Sammendrag
Product placement is a combination of advertising and publicity. Its objective is to generate positive associations towards brand, with hope for a positive shift in brand attitude. Product placement has become a significant element of media, and although many aspects of product placement have been studied from a marketing perspective (effectiveness, brand recall etc.), the concept of place branding as a particular form of product placement is an under-researched topic. As it falls into the grey area between PR, publicity and advertising, product placement may have many various forms. This thesis is to investigate and analyse the complex relationship between product placement and place marketing, in order to provide recommendations for the development of the practice and more aware use of destination marketing on Norwegian TV, as well as to further knowledge on possibilities of product placement. The aim of this dissertation is to examine how place branding can be a form of product placement. The thesis is an attempt to integrate and theoretically deepen and extend research on a number of concepts concerning product placement and film tourism. In order to do so, reality TV Hellstrøm rydder opp - hjemme will be studied. The main focus of the study is the location as a form for product placement on the episodes from the third series of the show. While product placement is well documented in the marketing literature, its application to media studies in Norway is relatively scarce. Using theories on product placement, place branding, as well as film tourism, this thesis contributes to the debate on embedded marketing within mass media programming. The results indicate that product placement and place branding are related concepts. Yet analysis of places shown on Hellstrøm rydder opp – hjemme does not support the hypothesis that place branding can be form of product placement. As such, this study contributes to an understanding of product placement in general, and it increases understanding of place branding within audio-visual media.