Sitting on the couch binge-watching during quarantine, it would be a surprise to not have noticed some sort of product placement while watching, say, Netflix’s Dead to Me, for example. This sort of advertising is becoming more prominent as the years (and days) go by.

CivicScience checked in on overall sentiment regarding product placements among the general population aged 13+.

Among a survey of just over 2,200 respondents, more than half of the population is neutral about product placements, and 16% think positively about them. Just one-fourth think of them negatively. This means that roughly 75% of the general population is cool with them, so to speak.

Gen Z is More Than Cool With Product Placements

Gen Z support of product placements continues to hold strong since a June 2018 study on the same topic. When cross-tabulating product placement sentiment with age, the story is telling. From the data, you could say Gen Z (those aged 13-24) are the most opinionated about product placements. Not only are they the most likely group to be pro-PP, but they are also right up there with Millennials to be against it (saying product placements give them a bad feeling about the brand or show). Otherwise, beyond Millennials also over-indexing as anti-product placement, support and neutrality is pretty even with middle and older age groups. 

The fact that Gen Z continues to over-index as in favor of product placements tells us that this generation is growing up but continuing to hold strong in their views of these plugs, which is a good thing for advertisers; the future is quite literally in their favor. It will just be important to track this since opposition is also strong among this generation.

When compared to women, men slightly over-index in thinking product placements are better than traditional ads. Women are more likely to be neutral about them.

A perk of the CivicScience database is that it culls hidden insights you didn’t necessarily think to cross-compare.

When looking at sexual identity, those who don’t identify as heterosexual / straight are more likely to be anti-product placement than those who identify as heterosexual / straight.

Product Placement Sentiment by Streaming Platform

Users of Hulu over-index as being favorable to advertisers’ use of product placements more so than users of Netflix. 

Want to see favorability among Amazon Prime, ESPN, and other platforms’ users? CivicScience is tracking the two dozen or so SVOD platforms out there. Clients get access to our wide array of brand tracking questions, with custom segmentation available. 

Strong Support Among Binge-Watchers 

The last insight we’ll leave you with is product placement sentiment compared to binge-watching. Those who binge-watch are a good bit more likely to be okay with product placements than those who do not, but there’s little difference between the percentage of non-bingers and bingers who think product placements are better.

Overall, product placement holds at least a neutral opinion among the majority of the general population. That’s good news for advertisers as this method continues to ramp up. It will be important to note the nuanced sentiment among different segments of the population, and by a specific brand’s favorables. 

If you want to work with us to see how this shakes out for your brand (or show) get in touch.