Product Placement in Italian Movies: The Analysis of Consistency between Brands and Narrative Structure as a Critical Success Factor from Practitioners’ Perspective

Given the importance of the communication value of cinema as a mass media, it can be understood that brand manufacturers are increasingly interested in exploiting this channel. By limiting the field of observation to the Italian context, characterised by a slower and more gradual development of the product placement phenomenon compared to the Us, the present paper responds to the call for further research into film professionals’ perceptions of product placement tool, bearing in mind that most studies investigate spectators’ point of view. With the aim to plug this existing gap and sustain firms in planning effective product placement strategies, the work, through 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews, 15 conducted by telephone and 9 by email, offers an updated overview of the practitioners’ opinions regarding the specific aspect of consistency between brand placement and narrative context (guiding theme), placed in the wider topic of the effectiveness of product placement. The analysis was also enhanced by practitioners’ general ideas about this refined communication tool and by potential future trends at national level of this practice, comparing the three categories of interviewees (producers, film directors/screenwriters, and product placement agents) in order to highlight any analogies and/or differences.