aligned to objective three, participants were asked “when a commercial break
Figure 4.8: Respondents perceptions of product placement subtleness and favourability
20%
40%
32%
8%
0%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Strongly agree
Moderately agree
Moderately disagree
Strongly disgaree
Percentage of respondents N=230
Respondentsopinions

33
comes on, what do you do?” Figure 4.9 indicates that 82% of respondents (189 people)
saidthat they ‘leavethe device running but do something else’.When this is compared
to 18% of respondents (41 people) who stated they watch the commercial break
advertisement, it can be seen that these results are closely aligned to Wells (2015,
section 2.2) argument that millennials are not engaging with commercial break
advertisement.
This finding indicates that viewers are not watching commercial advertisement
voluntarily, therefore meaning that current advertisement models are not effective.
With this in mind, the main benefit of product placement as explained in section 2.2
(Soba& Aydin, 2013) is that it does not enable viewers to have the opportunity to
‘deselect’ commercial content as opposed to traditional advertising styles where fast
forwarding and ad-blocking features have allowed viewers to choose not to engage
with advertisements.
This therefore supports the suggestion that replacing commercial break
advertisement with product placement advertisement would be better suited to
target millennials in VOD platforms. Moreover, Millar (2012) argues that if trends
towards circumventing commercial break advertisement continue, indicated by the
findings presented in figure 4.9, the TV industry will need to utilise product placement
to supplement the shortfall of their normal advertisement revenue.

34
After analysing respondents’ behaviours to commercial breaks (Figure 4.9), when a
cross-tabulation process was applied to these results with the number of digital
devices owned by the respondents, it was concluded that 80% of participants who
stated that they own 4+ digital devices (71 people) said that they ‘leave the device
running but do something else’.This is therefore less than the 82% of participants who
are displacing their viewing of commercial break advertisement (figure 4.9), meaning
that there was no correlation between digital devices ownership and circumventing
commercial break advertisement. Consequently this contradicts Wells (2015)
argument that participants who own more digitaldevices engageless withcommercial
break advertisement compared to those with less who do so. With this in mind, this
limits the claimthat commercial break advertisement is being blocked by viewers and
thus makes it harder to make conclusions for future trends.
Qualitative data in the form of a limited content analysis was collected in order to
identify respondents’ feelings towards product placement. The categorising process
Figure 4.9: Respondents’ behaviour when a commercial break comes on
Watch advert
18%
Leave the device
running but do
something else
82%

35
comprised of three answers to represent the three typical views to the topic (see
figure 4.10).
Whilst only 16% of respondents claimed that they fit in the ‘enjoy’ category, 75% of
respondents had no feelings in favour or against product placement. Consequently
this can be considered relatively supporting the case of using product placement as
only 9% of respondents expressed they ‘hated’ the advertising style.
Furthermore figure 4.11 shows that over half of the respondents (51%) moderately
agreed that using real brands help make shows seem more realistic, whilst 30%
strongly agreed with this. It could therefore be suggested that viewers would prefer
to watch realistic shows and thus supports the notion for creating an environment
where product placement is used in ‘stealth’ by using branded items as props as
suggested by Precourt (2015, section 2.4) .
Figure 4.10: Respondents’ views towards product placement
9%
75%
16%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Opposed to product placement Indifferent to product
placement
Infavour of product placement
Percentageofrespondents
Categories of opinions towards ProductPlacement

36
An analysis of figure 4.12 shows that the majority of respondents (39%) neither agree
nor disagree that they would prefer if fictitious brands were used in shows instead of
real ones. 36% stated they moderately disagreed and 11% strongly disagree whilst
only 10% said they moderately agree and 4% strongly agree.
Figure 4.11: Respondents’ views on the effect of using real brands to create more realistic shows
Stronglyagree
30%
Moderatelyagree
51%
Neither agree
nordisagree
Moderatelydisagree
4%
Stronglydisagree
1%
Figure 4.12: Respondents’ views on usage of fictitious brands over real brands
Stronglyagree
4%
Moderatelyagree
10%
Neitheragree
nor disagree
Moderatelydisagree
36%
Stronglydisagree
11%

37
Figure 4.13 illustrates that the majority of respondents (39%) neither agreed nor
disagreed that viewing product placement affects their buying behaviours. This
therefore indicates that nearly 40% of respondents could not decide if product
placement would affect them or not. With this in mind, these findings limit Williams
et al. (2011) claim that product placement advertisement has the ability to alter
viewers buying behaviours subliminally (section 2.2).
Figure 4.14 illustrates that respondents largely feel that product placement is a
‘disguised advert’, as 45% stated they moderately agree and 19% strongly agree with
the statement. This means 64% of total respondents to some degree recognised
product placement as disguisedadvert, whilstonly 2% of respondents strongly disliked
the statement and 11% moderately disagreed, thus showing 13% of total respondents
somewhat disagreed with the notion that product placement is a disguised advert.
Figure 4.13: Respondents’ views on whether product placement advertisement affects buying
behaviour
Stronglyagree
3%
Moderatelyagree
25%
Neither agree
nor disagree
39%
Moderately
disagree
25%
Stronglydisagree
8%

38
Figure 4.15 shows the majority of respondents (41%) moderately agree, whilst 8%
strongly agreed that product placement subconsciously influences viewers.
Subsequently, 49% of respondents stated some level of agreement, showing a
moderate indication towards the notion that respondents are aware of the ethical
practices associated with product placement. This said, 34% of total respondents
stated they neither agree nor disagree, thus limiting this claim to some degree.
Figure 4.14: Respondents views whether product placement is perceived as a ‘disguised’
advertisement
Stronglyagree
19%
Moderatelyagree
45%
Neither agree nor
disagree
Moderately
disagree
11%
Stronglydisagree
2%

39
An analysis of figure 4.16 demonstrates that 40% of respondents disagreed to some
extent that advertisers are misleading viewers from using branded items as props,
thus suggesting respondents do not mind the use of branded products incorporated
into their viewing. This said, 38% of respondents stated they neither agree nor
disagree with this claimand since such a large amount of respondents had this view,
the claims that can be made from these findings are limited.
Figure 4.15: Respondents’ views if product placement is perceived to subconsciously influence
VOD audiences
Stronglyagree
8%
Moderatelyagree
41%
Neither agree nor
disagree
Moderately
disagree
16%
Stronglydisagree
1%

40
4.4 Chapter conclusion
This chapter presented the results from this research and demonstrated that there is
support among respondents for VOD providers to replace commercial breaks with
product placement advertisement. Furthermore respondent’s mostly favoured verbal
placements, however were stillpositive towards active and passive placements as long
as they’re integrated into the viewing content and thus come across as subtle.
Figure 4.16: Respondents’ views if advertiser using branded itemsis misleading viewers
Stronglyagree
5%
Moderatelyagree
17%
Neither agree nor
disagree
38%
Moderately
disagree
32%
Stronglydisagree
8%

41
5. Chapter Five: Conclusionand Recommendations
This chapter discusses the extent to which the aims and objectives of this research
have been achieved. Based on the analysis of the research results, this chapter also
makes recommendations to VOD providers, and concludes by reflecting on the
professional development of the researcher since the start of the management
project.
The aim of this research project was to ascertain if product placement advertisement
would be a suitable replacement for commercial break advertisement in VOD
platforms for targeting millennials, for which the following research objectives were
outlined.
1. To assess the attitudes of University of Chichester students towards product
2. To identify the type of product placement that University of Chichester
students consider acceptable.
3. To adviseVOD providers if aproduct placement model should be implemented
in order to target University of Chichester students.
5.1 Conclusions
It is evident from the research findings that all three objectives have been achieved,
albeit to varying degrees. To complete the first objective, it was essential to identify if
there was any reason that commercial break advertisement was no longer effective at
targeting millennials. In order to examine if the literature from section 1.2 that
supported this notion was correct, respondents were asked what they do during

42
commercial breaks. The findings from this question proved that respondents were not
engaging with this form of advertising and thus laid the foundation for the subsequent
questions which sought respondents’ attitudes towards a replacement advertisement
model. Subsequently, respondents were asked if they would prefer product
placement over commercial break advertisement and unsurprisingly, this too
supported product placement being the preferred advertisement type.
There is clear dislike for commercial break advertisement and both existing literature
and the research findings (section 4.3) illustrate a growing aversion towards
commercial break advertisement, thus providing supporting evidence for the decline
in advertisement revenue. Without taking into account the suitability of product
placement as a replacement at this stage, it can be concluded that commercial break
advertisement willnot be sustainablein its current form in the long-term future as too
many viewers oppose it.
Although it may not be welcomed by everyone, product placement was much better
received than commercial break advertisement and supports the premise of this
research that VOD providers should use different means of advertisement. This
conclusion has been reached because of the fact that although in some questions
respondents were neither in favour nor against product placement, when their
responses were cross-analysed with their views about commercial breaks, they view
the latter as undesirable. For this reason, it can be concluded that an advertisement
which respondents feel indifferent about can be considered as better than one which
they actively dislike.

43
The second objective was to identify the types of product placement respondents
deemed to be acceptable. This was tested by assessing respondents’ attitudes
towards different forms of product placement (Figure 4.5, 4.6, 4.7), and by assessing
what were their views about product placement, if it was implemented subtly (Figure
4.8).
Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that verbal placement was
the preferred form of product placement (figure 4.4) and therefore suggest that this
should be the main form of product placement used to engage millennials. This said,
both the passive and active placement were also well received, meaning that if VOD
providers were to use these forms of product placement, it would not create negative
attitudes from viewers.
The findings also indicate that product placement is more favourable when used in a
subtle context, and in addition respondents largely agreed that real brands help to
sustain a sense of realism within the content being viewed. With these two points in
mind, it can be concluded that product placement would need to be successfully
incorporated into the storyline of the entertainment vehicle so as not to be obvious.
Despite identifying the different forms of product placement that respondents
deemed were acceptable, the researcher believes that there is not enough
information to conclude exactly how product placement should be implemented.
Although the findings from figure 4.8 provide an indication that product placement
advertisement must be used in a subtle context, by integrating the product placement
into the viewing content, there are areas of ambiguity that the data does not support.
Notably the research did not take into account show sponsorship or complementary

44
digital applications which could aid product placement implementation and
consequently distort how it is received by viewers.
Objective three aimed to identify whether product placement should be implemented
and the findings from this objective are set out differently than two preceding
objectives, as the findings used to support this outcome supports the notion that the
process of product placement affecting viewers buying behaviours is subliminal and
thus creates ethical issues.
Despite the possible ethical challenges of using ‘stealth’ product placement argued by
Williams et al. (2011) and Lehu (2007) in section 2.4. The research findings suggest a
conclusion that respondents were largely aware of this ethical consideration due to
the feeling that it can be considered to be a disguised advert. With this in mind,
respondents remained reasonably happy with it, which means that this problem is
mitigated and again helps strengthen the case that product placement should be
implemented by VOD providers.
There remain some limitations within this claim, as every respondent knew what
product placement was and thus were able to give informed opinions of the subject.
Consequently an analysis that provides a more accurate reflection of millennials
should also include those who do not know what product placement is and therefore
may not necessarily share the same view or be as accepting of its ethical implications.
These findings show respondents generally believe that the process of product
placement is deceptive due to the belief that it is a disguised advert. This said,
respondents largely felt indifferent or slightly positive towards product placement,
thus reducing the importance of ethical considerations. In addition, despite weak

45
indication that respondents felt that product placement subconsciously influences
them, this feeling was not emulated when they considered buying behaviours. A
possible interpretation of this is that product placement affects brand awareness and
brand perception as suggested by Lewis (2013, section 2.4), however does not
necessarily affect purchasing intent as thought by Williams et al. (2011, section 2.4).
5.2 Recommendations
The findings from the research in the preceding chapter, along with the
aforementioned literature in chapter two, provide support for recommending that the
VOD industry should implement product placement as a direct replacement of
commercial break advertisement. However, it is important to note that there are
conditions for implementing product placement successfully. Notably, viewers feel
strongly that the product placement must be well integrated into the viewing content
in order to not create less favourable attitudes from viewers towards watching
product placement.
The findings show that respondents typically felt indifferent or slightly positive
towards product placement normally, but had negative views when used in a non-
subtle context, thus supporting the notion that product placement must be used
cautiously. With this in mind, this recommendation is aligned with the suggestion of
Precourt (2015) whereby implementing product placement in typical environments
within the viewing content, such as on billboards, assists in creating authenticity. It is
for this reason that it is recommended that product placement is to be used cautiously
by categorising scenarios within the script where it would be possible to place the
advertisement in a non-obvious, contextual manor.

46
This recommendation is strengthened further by Lehu (2007) argument (section 2.3),
that stealth placements must be used in order to stop viewers from realising that the
viewing content contains product placement.
In addition, section 2.3 outlined the ethical problems associated with using product
placement which must be acknowledged. The results in Figures 4.14 and 4.15 show
the majority of respondents felt they were subconsciously influenced from seeing
brands inviewing content and alsoconsider product placement as a‘disguisedadvert’.
With this in mind, an analysis of figure 4.11 shows respondents believed product
placement helps realism and thus support Williams et al. (2011) and Lewis (2013)
argument that although some viewers consider product placement to be unethical,
the majority are not overly concerned with the issue and feel that it adds to the
viewing content through greater realism. After analysing these findings, it is
recommended that the ethical association towards product placement should not be
considered when addressing the viability of implementing product placement
advertisement.
Furthermore the results from figure 4.16 show respondents did not believe that
advertisers were misleading them by using branded products, whilst figure 4.4 shows
the majority of respondents felt indifferent on product placement implementation,
meaning that despite the initial indication that product placement is unethical,
respondents were largely favourable towards product placement. Acknowledging
these findings, it is recommended that problems in relation to ethics should not be
considered when addressing the viability of implementing product placement
advertisement.

47
Despitethat the main beneficiary of these recommendations would be VODproviders,
there are also other stakeholders who would benefit. The respondents who have
stated that they prefer product placement would be receiving their preferred choice
of advertising when viewing content and thus would improve their overall viewing
experience. In turn, it can be expected that from respondents preferring product
placement more, they will subsequently be more receptive and engage with the
advertisement thus meaning that marketers will be able to utilise product placement
advertisement as an effective medium for marketing their products.
5.3 Reflection on research process
If the researcher were to perform this project again, he would make changes to the
data collection process. If a longer time scale were to be permitted, focus groups and
interviews would be used in addition to the questionnaire to enable triangulation and
thus increase the reliability of the results. In addition the researcher would replace
screenshots with a short video clip when analysing respondents’ attitudes to product
placement as this would enable deeper analysis. Furthermore, considering the large
amount of respondents who identified the brand used in the screenshots it was
concluded it was too easyto identify the brand, however a video clipwould be abetter
reflection of watching VODcontent. In spiteof this, the researcher believed that there
was sufficient justification for using the screenshots in this research process as within
the limitations of using a questionnaire they provided the best solution for gaining a
reasonable scale for analysing respondents’ perceptions of product placement.
Moreover when considering changes for further developing this study, the researcher
would include more complicated forms and crossovers of product placement. For

48
simplicity in this management project and limitations of using a questionnaire, the
researcher only used the three different forms of product placement (section 4.3),
however in the future it should include an analysis of other factors such as show
sponsorship or complimentary advertising techniques of product placement.
5.4 Professional development
During the course of this management project the researcher developed an array of
transferable skills, including undertaking research independently, critical writing,
analysis, time management and primary research skills as illustrated through the data
collection process of the project whereby the researcher successfully received 230
valid respondents.
Furthermore, the researcher has gained a greater insight into the advertising industry
as well as gaining an appreciation of how changes in consumer attitudes and
behaviours demonstrate the need for companies to constantly adapt their operating
models.
Word count: 9469

49
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 Coughlan, S. (2016). Time spent online 'overtakes TV' among youngsters.
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 Digital Strategy Consulting. (2014). Rise of digital product placement: Mirriad
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al_product_placement_mirriad_gives_new_value_to_old_tv_shows.php. Last
 Dredge, S. (2012). Social TV and second-screen viewing: the stats in
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second-screen-research. Last accessed 7th April 2015.

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 Fernandez, J. (2009). VOD offers ideal home for product placement revenue
stream. Marketing Week. 32 (12), p24.
 Fisher, C (2010). Researching and writing a dissertation: An essential guide for
business students. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
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http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/. Last accessed 11th Nov 2015.
 Ghosh, B.P., Galbreth, M.R., Shang, G. (2013). The Competitive Impact of
Targeted Television Advertisements Using DVR Technology. Decision Sciences.
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 Gillespie, B., Joireman, J., Muehling, D. (2012). The Moderating Effect of Ego
Depletion on Viewer Brand Recognition and Brand Attitudes Following
Exposure to Subtle Versus Blatant Product Placements in Television
Programs. Journal of Advertising. 41 (2), p55-65.
 Glennie, A. (2015). Only half of young people's viewing is traditional
scheduled TV. Available:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/02/young-people-live-tv-bbc-
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 Higher Education Statistics Agency. (2015). Statistical First Release
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 Horn, R (2009). Researching & Writing Dissertations. London: Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development.
 Hughes, M. (2015). The Millennial Trends That Are Killing Cable.Available:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2015/03/21/the-millennial-
trends-that-are-killing-cable/#2715e4857a0b10105ee44f8f. Last accessed
22nd Jan 2015.
 Kramolis, J & Drabkova, M. (2012). Types, Forms and Major Product
Categories of Product Placement in the Czech Republic. Journal of Eastern
Europe Research in Business & Economics. 2012, p1-11.
 Lafayette, J. (2015). The 2014-15 season: A downer for TV ad revenue.
Broadcasting & Cable. 145 (1), p23.

51
 Lehu, J.M (2007). Branded Entertainment: Product Placement & Brand
Strategy in the Entertainment Business. London: Kogan Page Limited.
 Lewis, J. (2013). Research shows product placement can shift brand
perception. Available: http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/research-
shows-product-placement-can-shift-brand-perception. Last accessed 15th Jan
2015.
 Matrix, S. (2014). The Netflix effect: Teens, binge watching, and on demand
digital media trends. Jeunesse: Young people, texts, cultures. 6 (1), pp. 119-
138.
 Millar, M. (2013). Digital product placement creates adverts out of thin
air. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22066153. Last accessed
20th Feb 2016.
 Nathanson, J. (2013). The Economics of Product Placements. Available:
http://priceonomics.com/the-economics-of-product-placements/. Last
 Ng, W & Coakes, E (2014). Business Research: Enjoy Creating, Developing and
Writing Your Business Project. London: Kogan Page Limited.
 Nielson. (2015). Age of technology: Generational video viewing preferences
vary by device and activity. Available:
http://www.nielsen.com/uk/en/insights/news/2015/age-of-technology-
generational-video-viewing-preferences-vary-by-device-and-activity.html.
Last accessed 7th Nov 2015.
 Office for National Statistics. (2015). Overview of the UK population.
Available: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_422383.pdf. Last accessed
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 Office of Communications (2010) Perceptions of, and attitudes towards,
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London: HMSO.

52
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case-studies-set-to-fire-up-product-placement-market/. Lastaccessed1stMar
2016.
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Ad blocking report, Dublin: PageFair & Adobe.
 Plunkett, J. (2010). TV advertising skipped by 86% of viewers. Available:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/aug/24/tv-advertising. Last
accessed 15th April 2016.
 Precourt, G. (2015). Starcom, Turner refine booming product placement
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lacement_business.pdf?__hssc=95498051.2.1461506644472&__hstc=954980
51.378c602a376da2236ae17b277785e75d.1461506644471.1461506644471..
Last accessed 1st Mar 2016.
 Rainey, S. (2015). How binge-watching has changed TV forever.Available:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11361212/How-binge-
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 Sauer, A. (2015). Announcing the 2015 Brandcameo Product Placement
Awards. Available: http://brandchannel.com/2015/02/20/announcing-the-
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 Savil, B. (2016) Personal communication. Admissions Department, University
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53
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54
7. Appendices
Appendix A: Ethics Review Form
SectionC: Ethical ReviewQuestionsbegin:
C1. Does the study involve humanparticipants?
Participantsinresearchare takento include all those involvedinthe research
activityeitherdirectlyorindirectlyandeitherpassively,suchaswhenbeing
observedpartof an educational context,oractively,suchaswhentakingpart in
an interview procedure.
NB: the Universitydoesnotconductresearchonanimals.If your proposed
projectinvolvesanimalsinanywayplease seekadvice fromthe ResearchOffice
before proceeding.
Yes
If answer to C1 is‘No’ thenyou do not needto complete thisform and you do not
needto seekformal ethical approval. Nevertheless,youare requiredto conduct
your research in accordance with the ResearchEthics Policy (REP) and Researcher
Code of Conduct.
C2. Why shouldthis research studybe undertaken?
Brief descriptionof purpose of study/rationale
Currentlycompaniesare strugglingtoengage millennialsthroughadvertisingby
commercial breaksonVODservices,the researchwillidentifythe perceptionsof
ChichesterUniversitystudents(whocanbe consideredarepresentationof the
millennial cohort) towardsamodel whichreplacescommercialadvertswithproduct
placementsinthe VODindustry.
C3a. What are you planningto do?
Provide adescription of the methodologyforthe proposedresearch,including
proposedmethod andduration of datacollection,tasksassignedtoparticipantsof
the researchand the proposedmethodanddurationof dataanalysis.If the proposed
researchmakesuse of pre-establishedandgenerallyacceptedtechniques,e.g.
establishedlaboratoryprotocols,validatedquestionnaires,please refertothisinyour
answerto thisquestion.(Donotexceed500words).If it ishelpful forthe panel to
receive furtherdocumentationdescribingthe methodologythenpleaseappendthis
to yourapplicationandmake specificreference toitinbox 3a below.

55
The data collectiontool will be anonline questionnaire,the sample sizeis230
studentsoutof a populationof 4190 firstdegree undergraduate students aged18-21.
The data collectionprocesswilllast amaximumof 2 weeks.If respondentlevelsare
poor,interviewswillbe usedinstead.
C3b. Whenare you planningto do it?
Please enterthe anticipatedstartandenddatesof your study(Consideratwhich
pointyouwill be involvinghumanparticipants,thiswouldtypicallybe inthe data
collection/informationgatheringphase of the projectbutmaybe earlier):
Data collectionisestimated tolast2 weeksbetweenMarch4st
– th
andwill involve
humanparticipationforthe entire 2weeksof the researchprocess.
C4. Where will the researchbe undertaken?
Brieflydescribethe locationof the study,providedetailsof anyspecial facilitiestobe
usedand anyfactors relatingtothe studysite/locationthatmightgive rise to
additional riskof harmor distresstoparticipantsormembersof the researchteam
togetherwithmeasurestakentominimise andmanage suchrisks:
The data collectiontool isanonline questionnaire distributedthroughthe University
of Chichesteremail systemand social mediatherefore itcanbe completedanywhere.

56
C5. Who are the participants?
Please indicate the numberof participantsineachof the groupsinthe table below.If
the precise numberof participantsisnotknownthenplease make anestimate.Please
enter‘0’ inthe ‘Numbersinstudy’columnforthose groupsthatare not includedin
your study.Please note thatthe examplesprovidedof differentsortsof vulnerability
are notan exhaustive list.
Participant Numbers
in study
Adults withno known1
health or social problemsi.e.not in a
vulnerable group:
230
Childrenaged16-172
with no known3
health or social problems: 0
Childrenunder16 years of age with no known3
healthor social
problems:
0
Adults who wouldbe consideredasvulnerable e.g. those incare, with
learningdifficulties,adisability,homeless,Englishasa second
language,service users ofmental healthservices,with reduced
mental capacity3
Identifyreasonforbeingclassedasvulnerable groupandindicate
‘numbersinstudy’in nextcolumnadjacenttoeachreason(expandthe
formas necessary):
………………………………………………..
………………………………………………..
0
Children(aged<18) who would be consideredas particularly
vulnerable e.g.those incare, with learningdifficulties,disability,
Englishas a second language
Identifyreasonforbeingclassedasvulnerable groupandindicate
‘numbersinstudy’innextcolumnadjacenttoeachreason(expandthe
formas necessary):
………………………………………………..
………………………………………………..
0
Other participants not coveredby the categorieslistedabove (please
list):
List other categories here: ……………………………………………..
0
C6a. Is there somethingabout the contextand/or settingwhich means that the
potential risk of harm/distressto participants or research is lowerthan might be
expected?
1 Known to the researcher
2 A summary of UK definition of ‘Child’ :
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/briefings/definition_of_a_child_wda59396.html
3https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224660/
Mental_Capacity_Act_code_of_practice.pdf

57
Answer: No
Considerif the study is partof routine activity which involvespersonswith whomyou
normally workin a typical workcontexte.g.Teachersworking with children in a
classroom setting,researchersin theperforming artsworking with performers,sports
coachesworking withathletes/playersorresearch involving studentsin an academic
setting.
Optional:Furtherinformation to justify answerto 6a
The researchanalyses student’s attitudestowardsadvertisementandthusislow risk
topic.
C6b. Are there any conflictsof interestswhichneedto be consideredand
addressed?
(Forexample,doesthe researchinvolve studentswhomyouteach,colleagues, fellow
students, familymembers?Doanyof the researchersorparticipantshave anyvested
interestinachievingaparticularoutcome? See section 9 of the Research Ethics Policy
(REP))
Answer: No
If conflictsof interestare envisaged,indicate how theyhave beenaddressed:
Althoughmyresearchwill involvestudents,the questionnaireisanonymousandno
studentswill have avestedinterestinthe researchtherefore thereshouldbe no
conflictsof interest.
C7. How will potential participants in the study be identified,approachedand
recruited?

58
Please includedetailsof:
 Basisfor selectionof participantsinthe study: e.g.participantsmustbe
clinically obeseadults;participantsmustbesocial workersover theage of 50;
participantsmusthaveachieved Grade5 in an appropriatemusicalinstrument
 Anycriteriafor exclusions(e.g. participantsdeclaring a heartproblem will be
excluded)
 How the selectioncriteriawill be applied e.g.Health questionnairecompleted
prior to joining thestudy
The meansby whichthe participantswill be recruited (e.g.through an advert,through
a school,through a sportsclub),please be specificaboutthe mediumof the
advertisement/recruitmentinformation (e.g.poster,email,website,socialmedia,
word of mouth) andmentionanythirdpartieswhomaybe involvedinsupportingthe
recruitment.
The criteriafor selectionisaChichesterUniversitystudentbetweenthe agesof 18-21.
Participantswill be recruitedbysocial mediaande mail.
C8. Will any payment,gifts, rewards or inducementsbe offeredtoparticipants to
take part in the study? See section 11 of the REP.
Answer: Yes
Please provide brief detailsandajustification:
Financial incentiveswere usedinordertomitigate againstpoorrespondentlevels.
All researchparticipantswouldbe putintoadraw where theyhave the chance to
wina giftcard valuedat£20.
C9a. Is the process of the study and/or its resultslikelyto produce distress,anxiety
or harm in the participants evenif this wouldbe what they wouldnormally
experience inyourwork with them?
See section 5 of theREP.
Answer: No
If you answeredYesto9a, please answer9bbelow:
C9b. Is the process ofthe study and/or its resultslikelyto produce distressor
anxietyin the participants beyondwhat theywould normallyexperience inyour
work with them?

59
Answer: No
If yesthis Applicationmustbe categorisedas‘B’
Please provide details:
N/A
C9c. Whatsteps will you take to deal withany distressor anxiety produced?
E.g. have a relevantprofessional on-handtosupportdistressed/anxiousparticipants.
Careful signpostingtocounsellingorotherrelevantprofessional services. Other
follow-upsupport.
N/A
C9d. What is the potential for benefittoresearch participants, ifany?
E.g. Participantsmaygainan increasedawarenessof some issue orsome aspectof
themselves.
The resultsfromstudentviewscouldsupport justificationof anew businessmodel
whichreplacescommercial advertisementwithproductplacementsinVODproviders.
If implementedstudentswouldhave agreaterconsumerexperience astheywouldbe
able to viewadvertisementhow theywishtooppose to inthe formof commercial
breakadvertisement.
C10. Will the study involve withholdinginformationor misleadingparticipantsas
part of itsmethodology? (Pleaserefer to sections6.11 and 10 of theREP for further
guidance)
Answer: No
If ‘yes’this Applicationmustbe categorisedas‘B’
Please provide details:
The reasoningbehindthe researchwillbe explainedtoall participantsbefore theyfill
out the questionnaire andtherefore will notbe misleadatanypoint.

60
C11a. Does your proposal raise other ethical issuesapart from the potential for
distress,anxiety,or harm?
Answer: No
C11b. If your answer to C11a. was ‘yes’,please brieflydescribe those ethical issues
and how you intendto mitigate themand/or manage them in the proposedstudy.
N/A
C11c Does your proposedstudy give rise to any potential risk of harm or distressto
yourselfor other members of the research team? OR is there any risk that you could
findyourselfin a vulnerable positionas you carry out your study.
Answer: No
If you answer‘yes’toeitherof these pointsplease explainbrieflywhatthe risksare
and whatstepsyouare taking inorder to minimiseandmanage those risks.
For example doesyourstudyinvolveyouin1-1 interviewsinaprivate settingthat
mightsuggestprecautionsneedtobe takenrelatingtolone-working(See section9of
the REP),Have youconsideredthe likelihoodof aparticipant(s) disclosingsensitive
informationtoyouaboutillegal orharmful behaviourandwhatactionsyouwould
take in suchcircumstances?
Questionnaire are self-administeredandtherefore reducepotential risk,howeverany
face to face situationsbythe researcherwillbe done inapublicplace oncampus such
as the library.
C12. Will informedconsentof the participants be obtainedand if so, how?
Answer: Yes
See section 6 of theREP to help you answerthisquestion. Section 6.2 coversresearch
thatinvolvesobserving behaviourin a public place wheregaining informed consent
may notbe practical or feasible.
When and howwill informed consentbeobtained?Will it be written or oral consent
bearing mind that oralconsentwill notbe considered adequateotherthan in
exceptionalcircumstancesand mustbeappropriately justified in yourapplication?
NB: Ethical approvalshould,asa principle,be soughtbeforeresearch participantsare
approached.

61
The online questionnaire will include acoverpage detailingthe purpose of the
research,theirexpectationssuchasconfidentiallyandanonymityasthuswill enable
informedconsentfromparticipants.
C13. Is there anyone whose permission shouldbe soughtin order to conduct your
study? E.g. Headteacherof a school, parents/guardiansof childparticipants.
Answer: No
When and howwill informed consent beobtained and fromwhom?Will it be written
or oral consentbearing mind thatoral consentwill not beconsidered adequateother
than in exceptionalcircumstancesand mustbeappropriately justified in your
application? If you are seeking to gain ‘loco parentis’consentfroma schoolrather
than seeking individualparentalconsentpleasedescribe yourreasoning.
N/A
C14. Do you needto seekthe permissionof any other organisations,individualsor
groups other than outlinedinsection 13? E.g.the ResearchEthicsCommittee of
partneror participatingorganisations. Organisationslike the NHSandthe Prison
Service have specificsystemsforgrantingethical approvalforresearch.
Answer: No
Please notethatall applicationsmustgo through theUniversity of Chichester
Application forEthical Approvalprocessand thatthey mustmeet theResearch Ethics
Policy (REP) requirements. Otherprior approvalwill betaken into accountbutwill not
in itself be sufficientto gain University Research Ethics Approval. Each application
mustnormally be accompanied by evidence(e.g.formalstatementfromthe
appropriateEthicsCommittee) confirming approvalby theexternalbody (and any
concerns/issuesidentified).In caseswherean externalbody requiresprior approval
fromthe UniversityResearch Ethics Policy (such assomeNHS work) theResearch
Ethics Committee(REC) may grantin principle approvalpending written confirmation
of ethical approvalby the externalbody.
Please describethe permission thatis required and how you will be seeking that
permission:Pleaseattach any relevantdocumentation e.g.letter, thatrelates to the
seeking of the relevant permissions.
N/A

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