The Effect of Product Placement in Animation on Generation Z Consumers

In recent years, the animation market in China has flourished, and many brands use animation as a popular promotional platform to showcase their products and brands through product placement, benefitting from this marketing approach. Therefore, there is an urgent need to investigate the impact of product placement on Generation Z consumers—the primary audience for animation. In this study, we used popular Chinese animation to investigate Generation Z consumers’ cognition, attitude, and purchase intention regarding product placement. The results show a significant correlation between brand cognition, attitude, and purchase intention. Low-profile brands achieve better product placement effects in animation than high-profile brands. This study also established a mathematical model of participants’ post-cognition, post-attitude, and post-purchase intention regarding product placement in animation through factor analysis. This mathematical model intuitively shows that the effect of product placement in animation is primarily determined by the audience’s post-attitude.