522 CHAPTER 15 E-COMMUNICATIONVimeo, founded in November 2004, is another video-sharing website on which users can
upload, share and view videos. Seven years later Vimeo had 64 million unique visitors, which
is an increase of 82%. Its membership increased by 48% up to 9 million by November 2011;
15% of Vimeo’s traffi c comes from mobile devices.^164Social networking sites
Social networking sites enable users to connect by creating personal profi les, inviting friends
to access those profi les, sending e-mails and instant messages between each other. Th ese
personal profi les can include photos, video, audio fi les, blogs, link to websites, in fact any type
of information.Brand placement, the (paid) inclusion of branded products or brand identifiers in mass media productions, is rapidly
gaining in popularity as an alternative to traditional advertising. Through integration of the brand in media content,
advertisers have a unique opportunity to append favourable associations to their brand.^165 The global spending
on brand placement amounted up to $6.25 billion in 2009, the vast majority of which was spent on traditional
advertising media (e.g. TV, radio, feature films, etc.).^166 With the growing shift of both consumers and marketers to
online media, brand placements in new and online media are expected to rise. User-generated content (UGC) is
omnipresent in online environments and its rapid growth has created some of the most successful digital brands,
such as YouTube and Wikipedia.^167 UGC-sharing websites are just one of the ways that brands can now interact with
consumers.^168
Previous research in traditional media points out that not all brand placements are equally effective,^169 and
that the outcome varies depending on the characteristics of the placement and the consumer.^170 In a sample of
259 participants aged between 15 and 79 (mean age of 28), in which 41.9% were male, the effect is studied of two
placement characteristics, namely brand placement prominence and endorser expertise on brand recognition and
purchase intention. In addition, the moderating role of UGC liking was explored. The second purpose of the study
was to investigate the effects of multiple brand placements.
A 2 (prominent vs subtle placement of one brand) × 2 (expert vs amateur endorser) full factorial between-
subjects experimental design was set up. The authors shot four videos of a cooking tutorial (‘how to bake pancakes’).
These videos were identical in script and placed brands, and only differed in the intended manipulations. Expertise
was manipulated by using two different endorsers. The expert was a celebrity TV chef who was willing to participate.
The non-expert endorser was a student. Prominence was manipulated by explicitly pronouncing the brand name
and simultaneously taking a two-second close-up of the product. In the ‘subtle placement’ condition, the endorser
was merely shown using the product, without mentioning the brand name and without a close-up. The manipulated
brand was Solo, a well-known Belgian brand of butter. Five other brands were subtly visually incorporated in the
videos: Coca-Cola (soft drink), Whirlpool (kitchen equipment), Inza (milk), Tiense Suiker (sugar) and Tefal (frying
pans). These other brands were placed in the same fashion in all videos. The videos were posted on YouTube. The
video included a link to an online questionnaire.
While prominence exerted a significant effect on recognition (80.4% vs 93.9%), endorser expertise had no
significant effect (87.9% vs 87.5%). The highest level of brand recognition was achieved when the (Solo) brand was
prominently placed through an expert endorser (95.5%). This resulted in a significantly higher brand recognitionRESEARCH INSIGHT:
Consumers’ reactions to brands placed in user-generated content: the effect
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