In the media convergence era, brands are embracing hybrid forms of advertising communication such as branded content, product placement and sponsored TV 'pods', brand blogs, share-able video, programmatic advertising, 'native' advertising and more, as alternatives to, and extensions of, traditional mass media advertising campaigns. In this paper we draw on Genette's (2010) theory of transtextuality to re-frame this phenomenon from a paratextual purview. We suggest that the analogy of the paratext articulates the iterative, ambiguous, participative, and intertextual character of much contemporary brand communication. We describe extended examples of paratextual advertising and promotion that illustrate the fluid and mutually contingent relation of advertising text to paratext, and we outline an analytical framework for future research and practice. Introduction: advertising as paratextThis paper introduces the notion of the paratext, the text about the text, to the tradition of literary advertising analysis in marketing and consumer research (Brown, 2016a;Stern, 1989;1993a). Many studies have conceived of mass media advertisements as primary texts that can be subjected to close analytical readings McQuarrie and Mick, 1999;McQuarrie and Phillips, 2005;Scott, 1994) but marketing and consumer researchers have largely neglected both the paratextual character of advertising, and the advertising potential of paratexts. Paratexts have been considered secondary to the primary text, as a title, a review, a footnote, a cover 'blurb' or a preface is considered secondary to the literary work to which it refers. Yet, paratexts frame and cue the culturally constituted meanings of texts, acting as thresholds that "shape the reading strategies that we will take with us "into" the text" (Gray, 2010, p. 26). We draw on Genette's (2010; Genette and Maclean, 1991) theory of transtextuality and on developments of paratextual theory in film, television and media
This paper discusses the implications for international brand communications management of a qualitative cross-national research study on television product placement in the United Kingdom and Thailand. The study involved secondary research into the respective media environments and depth interviews with leading agency practitioners in each country. The research suggests that, while television product placement practice may be superficially similar in Asia and the UK, there are important differences arising from the very different regulatory, media and consumer environments. As a consequence, detailed local knowledge is essential for successful product placement strategy which crosses cultural borders. The paper explains key differences in regulation and practice and explores implications for brand communications practice and research.
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