Marketing Post #7: It's here, it's there, it's everywhere!

The American mystery teen drama television series is based on the popular series of novels by Sara Shepard.  The story revolves around 4 girls whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of their clique leader. One year later, her body was found and the girls begin to receive messages from a mysterious figure in the name of "A" who threatens to expose their secrets. This series,full of mystery and unexpected twists, captured my interest since episode one. However, I couldn't help but notice the numerous product placements that appears!

Product placement/embedded marketing, is a form of advertising, where goods/services are discretely advertised through the media. This form of marketing is clever because when viewers see these celebrities/their favourite character use/own these products, the audience would feel the need to get their hands on one too. In PLL, each episode has embedded marketing. For example, in episode 15 one of the four girls help promote Justin Bieber's new movie. As well, there are many close up shots of different brands of phones with their logo zoomed in.

How effective is this tactic? Well for one thing, product placement works because viewers sees these products being advocated through something they like and enjoy. Thus the product is usually advertised through positive word of mouth. As a result there is a higher possibility of gaining more and more publicity. But to what degree will people start finding this annoying? Because for me, the JB scene was a little too much.