Archive for March, 2007

As Beth noted earlier, pitches for AT&T (NYSE:T) on American Idol are as common as hissy fits, and for a good reason. The company has paid an estimated $30-50 million for advertising that includes product placement. Other companies lining A.I.’s pockets include the ubiquitous Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) (the red room!), and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F). As the show has grown into a franchise worth an estimated $2.5 billion, it continues to define the cutting edge on product placement marketing.
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Pulsing, excited teens point their fingers in the air and scream to the beat of Rakim & Ken-Y in early March as the reggaeton duo perform in the Manhattan studios of MTV Tr3s’ Mi TRL. Past red neon pillars, down a twisty hallway and behind a fuchsia door labeled “makeup” sits Leslie Cedeño, in the very chair where so many music stars, including Rakim and Ken-Y, have been prepped for their closeup on the Latino version of MTV’s daily video countdown show TRL.

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What Every Global Brand Marketer Needs To Know About Product Placement Planning Worldwide Product placement is rapidly becoming a serious marketing discipline worldwide, and the PQ Media Global Product Placement Forecast 2006-2010 sets the standard for product placement coverage, measurement and ROI. It is the global brand marketer’s essential “planning guide” to customer engagement, revealing for the first time total worldwide spending, business building insights and in-depth analysis; medium-by-medium, country-by-country and culture-by-culture.

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Product Placement Emerges As Key Marketing Strategy Worldwide, As Brand Marketers Scramble to Make Emotional Connection with Consumers… Stamford , Conn. , August 16, 2006 – Global paid product placement spending surged 42.2% to $2.21 billion in 2005 with double-digit growth expected to continue in 2006 and beyond, as brand marketers scramble to effectively engage consumers worldwide, according to research released today by PQ Media, a custom media research firm. Global paid product placement spending in TV, film and other media is expected to climb another 38.8% to $3.07 billion in 2006, driven by the continued shift in the world’s leading markets toward a paid placement structure from a barter and added-value model, according to the PQ Media Global Product Placement Forecast 2006-2010 (http://www.pqmedia.com/global-product-placement-2006.html).

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INSERT YOUR BRAND HERE WAS the message a parade of Turner Broadcasting executives delivered Tuesday at an upfront event. Forget any backlash about product placement, the executives repeatedly told advertisers. The company is more than willing to find ways to slip or emphasize a brand in its programming going forward. “Creating a future together” is how Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president, general manager of Turner Entertainment Sales and Marketing, described it.

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WITH ALL THE TALK ABOUT new digital platforms for video, you might think marketers have forgotten about the tried-and-true product placement. But in a new edition of its annual survey, Stamford, Conn.-based PQ Media says product placement is still a healthy business, growing worldwide at 37% in 2006 to $3.36 billion. The pace of growth will slow a bit next year. PQ Media is forecasting growth at 30% in 2007 to $4.38 billion.The growth of the non-paid part of the product-placement business will cool, too. This is the biggest part of the industry, including barter and other valued-added deals. According to the survey, it’s estimated to be just 12.5% in 2007, registering a value of $4.95 billion. By comparison, the value was $4.4 billion in 2006.

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IMAGINE A MARKETER THAT GETS exposure in a scripted show as prevalent as billboards in Time Square, yet hopes viewers have their thumbs on the remote control. The goal–to have viewers continually scan in and out of the episode as they aggressively channel surf. It’s a bizarre twist, since conventional wisdom holds that a brand integration works best when length of time is impressive enough to inspire network research departments to start generating client presentations.

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The amount of prime time network TV devoted to name-checking prescription drug brands has roughly doubled in the last year, according to Nielsen Product Placement. Drug makers have been shy of product placement until now because Food and Drug Administration regulations generally prohibit drug marketers from publishing messages without risk and side-effect information.

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NEW YORK — Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner built his career trying to identify and shape hit movies and TV shows. Now he’s at it again, this time on the Internet. His investment firm, The Tornante Co. , will announce Monday the formation of a studio, Vuguru, that will acquire and develop slickly written, produced and acted Web video. Vuguru also today will unveil its first show: a serialized mystery called Prom Queen that will roll out over 80 days beginning April 2 with daily installments lasting 90 seconds. It’s co-produced with production company Big Fantastic, in a deal brokered by United Talent Agency. “There’s a new distribution platform that’s going to be ubiquitous, and that’s clearly broadband,” Eisner says. While sites that feature user-generated video, such as YouTube, “won the short-term sprint” to reach audiences, he says, “Winning the marathon will be professionally produced, emotionally driven story content.”

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TDavis Freeberg submits: From the first moment it was introduced, TiVo (TIVO) has been feared by the ad guys. For consumers it dramatically improves the television experience, but for content owners TiVo and other DVRs have created new challenges for them to address. For decades, Hollywood has made a killing by selling 30 second spots, but as we move to an on-demand society, this new paradigm has shifted the balance of power to the consumer and has forced mainstream media to think ahead. Those who can make this adjustment will be met with success, but the advertisers and content owners who refuse to change will be left behind. Some content owners may view fast forwarding through programs as being equivalent to stealing from the content creators, but I don’t buy that line of rubbish at all. As much as they’d like to believe it, there is no social contract when it comes to television.

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