Brand Integrations in Magazines: Effects of Commercialism on Credibility and Purchase Intention.

Brand integrated magazine formats, a form of brand placement in which advertising messages are incorporated into the editorial content of a magazine, are the focus of this study. An experiment (N = 323) was conducted to study the effects of these formats on credibility, reliability, and intention to purchase the magazine. Six versions of the same magazine were created that varied on two dimensions of commercialism, namely percentage of brand integrations and source. The results showed that the percentage of brand integrations negatively affected perceptions of credibility and reliability of the format. The perception of the source as commercial or non-commercial had no effect. With respect to intention to purchase the magazine, there was an interaction effect of source and percentage of brand integrations. The results show that source credibility theory applies to brand integrated magazine formats. This study adds to the small body of academic research on the proliferating practice of mixing advertising and editorial content. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]