Archive for March, 2005

A RECENT SURVEY SOUGHT ANA member companies’ attitudes and activities concerning branded entertainment. The results were presented at the 2005 ANA annual Television Advertising Forum. One of the more important results centered on how to establish the efficacy of product placement integrations. When looking at effectiveness, 40 percent of the survey respondents thought there ought to be an industry standard measurement for branded entertainment deals. But 80 percent of those ‘involved’ in branded entertainment said they are going to assess the impact of their branded integration efforts themselves.

What is the issue here?

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As branded entertainment becomes an increasingly popular marketing strategy, advertisers and agencies are pondering how to handle problems that could potentially slow what, until now, has been robust growth.

Branded entertainment involves embedding advertising inside the content of television and radio programs and movies by placing products in important scenes or making brands intrinsic elements of plot lines.

The goal of such ploys, on display in TV series like “American Idol” and “The Apprentice,” is to regain the attention of consumers who can avoid advertising by using digital video recorders, satellite radio and digital juke boxes.

In the last week alone, there was word of deals in branded entertainment from Energizer, Home Depot, McDonald’s and Volkswagen. Actually, Home Depot had two - one on an English-language network, NBC, and one on a Spanish-language network, Telemundo.

“You don’t want to be the last one in,” said Peter Gardiner, partner and chief media officer at Deutsch in New York, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. “But because we’re in the early stages, it’s so confusing.”

“What you’re seeing right now is the same kind of fuzzy marketplace we saw 8 or 10 years ago, when people were trying to figure out how the Internet would work for marketing,” said Mr. Gardiner, whose agency opened Media Bridge Entertainment, specializing in branded entertainment, last year under his aegis.

A company named iTVX, based in New Rochelle, N.Y., is providing data to Media Bridge to help determine the answer to a question that particularly vexes marketers: What is the return on investment for money spent on branded entertainment?

“With all the deals that are happening, it’s the Wild West,” said Frank Zazza, chief executive of iTVX, which sells a service that seeks to measure the quality of a product placement or other forms of branded entertainment.
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