Will Technology Kill the

Advertising Star?
Marketing Management II

Anil
Bhavika
Kapil
Kopal
Rimika
Q.1 Do you think celebrity spokesperson can help television advertising retain its effectiveness
inspite of Adzapping Technology?

Ans.1 As the price of advertising on television has increased, companies and their advertising
agencies have been looking for more cost productive ways of marketing. A major way of tackling this
issue is through the use of product placement in movies and television. With every new movie
release or every new episode of a sitcom, it becomes more and more apparent that advertisers are
going to stick with this medium as an effective advertising device. Watching TV or movies as recent
as ten years ago, the products you saw were very generic in nature and brand names were rarely
seen. But the days of seeing a soft drink can labeled simply "Cola" in the refrigerator on your favorite
show are a thing of the past as a new wave of advertising has emerged.In the world of television,
one of the most dreadful words to advertisers is "zapping." The term zapping came about with the
invention of the remote control. It denotes the quick reaction by a viewer to change the channel at
the sight of a commercial. When viewers would have to leave the comfort of their chair or sofa just
to switch stations, advertisers often had a "captured" audience. Companies are finding that the
conventional way of advertising is too costly to have their commercials skipped by just the touch of a
button. So by innovative marketing techniques, companies have placed their product directly in the
heart of your favorite television programs. Whether sponsoring the show or just having a brief
appearance, they have definitely made their mark.

Q.2 One television executive says of product placements and cameos, “ These integrated packages
are a fact of life, But they are not going to take over our schedule. The viewer can take only so
much.” What do u think is an appropriate mix of outright commercials and subtle product placement
built into the show. How can marketers determine what balance will work best?

Ans. 2 If it is a established brand they should use subtle product placement more, as compared to,
outright commercials.

Each celebrity commercials generates its own unique pattern of response or life cycle. The
individuality of performance is understandable when considering the wide range of products, the
variety of creative approaches and the infinite options available for scheduling. However, if one were
to demonstrate a typical life cycle of an advertisement, the following graph would come best
approximate it.
  Wearin- Wearin is the phase, where the consumer has not been previously exposed to the
advertisement. In such a case, additional exposures to celebrity commercials may lead to
creating positive attitudes about the advertisements.
 Wearout- Celebrity Commercials aim at having the consumer eventually accept a product.
To achieve this, commercials are generally repeated with some frequency, and when there is
a repetition, there is also wearout. During this phase the consumers start developing a
negative attitude towards the advertisement and try to avoid it.

Thus, wearout may lead to extensive zapping.

Examples :

1.  HBO's Sex and the City (1998–2004), where the plot revolved around, among other
things, Absolut Vodka, a campaign upon which one of the protagonists was working, and a
billboard in Times Square, where a bottle prevented an image of the model from being
pornographic. Knight Rider (1982–1986), a television series featuring a talking Pontiac Trans
Am, is another example of brand integration.

2. The television series The X-Files (1993–2002) uses Fords, as do leading characters on the

television series 24 (2001–2010).