One of the most lucrative forms of advertising, product placement, has seen ongoing transformation in the entertainment business. There has been a noticeable shift from product placements in movies to web series because of the rise in tech-savvy consumers.

Although a sizable amount of entertainment in India is now consumed through Web series, movie product placement has not decreased. Product placement tactics have improved in the age of the digital Renaissance. The concept of Product Placement has evolved over time as popular video streaming services like YouTube, TVF, and Netflix have grown in popularity.

Global product placement spending surged 12.1% to 32.98 billion U.S. dollars.[1]. Streaming channels like TVF in these 5 years have turned out to be the biggest gainers and they have seemed to find the perfect mixture. More than 90% of their revenue comes from brands; “Brands don’t just buy media space on our platform; we integrate brand stories with content,” said Jikku Abraham, former GM and partner, TVF. “We integrate brand stories with content which is a premium ad unit for us. Other solutions include product placement, creating characters for brands, integrated logo units, pre-roll ads, etc.”[2]

With this advent of digitalization, there has also been an increasing research gap in this domain. Through this research we plan to delve into the domain of product placement in web series in the Indian context, existing set of guidelines, laws regulations and propose a set of guidelines from an analysis and comparison with the existing guidelines and rules in other countries as well in different domains of advertising regulated by the Government of India.

The origins of product placement can be seen in the early years of radio and television when companies would fund entire programs or episodes in exchange for spoken mentions of their products or visual representations of them. However, this early method of product placement was frequently clumsy and overt, with little concern for the truth of the narrative or the viewing experience.

The practice of product placement has changed along with the media and audiences. Because advertisers frequently collaborate closely with content producers to make sure their products are relevant and fit for the characters or scene, product placement has grown more discreet.

Product placement has evolved along with digital media, becoming more interactive and quantifiable as businesses use data and analytics to monitor the effectiveness of their placements and modify their strategy as necessary.

Creating one's content, such as a short film or web series, to showcase one's goods or services is known as "branded content," and it has become more popular in recent years. This strategy gives advertisers greater creative control over the placement and can help them reach and interact with their target audience more successfully.

In addition, a lot of streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, are now using product placement to monetize their original programming.

Briefly put, product placement has evolved from intrusive and overbearing advertising to subtle and inventive forms intended to improve the viewing experience.

Marketing businesses are struggling to find the most cost-effective medium to maximize their outcomes due to significant changes in promotional strategies over the past several years. One important finding is that the internet is the primary way through which entertainment is consumed. Mobile content has caught up to millennials. Product placements in web series have been launched by marketing companies to reach this customer group. There is, however, a dearth of research in this field. Research is fairly young, particularly in the setting of India.

Research is still extremely young, particularly in the Indian context. This paper attempts to provide an insight on this ever-growing market. Product placement has become a significant method for marketers to reach their target audience in more "subtle" ways in the modern world when viewers can ignore advertising and demonstrate ad blindness. It is essential to delve into the complexities involved as well as come up with a set of guidelines and regulations for the same.

Moreover, Grohs and Wagner (2011)[8] Argue that product placement enhances realism, aids character development, and fosters a sense of familiarity for consumers. However, these benefits often come at the expense of transparency, as viewers, especially children, may struggle to recognize the commercial intent behind such integrations.

While product placement offers numerous advantages, it raises ethical concerns, particularly regarding consumer manipulation and the lack of transparency. Hart (2018)[9] Critiques "stealth marketing," where undisclosed product placements blur the lines between content and advertisement, undermining the public's right to know when they are being targeted with promotional messages. This is especially problematic for vulnerable demographics such as children, who may be unable to distinguish between entertainment and marketing content.[10].

A quantitative and qualitative study was carried out to investigate product placement in web series to reach these objectives. Finding out how the advertisers used embedded (implicit) or explicit advertising strategies was the goal of the study. The researcher employed the content analysis method to address the research issues. To evaluate product placement, it is required to categorize its components. To identify and provide a baseline for comparison between the practice of product placement across different platforms, a range of web series that were available for streaming on several platforms (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, etc.) were examined. And based on the result of the series a proposed guidelines were suggested.

Around 10 web series were selected, based on the number of views, their IMDb ratings, availability, and popularity among the Indian Youth.

While undertaking the research the following questions were `looked into the following questions

With the aid of a stopwatch, the length of the brand's on-screen appearance was recorded. It takes between 1.5 and 3 seconds for viewers to recognize the brand onscreen. If a product is merely seen on screen, not utilized, or mentioned by a character, information about how long it will appear is more crucial.

The context in which the product was positioned in a particular scene of the film or web series is measured by this product placement variable.

Each brand or product placement was attributed to one of three categories:

The following are the findings of the quantitative research:

Figure1

The figure shows that the use of product placement in web series is more than prevalent, every series has used a product placement at least once with some using product placement in two digits.

Figure 2

This figure shows the brand visibility in total for every series is considerably high with a minimum of 8 seconds for Romies, a maximum of 20 seconds for Aspirants, and an average time of about 12 seconds for all the series.

Figure 3

The data presented in Figure 3 illustrates the predominance of positive portrayals in product placements, accounting for 60% of all observed instances. This trend indicates that brands prefer aligning their products with favourable narratives to enhance consumer trust and emotional connection. Neutral portrayals, at 30%, reflect situations where the product's presence is neither highlighted nor criticized, ensuring subtle brand visibility. Negative portrayals, comprising only 10%, demonstrate the cautious approach taken by advertisers to avoid associations that might harm their brand image. These findings emphasize the strategic use of product placement to influence consumer perceptions positively.

Figure 4

India’s recent rules for ott platforms and intermediaries (guidelines for intermediaries and digital media ethics code) are a welcome step to regulate a tremendously unregulated market another aspect of it which needs regulations is product placement. Product placement was first used in Lumiere film of the 1890s[15] and its use is exponentially growing till date.

It is globally used as a medium of advertisements on a wide scale in web series, be it on OTT platforms or social media platforms. However, it is highly unregulated and needs regulations. Given the current dynamic and constantly expanding scenarios for product placements in the world, more explicit laws must be passed.

The laws regarding product placement vary by country and can range from being heavily regulated to being relatively unrestricted. In some countries, such as the United States, product placement is largely unregulated and is often used as a marketing tool. Other countries, such as France, have strict laws in place to limit the use of product placement in media. Businesses and content creators need to be aware of the laws and regulations in their respective countries when engaging in product placement. So what are these laws in different countries let's take a look at some of them:

The US - In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers decreeing better disclosure of brand placement during each scene in which placement occurs

When a broadcast station transmits any matter for which money, service, or other valuable consideration is paid or promised to, or charged or accepted by such station, federal law and FCC rules require the broadcaster to announce, at the time of the broadcast, that such matter is sponsored, paid for, or furnished and the identification of the sponsor, according to section 73.1212(f) of the FCC Sponsorship identification rule[16]

These rules do not apply to web series and OTT platforms but to broadcast radio and television stations.

EU - The EU amended the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive)[17] in 2018 to allow product placement and specific provisions it which are related to product placement are

Australia- Australia does not have explicit product placement laws but certain general laws apply to product placements such as restrictions on the use of tobacco and alcohol products in your film; and General legal issues when using recognisable brands and products in your film.

Canada - Likewise, product placements are not specifically prohibited by Canadian law. According to The Code of Ethics of the Canadian Marketing Association[18], product placement in entertainment programming is permissible. Advertisers must still use caution to make sure that the placements do not break additional advertising and marketing regulations, such as:

False and misleading advertising, industry-specific prohibitions (such as alcohol and tobacco placements), and marketing to children and young adolescents are all examples of false and misleading advertising.

France- France does not have specific laws for product placement but certain other provisions apply to product placement

The following may not be advertised:

In France, advertising targeted towards children is rigorously regulated, in particular by Decree No. 92-280 for television advertising (article 7)[19]. Advertisements must maintain their physical and moral integrity. Children should not be encouraged by advertisements to persuade their parents to buy a product. Children should never be put in a risky or harmful setting.

A proposal about advertising to children was also made by the ARPP. For instance, the advertising cannot feature images of children that are offensive to their dignity or decency or otherwise likely to shock or offend others. Advertising must refrain from depicting any explicit or implicit acts of moral or physical abuse. Under no circumstances may the advertising, through its messages or its presentation, play down the significance of violence or abuse or give the impression that such behaviour is acceptable.

Product placement is banned in certain countries like Poland[20] where there is a strict prohibition on placing products and certain topics in all media productions, for promotional purposes Despite being in existence for over century product placement laws are very vague and implicit around the world there is a need for regulation and more explicit laws in different countries banning as in Poland is no solution as product placement is not the solution as a general prohibition of product placement, albeit with some exceptions, has not created legal certainty for media service providers[21]. EU has come up with certain guidelines but more comprehensive and detailed rules are awaited

Nearly 49% of India’s youth spend 2-3 hours per day binge-watching content online[22], while four hours is the average time spent in consuming OTT video content in a day by millennials and Gen Z. The superior content of the web series and its 24X7 availability triggered the people to shift towards web series.

 Also, majority of people like OTT’s ability to download all the episodes of web series at a time, on demand supply of series and its accessibility to anywhere. This growing shift towards the web series has increased the viewership considerably. This increased surge in viewership has diversified the platform of web series and has incentivized the production giants to employ advertising in these web series. Increased viewership also underlines the need to have a regulated approach towards advertising in web series so that the rights and safety of the digital consumers is safeguarded.

Based on the laws of different countries, we propose certain guidelines which may be considered while making laws. The guidelines are divided into 3 parts: Disclosure of product placement, undertaking due diligence, and advertisement targeting children.

product placements where full disclosure is not provided. Thus it is the responsibility of the advertisers and ott platforms to clarify the intentions of the ad so that the audience is not misled due to their emotional attachment to the character.

(i.)               Advertisers should think about employing ethical product placement rather than the placement of more damaging products which may be more successful than traditional advertising, to encourage healthy behaviour in young people.

(ii.)             There should be more social responsibility on the side of the advertisers because children are a vulnerable demographic and may be negatively implied by commercial effects on their health.

(iii.)           Children should not be encouraged by advertisers to persuade their parents to buy a product. Children should never be put in a risky or harmful setting.

(iv.)           Advertising cannot feature pictures of children that are offensive to their dignity or decency or that are likely to shock or provoke people.