The evolution of the concept of product placement into influencer marketing in the digital media era

With the development of communication technologies, marketing fields for today's brands have been improved, and with the emergence of new fields, brands have had the opportunity to offer their products or services to more consumers more quickly and easily. With technological advances, marketing activities that have been initially carried out with printed communication tools such as newspapers and magazines were transferred to visual and sensory media such as television and radio. With the Internet becoming more popular day by day, it has become a popular tool amongst marketers today as well. Today, social media is used by brands as an active marketing tool. Brands advertise their products directly on social media and collaborate with content producers on these sites. This method is used by many brands and content producers to direct consumers' perceptions about consumption. The fact that it is less costly than traditional media is another factor leading brands to cooperate with content producers. There are many unanswered questions about product placement activities on this platform since it is in the development stage, unlike traditional media. In this descriptive study, a sample of product placement activities performed on the video streaming platform YouTube is examined, and the components of these product placements and the relationships between these components are analyzed. Furthermore, the components that differentiate YouTube from traditional media and lead to direct purchasing are examined. Within the scope of this research, with the evaluation of the videos posted by the channel Post42 between 01.05.2018 and 01.05.2019 on a monthly basis, the most-watched videos of each month within the selected date range were analyzed via content analysis method. At the same time, focus group interviews were conducted with the channel Post42, and the obtained data were processed according to the thematic frame via descriptive analysis method and the findings were defined and interpreted.