The impact of emerging technology influences product placement effectiveness: a scoping study from interactive marketing perspective

Interactive marketing (IM) has influenced commercial communication, including product placement (PP), which has become an essential form of integrating brands within the mass media. Existing research on PP has exceeded traditional TV and movies, and there is a lack of reviews considering the advanced technological perspectives. This scoping study aims to investigate PP in the context of IM and explore relations between technology-related factors and the effects of placement.

The scoping study follows a systematic approach with strictly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, research questions and a search strategy to identify relevant studies and extract the data. A two-stage screening process on 713 publications resulted in 42 studies for the final examination.

The results complemented existing theory by identifying and synthesizing the essential technology-related factors and their (un)favorable impacts on PP effectiveness, where interactivity was examined the most frequently. The results also outlined the (un)explored concepts of PP according to media technology and related factors, and show a prevailing research interest in in-game advertising and cognitive responses. Accordingly, the study provides implications for marketers and directions for future research.

This review is the first to examine PP studies in the context of IM and technology-related factors influencing the effect of placement.