Good guy vs. bad guy: the influence of parasocial interactions with media characters on brand placement effects

Abstract

Although brand placements are frequently associated with media characters within movies or TV series, and viewers are well known to relate to such characters, previous research has scarcely dealt with media characters' influence on brand placement effects. Addressing this, two studies investigate the influence of parasocial interactions with media characters on perceptions of brands related to media characters. The first study applied a 1 £ 2 between-subjects design, assuming that positively represented characters elicit greater parasocial interaction and, subsequently, more favourable brand attitudes compared with negatively represented characters. The results confirm the assumed indirect effect. A second study was able to replicate the first study's findings in a different setting and to introduce brand familiarity as an important moderator of the mediation found in the first and second study (moderated mediation). The underlying mechanism and implications are discussed.

Fostering Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities on Social Media: Implications for Celebrity Endorsement

“…For instance, Lim and Kim () found that consumers who developed parasocial interactions with TV shopping hosts are likely to have higher levels of shopping satisfaction. Similarly, consumers were found to have positive attitudes toward products (Knoll, Schramm, Schallhorn, & Wynistorf, ) and strong intentions to purchase them (Kim, Ko, & Kim, ) when the products were endorsed by celebrities with whom consumers had built parasocial relationships. Labrecque () examined parasocial relationships between consumers and brands, and found that parasocial relationships lead to brand loyalty and willingness to provide personal information to brands in Web site forms and customer surveys.…”

Placing snacks in children's movies: cognitive, evaluative, and conative effects of product placements with character product interaction

“…However, implicit attitudes are formed by a preconscious, automatic strengthening of associations between two concepts-in our case, the brand and the character. The process is based on the theoretical assumptions of evaluative and emotional conditioning (De Houwer, Thomas, and Baeyens 2001;Gibson 2008;Knoll et. al 2015;Sweldens, Van Osselaer, and Janiszewski 2010).…”

“…Therefore, attractive and likeable characters can transfer their positive connotations to the brand; this is based on the theory of Evaluative Conditioning (De Houwer, Thomas, and Baeyens 2001;Knoll et al 2015;Schemer et al 2008;Sweldens, Van Osselaer, and Janiszewski 2010). Evaluative Conditioning occurs when a liked character repeatedly associates with a brand (Schemer et al 2008).…”

Antecedents and outcomes of digital influencer endorsement: An exploratory study

“…Thus, digital influencers are considered to be accessible, believable, and intimate. In fact, the interactions may provide illusions of face-to-face relationships, which are likely to make consumers more susceptible to the digital influencers' posts (Knoll, Schramm, Schallhorn, & Wynistorf, 2015).…”