A paper, “Forgetting Brand Placements: Results from a Panel Analysis,” written by Raghu Kurthakoti, Assistant Professor of Marketing, was accepted for presentation at the Marketing Management Association Conference, March 28-30, 2012, at The Drake Hotel in Chicago, Ill.

The annual spring conference attracts innovative marketing educators and scholars, providing the opportunity for professionals to share insights in the form of scholarly papers, panel sessions, and discussions. The theme of the upcoming conference is Values and Vision: Marketing in Times of Change. Kurthakoti co-authored the paper with Dr. Siva K. Balasubramanian and Dr. Suzanne A. Nasco, who assisted him in designing and executing the study.

The paper examines the effectiveness of product placement from a memory perspective by means of a longitudinal study using a student subject panel. Subjects were exposed to a full-length movie, and recognition was tracked at weekly intervals for a period of four weeks. Results of a dynamic panel analysis using generalized estimating equations indicated that audience recognition for a movie placement significantly diminishes one to two weeks after exposure to the movie.

Kurthakoti and his colleagues determined that recognition of placements is enhanced by audiences’ attitudes toward product placements and that recognition is further affected by placement execution factors. They also discovered that audio placements and placements of longer duration positively affect placement recognition.