The Effect of Drama Types and Brand Familiarity on Brand Attitude in Brand Placement

Abstract

Recent years, with the popularity of the costume drama, brand placement began to appear in the costume drama, such as “vip.com” in drama “Fighter of the Destiny”, and “Unifon” in the drama “Princess Agents”. This phenomenon is very controversial while attracting eyeballs. The large amount of audience can bring exposure to the brand, but many views complain about its rigid, and reducing the brand attitude. Based on the above phenomena, this article builds up a theoretical model including drama types, brand familiarity and consumers’ attitude toward implanted brand. We validate it through two empirical studies, and the results show that, for high-familiar brands, placement into modern dramas will result in more active brand attitudes than places into costume dramas; for low-familiar brands, there is no significant difference between the two. The research results enrich the existing theories of advertising implants. Besides, it also provides references for the exposure of brands in different brand cycles in television programs, in order to obtain the best publicity and economic benefits.