Predicting Product Placement Marketing Effects Under MediaMultitasking Behavior

Huang Hui-Hsin

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between product placement marketing effectiveness and media multitasking behavior in contemporary digital media environments. As audiences increasingly engage with multiple media platforms simultaneously, understanding how multitasking influences advertising outcomes has become an important issue for marketers and researchers. The study develops a stochastic model to examine how different product placement attributes, namely screen placement, script placement, and plot placement, interact with varying levels of media multitasking. Drawing on Russell’s theoretical framework of product placement, the research analyzes the relative influence of these three placement dimensions on consumer engagement and advertising effectiveness. Empirical data were collected from 2,478 valid respondents who viewed or listened to fashion brand content distributed through videos and podcasts between November and December 2024. The study applies maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to estimate model parameters and uses the Media Multitasking Index (MMI) to measure multitasking intensity among participants. The findings indicate that the effectiveness of product placement varies according to the degree of multitasking behavior. Plot placement demonstrates stronger effectiveness in low multitasking situations, while screen and script placements show different levels of influence as multitasking increases. Model calibration using the Theil U Statistic confirms an acceptable goodness-of-fit between simulated and empirical data. The research contributes to advertising and media studies by integrating media multitasking behavior with product placement strategies and offers practical insights for marketing managers seeking to optimize embedded advertising under diverse audience attention conditions.

Abstract

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