Brand integration in the plot and identification with characters : a research into the relationships between plot integrations of brands and viewer’s identification with characters on brand attitude, product attributes

Brand Integration In The Plot And Identification With Characters

A Research into the relationships between plot integrations of brands and viewer’s

identification with characters on brand attitude, product attributes and enjoyment.

Master’s Thesis

Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication Science

Laurence Thomas Anthony Janssen

Student number: 10284990 Supervisor:

Gert-Jan de Bruijn

29 JANUARI 2016

Abstract

This research explores the effects of different forms of brand integration in a branded

YouTube user video, and testes for an interaction effect of identification with characters on

brand attitude, product attribute attitudes and video enjoyment. Based on an experiment, the

research was conducted among (N = 80) participants, testing the hypotheses with a 2x2

between-subject design using an edited video of popular Dutch YouTubers varying in brand integration

(weak / strong) and determining a participant’s level of identification with the characters (no

identification / strong identification). Results of brand integration were positive on brand

attitude, product attribute attitudes and video enjoyment, but they were not significantly different

between weak or strong integration stimuli. There was only a significant interaction effect of

brand integration, where strong brand integration causes higher positive brand attitudes for

people who do not identify with the main characters. Identification has significant direct effects,

strong identification with the characters leads to significantly higher brand attitudes. Identifying

strongly with the main character results in significantly higher positive brand attitudes, product

attribute attitudes and video enjoyment, compared to neutral or mild positive effects of people

who do not identify with the characters. Being subscribed to the YouTube channel also leads to

increased video enjoyment. This research concludes that using weak or strong brand integration

is equally beneficial for an advertiser. In the case that one knows that there are a lot of people

who do not identify with the main characters, then using strong brand integration is

recommended. When viewers identify strongly with the characters brand integration in the plot

Foreword

I express my gratitude towards my supervisor Gert-Jan de Bruijn who challenged me and pushed

me to exceed. Through his guidance I am pleased to able to present my thesis. Another

honourable mention is Mediakraft, in allowing me the freedom to concentrate on my thesis;

allowing me to use the Ponkers material and helping me find respondents. Lastly, I thank the

University of Amsterdam for all the knowledge and personal experiences that I have learned

during my Bachelor and Master. These lessons I’ve learned during this period of my life in

which my alma mater has had a profound impact, will be the foundation on which I will build

my professional life.

Introduction

People have become wary of advertisements and find new means to subconsciously and

consciously avoid them (Knowles & Linn, 2004). Advertisers can continue making traditional

advertisements or be creative, how about watching an incredible music video where Zeus fights

Thor in stop-motion? LEGO did that in cooperation with a famous YouTube channel ‘Epic

Rapbattles of History’ (Shukoff & Ahlquist, 2014). In a music video where the entire new LEGO catalogue is integrated it has drawn (to date) more than 25 million views. ‘Epic Rapbattles of

History’ regularly makes parodies where online audiences flock to, reaching between 20 to a 100 million views, some of the videos are branded while the majority are not. This raises questions

how effective brands integrated into creator content can be.

Product placements have been applied in movies as early as the 1920s (Newell, Salmon, &

Chang, 2006) despite that academic research started in the early 1990s. Expanding the field to

television (Gould & Gupta, 2006), movies (Gould, Gupta & Grabner-Krӓuter, 2000) and

videogames (Kuhn, Pope & Voges, 2007). A natural step from an academic viewpoint is to

YouTube user content that contains product placements and brand integrations are

effectively generating value and returns for advertisers. The societal relevance of this research is

how brand integration in YouTube user content can be made more effective for advertisers. This

is done by studying the effects of different forms of brand integration on brand attitude, attitudes

towards product traits and video enjoyment. The effects on video enjoyment are studied to

determine potential issues for YouTube content creator that want to integrate brands.

These YouTube users who create the content are often the main characters in their own

videos. Understanding how this relationship between user and viewer can affect the strength of

brand integration is of importance. Having the knowledge how to integrate a brand in the most

effective way using character identification allows for advertisers possibilities to create more

compelling YouTube video campaigns. Entertainment education messages have shown increased

persuasiveness by lowering viewer’s resistance towards it (Slater & Rouner, 2002), using

identification their favourite characters as a method for people to adopt new attitudes (Cohen,

2001; Eyal & Rubin, 2003). Identifying strongly with a YouTube video character should have

positive effects on brands that are strongly integrated with the associated characters.

Fusing product placement research and entertainment education research this study tries to

expand the scientific field by uncovering the role of identification with a character in branded

content in an experimental set-up. The latter is summarized for this research into the main

research question:

RQ: To what extent does integration of a brand in the plot of the video affect the attitudes

towards the brand, the perceived product attributes, the enjoyment of the YouTube user video

Theoretical Framework

To understand why researching the effects of brand integration in online videos is

beneficial, one needs to be aware of the previous research into product placements.

Balasubramanian (1994) determined that there are different forms of hybrid messages used for

advertising purposes, these messages are paid for, but hidden and intend to influence the

audience with persuasive cues. Product placements were defined by Balasubramanian (1994) as

messages that are meant to influence the audience through unobtrusive placements that have a

symbiotic relationship with the moviemaker and the product sponsor.

Brief History Of Product Placements Research

The use of product placement is not a recent occurrence and has been done for more than

century, the first placements were done in 1892 (Newell, Salmon, & Chang, 2006). Friedman

(1985; 1986) concluded that the use of brands in popular media such as songs and books grew a

500 fold between 1940 and 1970, however the deliberately planned and payed placements started

mostly from the late 1970s and in the 1980s the placements became more intricate with

advertisers exerting more control on the message. Due to the rapid growth of this advertising

vehicle product placements became a popular topic during the eighties and were greatly

discussed in professional media (Winski, 1982; Lipman, 1989), but empirical scientific research

into this topic was lacking. The potential risk of viewers’ incapability in differentiating between

an advertising message and informational content when product placements are used was

addressed seriously in the early eighties (Boddewyn, 1982). As the scientific field scrambled to

understand how this form of advertising was perceived only a few studies such as Steortz (1987)

tried to quantify the effectivity of product placements.

The scientific literature on this form of advertising surged in the nineties and continued

researched and how viewers evaluated this form of advertising. The majority of viewers have no

objection to the use of unobtrusive product placements, showing that the correct integration into

the content is essential in generating positivity towards the product placements (Nebenzahl and

Secunda, 1993). Prior to that research it was assumed that people would hold a negative attitude

towards product placements because of their perceived deceptive nature, the subtle unobtrusive

nature of product placements was preferred compared to the disruptive nature of traditional

advertising. It is therefore essential to understand how different forms of product placements can

be defined.

Product Placements Defined

Prior to 1998 researchers struggled in finding strong and consistent results of product

placements effects because they could not grasp the similarities and differences in product

placements (McCarthy, 2004). The research of Gupta and Lord (1998) was deemed a significant

advancement in understanding this modality and focused on differences between product

placement prominence, which is the variation in which a product is placed in the focal point of

attention. The research concluded that product placement prominence has significant effects on

recall; the more a product is prominently displayed the better it is explicitly recalled (Gupta &

Lord, 1998). These conclusions and their approach have been used as a foundation for many

other studies, amongst them the highly regarded researches of Russel (1998; 2002). Russel’s

(1998) theoretical concept of ‘the triparte typology of product placement’ presented a three

dimensional construct: A brand can be just a visual appearance on the screen in the background

(screen placement), have an auditory presence by being mentioned with an audio cue (script

placement) and the degree in which it is connected to the plot (plot placement). This construct

was tested and expanded in Russel’s (2002) research to understand the effects of congruency

between modality and plot connection. This research lead to conclusions stating that maximizing

following assumption: That a disruptive message would be recalled better, but by the fact of

being disruptive negates the desired increase in positive brand attitudes.

Influencing Attitudes Through Product Placements

Understanding how one can achieve desired attitudinal effects with product placements,

lies in accepting that increasing explicit recall should not be the goal of product placements.

Placements do not need to be explicitly remembered to cause a positive attitudinal impact,

placements that are remembered well even result in adverse reactance effects (Matthes, Schemer

& Wirth, 2007). A similar effect was found with the research of Van Reijmersdal, Smit and

Neijens (2010) which showed that more prominent placements cause increased recognition, but

do not influence affective responses. Having positive attitudes towards a video game and being

involvement with it leads to positive affective responses towards a brand. Manipulating

involvement with viewers is difficult in movies and one needs to seek a method in which one can

retain the positive attitudinal effects towards the content, to cause positive brand effects. It is

therefore essential to position placements in the right manner. Product placements can become

more persuasive when integrated (Knowles & Linn, 2004), but what is correct integration?

Plot Integration

Connection to the plot is essential to achieve positive attitudinal effects (Russel, 1998), by

a plot placement resistance of the message by the viewer is lowered. Having a strong integration

of the brand into the content leads to less disruption, and increases the immersion in the program

and bond with the character. Product placements can lead to positive brand perceptions and to

achieve these results no explicit recognition of the brand is needed (Van Reijmersdal, Neijens &

Smit, 2007). It is therefore important to understand how this process of influence works with the

explicit recognition is not required to foster positive attitudinal effects, one needs to investigate

how messages are best construed and what the reasons are behind the negative evaluations.

Persuasion Knowledge And Persuasive Intent

When users are constantly exposed to subtle product placements they learn to cope with

them and to negate their persuasive intent. According to Friestad and Wright’s (1994) persuasion

knowledge model (PKM), people’s persuasion knowledge develops over time and adapts to the

persuasive strategies they encounter. Persuasion knowledge can be learned through others,

personal experiences and observing known persuasion agents. They note that people’s attitudes towards the persuasion agent and their message changes the more they know and understand of

the attempt to persuade them. The PKM builds upon the knowledge of the two parties when a

persuasion episode occurs. Both the agent and the target have (some) topical knowledge,

persuasion knowledge and agent/target knowledge. The agent uses this in his persuasion attempt,

while the target uses it in their persuasion coping behaviour.

People who like a YouTube program hold stronger negative attitudes towards the brand in

subtle product placements as they recognise the (deceptive) persuasive intent (Verhellen, Dens &

de Pelsmacker, 2013). Using a known celebrity as a host in a YouTube program caused priming,

participants in the research recognised the celebrity in a video that normally would not involve

one, leading to assumptions that a celebrity was there with the sole purpose to persuade

(Verhellen, Dens & de Pelsmacker, 2013).

To negate the effects of reactance, advertisers increasingly use subtle product placements.

By increasing persuasion knowledge of the viewers Campbell, Mohr and Verlegh (2012) tried to

thwart the persuasive attempts. They found that only asking people to be aware of unrelated

placements lowers brand attitude in all other conditions there were no negative effects,

did not use strong integrated placements in their research but focused on the subtlety of the

placement, showing that unrelated subtle placements are a sore to the eye.

The PKM shows that people learn and develop new strategies to counter persuasive

strategies aimed at them, therefore using deceptive and subtle product placements is only a

temporary solution for advertisers. When people become aware that the program they watch

contains product placements they start to scrutinize the relevancy of the placement in the context

of the message, leading to a lowered attitude towards the brand. When brand integration is done,

is relevant and does not disrupt the viewer’s experience positive effects on attitudes should occur.

With the growth and popularity of online media advertisers spur to find new possibilities.

The most popular free online video platform is YouTube and it shares many similarities in the

form of its content, being short or long videos, with television or movies. Previous studies that

have researched those media would be (partially) applicable in determining the effects and forms

of product placements as stated before in this study.

Online media platforms, such as YouTube, users share their content with others, leading to

some users becoming more influential than others (Bakshy, 2011). Influential users are

frequently approached by companies to incorporate advertising messages into their content

(Lawry, 2013). The content these influential users make usually involves non-branded content.

When brands are increasingly advertised by these influential users, how do the recipients

evaluate the message? Through social media consumers have become to rely on the opinion of

fellow users for product information and recommendations (Cheong & Morrison, 2008). When

brands are placed obtrusively and viewers become aware of persuasive messages, these

of product placements in YouTube user videos. Strong integration of a brand into the content

should lead to positive brand attitudes, introducing the first hypothesis:

H1a: A YouTube user video with a strong brand integration in the story will have a more positive effect on the brand attitude, than a brand placed in a YouTube video with weak

integration in the story

Product Attributes Attitudes

The method of how a product is placed in a video can have different effects on the attitudes

that viewers have towards specific product attributes. As discussed earlier, prominent placements

of products lead to negative attitudes, the strongest positive attitudinal effects occur when a

brand is subtly integrated with a strong plot connection (Dens, de Pelsmacker, Wouters &

Purnawiran, 2012). Using strong plot integration is essential in persuading viewers to create

specific attitudes towards product traits, without plot integration viewers might only build

positive attitudes towards the brand. In the recent James Bond movie ‘Spectre’ (Wilson,

Broccoli, & Mendes, 2015) an Omega watch is introduced at the beginning of the movie which

is eventually used as a weapon in a plot device to free him from the villain. If the watch was not

used as a plot device it would not have created positive attitudes; when a product is used by

characters as a strong plot vehicle it builds attitudes through associative learning (Russel &

Stern, 2006). Understanding how these attitudes are learned can be explained through

Kruschke’s (2001) EXIT model, a continuation on Mackintosh’s (1975) theory of attention. The EXIT model determines how a cue’s associative strength can influence learning depending the context of a cue (in this research a product placement), the amount of attention that is given to it

and one’s pre-existing associations which can block or aid the learning process. Using the James bond example it is explained in context: Using the watch as a plot device draws one’s attention,

associations may manifest. The associations that one has of James Bond would be connected

with the watch, the association of the watch being a weapon is blocked due to pre-existing

knowledge of the use of watches. Integrating a product placement in a plot allows for a stronger

association to be established between the plot and product attributes. Therefore the second

hypothesis is:

H1b: A YouTube user video with a strong product integration in the story will have a more positive effect on the attitude towards product attributes, than a product placed in the video with

weak integration in the story.

Video Enjoyment

Since the 1990s studies have covered many different subjects related to product

placements, the perception of product placement use, different placement types and the effect of

placements in different forms of media. There is however barely any scientific research that tries

to explain the effects of product placements on the enjoyment of the content in which they are

placed.

Enjoyment is constructed out of affective feelings towards the actors and cognitive

responses caused by assessment of the actions within the story and the actors (Raney & Bryant,

2002). One of the key element of enjoyment is that individuals are drawn into the story world by

narrative transportation and identification with the characters (Green, Brock & Kaufman, 2004).

The degree of transportation into the narrative is paramount in increasing the persuasive effects

of narratives (Green & Brock, 2002). Media enjoyment is however a difficult concept to grasp

precisely (Nabi & Krcmar, 2004), there are multiple similar concepts that are used such as

attraction (Sparks & Sparks, 2000), appreciation (Tamborini & Stiff, 1987), preference (Weaver,

1991) and liking (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2000). Enjoyment draws more to the intricate definition

cognitive components, valence and measurement specificity (Nabi & Krcmar, 2004). Income

generated from product placements is required for the continuation of commercial programs,

however one needs to be ware if is at the loss of a viewer’s enjoyment. Previous research has

stated that the use of product placements in movies and tv-programs is accepted, as long as it

does not disrupt the viewing experience.

The appropriateness and relevancy of a placement is essential in creating positive attitudes

towards the brand, the placement and the program itself. When a gameshow regularly uses

products in a format a product can be placed without disrupting a viewer’s experience, whilst the

use of product placements in movies is accepted by viewers when it fits realistically within the

context (Gould & Gupta, 2006; Bhatanagar, Aksoy & Malkoc, 2004), placements that are not

strongly integrated into the storyline will raise suspicion and raise scrutiny.Consumers are

sceptical towards brand claims and will start doubting them when it evokes a sense of persuasive

intent, preferring defined sponsorships over subversive advertising (Obermiller, Spangenber, &

Maclachlan, 2005). When brands are not integrated within a message they ‘clash’ within their

surrounding making them unnaturally prominent to the viewer, when brands are perceived in

such a way they tend to elicit negative attitudes towards the movie (DeLorme & Reid, 1999).

Triggers that disrupt the experience that negatively affect the enjoyment of the content.

Therefore the stronger a brand is integrated into the program, the lesser it disrupts experience

and leads unhindered enjoyment of the content compared to weakly integrated placements. This

introduces the third sub-hypothesis:

H1c: A YouTube user video with weak brand integration in the story will have a more negative effect on the enjoyment of the program, than a brand strongly integrated into the story.

Moderating brand attitude. The identification of a viewer with the character is crucial in

understanding the persuasiveness of a message. According to Cohen (2001) identification is

closely linked to five other concepts: parasocial interaction (PSI), imitation, liking, similarity and

affinity. These concepts have different approaches in the role of the viewer in the narrative.

Identification entails an absorption in the text where one interprets it as their own experience.

While PSI, liking, similarity and affinity the position of the viewer is from their ‘own’ and is drawn by attachment to the character and affectional reasons. The role of narrative involvement

is essential in overcoming the resistance to persuasive messages (Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010).

The more a person is drawn into the narrative and the characters their motivation to resist the

message is lowered (Moyer-Gusé, 2008). As discussed earlier the incorporation of branded

messages, such as product placements, should have negative effects caused by reactance. The

stronger the sense of identification (Cohen, 2001) with the character it should amplify the effects

of a message that is unobtrusively integrated into the story (Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010).

Absorption creates engagement but identification defines the way in which it is experienced.

Identification with the media character is at the basis of understanding and accepting the

character’s beliefs and attitudes leading to the alteration of the people experiencing it (Tal-Or & Cohen, 2010). When a character is using a brand, especially when it plays an important role in

the plot the character it becomes an endorser of the product. Based upon this prior research one

assumes that viewers that have a high feeling of identification with the character should have a

more positive attitude towards the brand when it is highly integrated in the story. Therefore

sub-hypothesis two is introduced:

H2a: A viewer that identifies strongly with a main character in the video will have a more positive attitude towards the brand in a YouTube user video with a strong story integration,

Moderating product attribute attitudes. The attitudes that one holds towards a character

determine what kind of brands and products would befit a character. The familiarity that one has

with the source , which is the pre-existing knowledge one has of the source plays an important

role in determining if the brand connection feels ‘natural’ (Erdogan, 1999). Brands and endorsers should augment one other (Kamins, 1990) by having a strong match between the endorser and

the product depending on each their similarities (Till & Busler, 1998), when there is a positive

association it transfers from the character to the brand. The stronger the viewers’ feeling towards

a character the more important it becomes to have a congruent match-up between character and

brand, because a strong identification with a character or a celebrity leads to the adoption of

behaviour (McCracken, 1986). An example of that is when viewers perceive a character to

product association as strong, a negative outing towards a product by a character leads to

alignment of the attitudes of the viewers (Russel & Stern, 2006). Viewers that identify strongly

with their characters are able to remember in detail the products and traits they have, when a

brand can be naturally integrated into that kind of content positive attitudes towards product

traits occur (Russel, Norman & Heckler, 2004). Therefore one would assume that the stronger

the identification with the character is, using highly integrated placements more product

attributes are learned.

H2b: A viewer that identifies strongly with a main character in the video will have a more positive attitude towards product attributes in a YouTube user video with a strong story

integration, compared to a video with a weak story integration.

Moderating video enjoyment. As discussed with hypothesis H1c when a disruption

occurs it leads to a break in narrative transportation and identification with the character, causing

less enjoyment of the content. People who have high program liking pay more attention to the

details and therefore consciously elaborate the subtle persuasive cues in the content (Cowley &

attitudes towards brands are affected negatively with subtle placements. People that enjoy a

specific kind of content are likely to enjoy other similar content and might become heavy

consumers of that type of media, when people consume more of the similar content they build

pre–existing judgements and act on them (Busselle, 2001). Viewers learn from the content they

watch, and when they have a strong relationship with the character or the program recognition of

incongruences or subtle persuasive cues that have weak integration trigger reactance. The more

people identify with a character the more they have associations and expectations from them. A

similar effects were found by Verhellen, Dens and De Pelsmacker (2013) in their experimental

study using YouTube videos. Using a celebrity with subtle placements compared to integrating it

into the content lead to a disturbing and unpleasant experience of the viewer, therefore the final

hypothesis is:

H2c: A viewer that identifies strongly with a main character in the video they will enjoy the YouTube user video less positively when the brand is weakly integrated, compared to a video

Brand integratio n in story H1b H1c H1a H2a H2b H2c Brand attitude

Attitude towards product attributes

Program enjoyment Identification with

main character Figure 1, theoretical model

with strong story integration.

Method

Sampling

Most of the participants were gathered through a convenience sample of people known to

the researcher, these people were asked to participate either through e-mail or Facebook. A

sizable portion of the respondents were acquired through social media posts of the group Ponkers

who’s videos were used as stimulus material. In the stimulus material Dutch was spoken therefore the questionnaire was held in Dutch. In total there were N = 80 complete responses

after missing data was eliminated. 62.5% of the respondents were women, the average age was

(M = 24 , SD = 9.82). The education distribution was 30.8% university level, 20.5% applied

sciences, 24.4% vocational education and high school 17.9%. Out of all the participants 70%

were aware of the Doritos challenge before seeing the stimulus video, 46% had seen the original

video of Ponkers before and 60% were subscribed to the Ponkers YouTube channel.

Experimental Design

The experiment used a 2x2 (product placement is integrated or not integrated into the story

and if people identify themselves highly or little with the characters in the video) factor between

subjects design. When the participant started the online questionnaire they were made aware of

the regulations of ASCOR, they were asked twice to confirm that they were at least 18 years of

age, understand and accept the ASCOR regulations. Then participants were randomly assigned

to one of the four conditions with their own version of the cover story and stimulus material and

ask them to completely watch the following video. The video did not have controls for the

viewer to operate and skip parts of the video with the only option to progress when a minimum

to the stimulus or not. Immedi ately after the video the

respondents were asked to fill in a questionnaire, this was identical for each group. This

consisted out of four questions that will

Table 1

measure the dependent and independent variables, identification and enjoyment questions

were the first two and brand and product attitudes were the last two. The brand and product

attribute questions were deliberately placed last to make sure that the respondents would not be

primed. The list of sub-questions was randomised for each respondent to increase internal

validity.

Research Instrument

There are two independent variables in this research: If the product placement is or isn’t

integrated into the video and if people have a low or high feeling of identification with the main

characters in the video. Interaction was manipulated in the cover story and the video whilst

identity is a personality trait. Through a median split respondents will be placed into two equal

groups: ‘high identification with characters’ and ‘low identification with characters.’

Product Placement Integration

Time of exposure IV: Integration t1 t2 Level 1

No PP integration into story R X O1

Level 2

PP integrated into story R X O2

The differences in the operationalisation of product placement integration was done

through using and re-editing an existing video of a known group of Dutch YouTube creators

‘Ponkers.’ Multiple videos were analysed of other Dutch and international creators, the video ‘WET T-SHIRT bij DORITOS ROULETTE CHALLENGE! - #GEINIG’ (Ponkers, 2015) was used due to the ease of editing the material to befit the research and willingness to cooperate

from the creator. The group that was exposed to the weak integrated placement version had a

cover story that explained it was a hot summer and Ponkers (the creators of the video) wanted to

make a video having that as the theme. The group that had the brand integrated into the storyline

said that Doritos asked Ponkers to participate in a Russian roulette like challenge. Immediately

after the cover story the stimulus material was shown.

The original video was shortened to keep the attention of the respondents, whilst still

retaining the same message of the original. In the ‘weak integration into storyline’ material all

the segments were cut from the original video that would make Doritos relevant in the video and

integral to the plot. The opposite was done in the ‘integrated into plot’ material, keeping the

explanations why Doritos Chips were used and were essential for this video. In the plot

integration video the audience was deliberately made aware that Ponkers were going to do the

Doritos roulette challenge in the first 60 seconds of the video saying: “We are going to do the

Doritos roulette challenge, these roulette chips are supposed to be very hot and we are going to

take turns to see who has eaten the hot chip.” At the end of the video one of the characters finished by saying: “We finished the Doritos roulette challenge, now it is up to you.” Both videos were embedded into the Qualtrics software in such a manner that there were no controls

for the viewers to skip sections of the video. Respondents had to watch the video for at least 180

seconds (out of 480), to guarantee that the respondents had or hadn’t seen the stimulus, before a

seconds after exposure to the stimulus or at the similar time in the weak integration condition,

this was done to increase response rate and increase the feeling of control to the participant.

Identification With The Main Characters

To measure to what extent a respondent identified themselves with the main characters the

identification scale of Cohen (2001) was used. As explained before identification is closely

linked to other concepts (PSI, imitation, liking, similarity and affinity), differing in their

conceptualization of the stance of the viewer in the narrative. Identification encompasses

absorption in the medium where one interprets it as their own experience, while the other

concepts see the viewer as a separate distant entity drawn by character for affectional reasons.

The scale of Cohen (2001) is considered reliable and has been used in a variety of different

studies (Moyer-Gusé, 2008; Bussele & Bilandzic, 2008; Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010; Tal-Or &

Cohen, 2010). It consists of ten questions on a seven point Likert scale and were adapted and

translated into Dutch for this research. A few examples of translated and adapted questions are:

“Terwijl ik de video van Ponkers keek voelde het alsof ik onderdeel was van de actie”, “Tijdens het zien van de video leefde ik met de hoofdpersonen mee”, “tijdens het zien van de video voelde ik de emoties die de personen lieten zien”. The ten questions were analysed with a factor

analysis resulting in loadings between .640 and .872, these results load on one item with an

eigenvalue 6.279, explaining 62.79% of variance. Analysing the nine question for reliability

resulted in a very reliable scale (α = .93), an improvement of .002 could be made if one item

were deleted. The selected questions were then recoded into the overarching variable

‘mean_identification’ scores and divided into two groups (high and low) in the ‘HL_identification’ variable using a median split (Mdn = 4.90).

Brand Attitude

Brand attitude is measured using the brand attitude scale of Spears and Singh (2004),

conceptualizing brand attitude as: “A relative enduring, unidimensional summary evaluation of

the brand” (Spears & Singh, p55, 2004). It is important to note that a brand attitude is an

evaluation of the properties of the brand that should last, not be fleeting as feelings towards a

brand. Drawing upon the hedonic and utilitarian aspects of a product attitude measurement

(Batra & Ahtola, 1991) that distinguish the pleasant associations with the perceived usefulness of

a product. Lacking a common scale to measure brand attitude Spears and Singh (2004)

conducted a study to determine the essential items out of a pool of 52 items used in previous

research. Out of the 52 items seven items were retained: unappealing/appealing, bad/good,

unpleasant/pleasant, unfavourable/favourable, unlikable/likable, unsatisfactory /satisfactory,

disagreeable/agreeable. They ranged from one to seven on a semantic scale. The components did

not have a value lower than .90 and the entire scale had a Cronbach’s alpha of .97 making it a

very reliable scale (Spears & Singh, 2004).

These seven questions were translated into Dutch and re-analysed to measure if the scale

was equally as strong as in the original research. Due to using Qualtrics software to distribute the

survey a warning was given that semantic scales would be unadvisable to use on mobile devices,

a seven point Likert scale was used instead. Testing with a factor analysis five of the questions

had loadings between .718 and .884. When calculating a reliability analysis with all the questions

it lead to a Crohnbach’s alpha of .92 making it a very reliable scale, close to the original value (α

= .97) of Spears and Singh (2004). No further improvement was possible. These results load on

one item with an eigenvalue of 4.059 that explains 67.65% of variance. The selected questions

were then recoded into the overarching variable ‘brand attitude.’

Attitudes Towards Product Attributes

context of placement. Mitchell and Olson (1981) used facial tissue advertisements because they

are simple products perceived to be low involvement products, therefore the product attributes

can be easily determined from the advertising by the viewer. This required the researcher to seek

a YouTube user video that incorporated a low involvement product for advertising purposes.

Doritos roulette chips were used in the ‘WET T-SHIRT bij DORITOS ROULETTE

CHALLENGE! - #GEINIG’ (Ponkers, 2015) which is a new product that is being marketed as:

‘a very hot and exiting chip.’ To determine the measurement of the attributes associated with the Doritos chips product attributes in previous studies were researched resulting in: flavour,

strength of flavour (Mazis, Ahtola & Klippel, 1975), attractiveness of flavour, quality, sensory

appeal, uniqueness of product (Martin, 1998). These attributes were adapted to befit the Doritos

roulette chips and translated into Dutch resulting in six questions that would measure the attitude

towards the product attributes.

Analysing the questions with a factor analysis two components had an eigenvalue higher

than one. Using a Varimax rotation all questions scored at least .531 per component they were

loaded on. Questions ‘perceived spiciness of the chips’ and ‘eating the chips would be exiting’

loaded on component two (eigenvalue = 1.108 explaining 18.46% of variance) while the other

five loaded on the first component (eigenvalue = 2.776 explaining 46.26% of variance). It is

probable that the questions load differently because they are exactly split as taken from their

original studies. Component one seems to measure ‘desirable attributes’ (attractiveness of flavour, quality, uniqueness, sensory appeal), instead of component two ‘thrilling attributes’

(spiciness and eating the chips is exiting) of Doritos roulette chips.

The scale ‘thrilling attributes’ based on two questions had a Cronbach’s alpha of .56, making it unreliable. ‘Desirable attributes’ scored a Cronbach’s alpha of .73 which is less than

of the scale and is therefore kept. The value ‘desirable attributes’ is then computed, ‘thrilling attributes’ is left out of this research.

Video Enjoyment

As discussed in the theoretical framework enjoyment encompasses affective and cognitive

components, valence and measurement specificity (Nabi & Krcmar, 2004). Enjoyment is

dependent on audience inputs (affective and cognitive values), which affect the message inputs

(character actions and sequence evaluation) leading to judgment of the characters and the

sequence, how these overlap with the judgement of the scene lead to enjoyment of the viewer.

Raney and Bryant (2002) measured enjoyment with an eight items on an eleven point scale, 0

being the lowest and 11 the highest. All items loaded on one factor (eigenvalue 5.9) with a

minimal factor loading of .83 and leading to a very reliable scale (α = .94). A question that related to future intentions was removed because it was not relevant for the research, the

remaining ones were translated into Dutch. The final adaptation to the original scale was that the

scoring was reduced from 11 points to 7 on a Likert scale to make it more practical for

respondents to answer the questions on their mobile phones. Using a factor analysis two

questions were removed because they had a loading lower than .450, four out of the remaining

five questions their component values between .805 and .923 with one exception ‘in the video

the acting is done well’ has a value of .524. When these six questions are analysed for reliability they all load on one item with an eigenvalue of 3.77 explaining 62.84% of variance. The

program enjoyment scale is very reliable (α = .88) with a possible improvement to .90 when the

acting question is deleted, this marginal improvement is not worth the loss of the data. The

Statistical Tests

A Pearson correlation analysis is used to determine if there are significant relationships

between the dependent variables (interval/ratio) and control variables (interval/ratio),

Spearman’s correlation is used with dichotomous control variables. In the case of significant

relationships a univariate analysis or a Chi-Square analysis (dependent on variables used) is run

to determine if there are indeed significant differences per conditions. Education had to be

recoded for this into a dichotomous variable (high / low) and was done as stipulated by the Dutch

centre of statistics (CBS, 2006). A covariate was determined, resulting in using a MANOVA for

the final statistical test.

Results

When controlling for alternative explanations different baseline variables were found to

significantly correlate with the three dependent variables (see tables 2 in appendix). Due to the

amount of covariates that should be integrated in the MANOVA test were run to understand if

there are significant differences between the four conditions, making sure no unnecessary

covariates would be used which would lower the power of the statistical analyses. The results

show that the majority of baseline variables differ among the four conditions as the previous

bivariate analyses have shown and should therefore be included as covariates (see tables 3 in

appendix). Further research was required to understand why these differences occurred and were

explained by the baseline variable ‘subscribed to Ponkers Y/N.’ Due to the cooperation with the YouTube channel Ponkers their fan base was directly approached by Ponkers to participate in the

experiment, this lead to a majority of respondents being subscribed to the YouTube channel.

Testing for the dependencies between being a subscriber of Ponkers and the baseline variables,

lead to strong significant results (see tables 4). When someone is a Ponkers subscriber one is

4 4,25 4,5 4,75 5 5,25 5,5

No Integration Strong Integration

Brand Attitude Interaction Effect

Low ID High ID

Figure 2

challenge’ prior to the experiment, when compared to people who were not subscribers. These results explain the significant correlations run between the baseline variables and the dependent

variables and the differences between the four experimental conditions, therefore ‘subscribed to Ponkers Y/N’ was used as the only covariate in the MANOVA.

Hypothesis 1a is rejected, it stated that a YouTube user video with a strong brand

integration in the story will have a more positive effect on the brand attitude, than a brand placed

in a YouTube video with weak integration in the story. No significant effects were found (R² =

.158, F(1, 80) = 1.598, p = .210, η² = .021), therefore there is no direct relationship between

brand integration and brand attitude.

Similarly hypothesis 1b is rejected. No significant results were found for this hypothesis

(R² = .612, F(1, 80) = 1.956, p = .163, η² = .015)), a YouTube user video with a strong product

integration in the story does not directly lead to a higher attitude towards product attributes, than

a product placed in the video with weak integration in the story.

Hypothesis 1c is rejected as well, a YouTube user video with weak brand integration in the

story does not directly lead to a negatively affect program enjoyment, than a brand strongly

integrated into the story (R² = .211, F(1, 80) = 1.109, p = .296, η² = .026).

Identification with the main character does lead

to significant results, however not completely as

theorised in the aforementioned theoretical framework.

Hypothesis 2a is partially accepted. Hypothesis 2a

assumed that a viewer that identifies strongly with a

attitude towards the brand in a YouTube user video with a strong story integration, compared to

a video with weak story integration. There is however a direct effect of identification on brand

attitude (R² = .158, F(1, 80) = 8.492, p = .005, η² = .102) and brand integration plays a near

significant interaction effect (F(1, 80) = 3.652, p = .060, η² = .046) see figure 2 how the latter is

illustrate. Do note that in both cases there is a very low associative value. People that identify

strongly with the main characters have a significant higher brand attitude (M = 5.81, SD = .71)

than people who do not (M = 3.87, SD = 1.21). When taking the interaction effect of brand

integration into account it shows that using highly integrated brands is beneficial when ‘low identification’ viewers are reached, who switch from a neutral brand attitude brand after exposure (low integration) (M = 4.07, SD = 1.33) to a slightly more positive brand attitude

(strong integration) (M = 4.87, SD = .92). Integration does not affect strong identification

viewers who in both conditions have high positive brand attitudes (M H ID & NOT integrated = 5.38, SD

= 1.17; M H ID & integrated = 5.22, SD = 1.06).

Hypotheses 2b is partially accepted, it assumed that a viewer that identifies strongly with a

main character in the video will have a more positive attitude towards product attributes in a

YouTube user video with a strong story integration, compared to a video with weak story

integration. There is no significant interaction effect between identification and integration (F(1,

80) = 2.170 p = .145, η² = .028), but there is a significant direct effect of identification on

attitudes on ‘desirable product attributes’ (R² = .211, F(1, 80) = 16.469, p < .001, η² = .104). People who identify strongly with the main characters have a significantly higher positive

attitude towards the product attributes (M = 5.33, SD = 1.05) than people who have ‘low

identification’ neutral attitudes (M = 4.31, SD = 1.16). Do note that an Eta-Squared of .10 indicates a very weak associative value.

YouTube user video less positively when the brand is not integrated, compared to a video with

strong story integration. As stated before there is no direct effect of integration on enjoyment,

however there is a direct effect of identification (F(1, 80) = 38.469, p < .001, η² = .339) which is

moderate in associative strength and being a subscriber to the channel on video enjoyment (F(1,

80) = 13.669, p < .001, η² = .154), which is weak in associative strength. There is no significant

interaction effect between identification and brand integration as initially hypothesised (F(1, 80)

= 2.303, p = .133, η² = .030), hence there is no significant increase or decrease of enjoyment

caused by the different forms of brand integration. People who identify strongly with the main

characters have a significantly higher positive video enjoyment (M = 5.81, SD =.71), than people

who have ‘low identification’ that score marginally below neutral (M = 3.87, SD = 1.21).

Conclusion & Discussion

This research is summarized with the following conclusions: That when different forms of

brand integration into the plot are applied either in weak or strong fashion lead to more positive

effects on brand attitudes, attitudes towards product attributes and video enjoyment. Even so, this

research addresses an important point for future scientific research, that identification with the

characters causes far stronger effects than the level of brand integration in the plot. When people

highly identify themselves with the main characters it leads to strong positive effects on brand

attitude, attitudes towards product attributes and video enjoyment. People who identify

themselves to a lesser extent with characters have either a neutral or a mild positive effects on

brand attitude, attitudes towards product attributes and video enjoyment. Only in the case of low

identification with the main characters a stronger brand integration to the plot increases brand

attitudes.

Hypothesis 1a is rejected. It was assumed that a YouTube user video with a strong brand

in a YouTube video with weak integration in the story. No direct effect of plot integration was

found in this case and therefore leads to the conclusion that using higher plot integration does not

affect brand attitude. Van Reijmersdal, Neijens en Smit (2007) found that product placements

cause positive brand effects only after more than two exposures, when researching television

broadcasts. This was different compared to their results in an experimental setting, where an

immediate effect occurred after exposing participants to special product placement fragments.

The current research used an original YouTube user video which was edited into two versions.

By trying to retain the narrative of the original (high integration) video it was the researcher’s goal to keep the stimulus videos as close to the original material to retain external validity and

remove as many cues as possible that could foster brand integration for the weak integration

stimulus. It is possible that when research material uses longer, more natural content, one needs

more exposures to achieve significant results. It is also possible that the insignificant results are

caused due to infrequent exposures to product placements in YouTube videos. Placing products

and integrating brands into YouTube user videos is still more an exception than a regular

occurrence. Ong (2004) drew similar conclusions between the high concentration of placements

in movies compared to a lower concentration in television shows, leading to lower effects in the

latter case.

Hypothesis 1b is rejected. A video that has high integration does not lead to higher

attitudes towards product attributes. The results are similar to hypothesis 1a, in both groups that

were exposed to weak integration and strong integration stimuli the results on attitudes towards

product attributes were in both cases positive. A line of reasoning similar to hypothesis 1a would

explain these results.

Hypothesis 1c is rejected. When exposed to low integration video viewers do not have

brand integration should lead to disruptive elements causing a clash with the brand and the

context of the message. All three versions of the first hypothesis assumed a direct effect of plot

integration on brand attitude, attitudes towards product attributes and video enjoyment, however

all of the hypotheses were rejected. It is therefore crucial for future studies to determine why this

desired effect was not achieved in this research.

Critical Evaluation Of The Stimulus.

While the study made efforts to be sure that the respondents were exposed to videos that

varied in integration and to contain the environment in which they had or should not have seen

the stimulus. It is not completely certain if people did have their full attention when they were

exposed to the main cues of strong integration. In the short time span of this research it was not

possible to significantly pilot test the stimulus beforehand. It is therefore highly likely that by

using two stimuli that tried to retain the essence of the original video, that the differences

between the stimuli may have been too marginal to distinguish for inexperienced users. As

theorised previously the PKM assumes that people’s persuasion knowledge develops over time

and needs repeated contacts to build this knowledge. It is highly probable that the majority of the

respondents in this research have not been exposed enough to brand integrated content to cause

significant effects in this research. For example: To retain the original narrative of the story the

chips were eaten by the characters and were the catalysts to comedic situations that followed,

this was equal in both the integration and in the weak integration stimulus. The strong integration

stimulus explained the context of the brand in the video and could have functioned more as a

form of disclosure instead of a cue for brand integration. Another important note on the

shortcomings of this research is that it primarily measures short-term effects and is unable to

identify the long-term effects, which has been a point of criticism on previous product

Hypotheses 2a is partially confirmed. It was initially hypothesised that a viewer that

identifies strongly with a main character in the video will have a more positive attitude towards

the brand in a YouTube user video with a strong story integration, compared to a video with

weak story integration. Lacking an effect of brand integration on brand attitude there is on the

other hand a direct effect of identification with the main character on brand attitude, and a near

significant interaction effect of brand integration. The interaction effect shows that respondents

who did not identify themselves with the main characters had a neutral brand attitude in the low

brand integration group, when exposed to a strong brand integration video these brand attitudes

shifted positively. People that identify themselves strongly with the main characters had strong

positive brand attitudes in both conditions. Indicating that high identification with the main

characters does indeed increase the persuasiveness of the message as theorised beforehand

(Moyer-Gusé, 2008), while stronger brand integration only affects people who have low

identification with the characters. Weak brand integration does not cause reactance since the

effects are positive in all cases.

Plot integration and product use by characters. The products were used in both stimulus

groups by the main characters, making it is possible that the positive traits high identification

respondents associate with the main characters transferred to the brand and the product (Phua,

2014). This is of practical relevance when one intends to reach a broad audience where the

amount of identification with the characters is unknown, then a strong band integration video

should lead to positive brand attitudes. If one knows that a majority of the viewers identifies

strongly with the main characters, then a strong brand integration to the plot is of lesser

importance. This conclusion is relevant for advertisers which who want to be more cost efficient,

by only using content that would make use of weak but relevant brand integration to target an

audience which strongly identifies with a YouTube user. The researcher stresses the point that in

might be an interesting concept to explore for future research: To what extent do characters need

to use the product or brand in such a way when it is integrated into the plot to foster positive

brand attitudes?

Hypothesis 2b is partially accepted. It was assumed that people who identify strongly

with the main characters in a YouTube user video will have more positive attitudes towards

product attributes in a strong integration video than a weak integration video. Since there is no

direct effect of integration it rejects this part of the hypothesis. Identification with the characters

does however have a significant difference, people that strongly identify with the characters

holds positive attitudes towards the product attributes while people that do not identify with the

characters are neutral. These results were partially anticipated, as a moderator of integration, not

as a direct effect. This research shows that identification with the characters is of more

importance than weak or strong integration of the brand in the story. Aligning partially with

McCracken’s (1986) conclusions, that the stronger one identifies with a person (character) one

tends to adopt their behaviour and attitudes. This is caused by strong levels of identification that

are result of an ongoing relationship with a character (Basil, 1996) that lead to the adoption of

thoughts and feelings advocated by the source. These results of this research has similar

conclusions as previous studies that higher identification leads to alignment with the attitudes of

the character (Russel & Stern, 2006) and the creation of attitudes towards specific product

attributes (Russel, Norman & Heckler, 2004).

Hypothesis 3c is rejected. It was thought that the stronger one identifies with the character

the less positively one will enjoy the video when a brand is weakly integrated. Nonetheless, the

data shows that different forms of brand integration to the plot do not effect video enjoyment.

Video enjoyment is effected entirely by how much one identifies with the characters, people that

identify strongly with the characters seem to enjoy the video very much, compared to ones who

exemplified further with the direct effect of being a subscriber of the channel on video

enjoyment, people who are subscribed enjoy the content more than non-subscribers. This is a

logical result, since subscribing to a YouTube channel is a conscious choice in which one

deliberately wants to be exposed to more of their content.

Final notes. This research assumed that weaker plot integration would have had negative

effects on viewers that identify highly with the characters and that there would have been

significant differences between weak and strong integration in the plot. For the latter McCarthy’s

(2004) statement that many product placement researches lack to see the similarity and

differences in their application may apply, therefore this research leaves a stepping stone for

future researcher in how to adapt. In the case of brand integration in the plot all the results were

positive as should be expected from advertising content meant to persuade. Brand integration

into the plot is meant as a measure to unobtrusively place brands in the content and shows that in

humoristic YouTube user content weak and strong integration works equally. It is a point of

interest for future researchers to study the possible effects of plot integration in different genres

and how they affect brands, products and enjoyment of the content.

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