The science of product placements – and why some work better than others

But as streaming has become more popular, product placements have become an even more attractive option for advertisers. Global spending on them is expected to top US$23 billion in 2021, about a 14% increase over 2020. At the same time, marketers plan to decrease their spending on traditional advertising, like TV and print ads.

My research highlights one key driver of this shift: We’re more prone than ever to avoid traditional ads. We’re watching less and less linear TV – the kind that has a slate of ads interrupting the entertainment every seven or eight minutes – and thus are exposed to far fewer traditional TV ads.

And when watching web videos, about 90% of consumers either skip or ignore those ads that run before the video starts.

So as advertisers struggle to reach consumers, they’re increasingly turning to product placement, spending their advertising budgets to get their ads into media content in ways that can’t be skipped or muted.