Archive for September, 2009

The AMC TV series “Mad Men” is becoming known for the care its makers take to insure that everything viewers see reflects the period in which the show is set. This season, it’s 1963, and in the episode that was shown on Sunday, it was early July when two mainstay characters, the adman Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and the now-former office manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) found themselves in a waiting room in a hospital sharing Dr Peppers from a vending machine.

The brand’s presence in the scene took one viewer who grew up in New York City by surprise. Sure, the verisimilitude was perfect: the machine vended bottles of Dr Pepper, not cans (for 10 cents each!).

And the period ad slogan of Dr Pepper was prominent: “10, 2, 4,” conveying that Dr Pepper was good to drink at 10, 2 or 4 or any other time of the day or night.

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When NBC launched America’s first daily television news programme in 1949, the “Camel News Caravan” featured a newscaster with an always smoking ashtray beside him, a Camel Cigarettes sign behind and a house rule that “no smoking” signs were banned from any broadcast footage. The programme’s tobacco company sponsor had so much control that Sir Winston Churchill couldn’t be shown in any reports initially because he was always clutching a cigar, the wrong sort of smoke.

Nobody has yet suggested that the British government’s rethink on its opposition to product placement on television programmes will take us back to the days of the Camel News Caravan but the example gives some idea of what can happen when the blurring of advertising and editorial is taken to extremes.

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James Bond drives an Aston Martin, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw totters around in a pair of Manolo Blahniks, and characters in the Chinese version of Ugly Betty have ‘Lipton tea breaks’. Product placement is hard to avoid.

The business is also potentially very lucrative, accounting for about five per cent of advertising in the US. Executed badly, however, product placement can alienate audiences and destroy trust.

The most important rule is that the product must fit its placement. Virgin Atlantic comms director Paul Charles, who managed product placement for the airline on Bond movies Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, said it was imperative for PROs to read the entire script to ensure the product was set in the context of the rest of the programme.

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NEW YORK: Total measured advertising expenditures in the first six months of 2009 fell 14.3 percent versus a year ago, to $60.87 billion, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The results are in line with similar measurements from Nielsen, which estimated that ad spending fell 15.4 percent for the first half of the year. Both TNS and Nielsen combine ad spending across a variety of TV, radio, print and online categories, but their calculations yield slightly different results.

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The government’s plan to allow product placement in television programmes has been welcomed by drama producers and broadcasters, who say it will help plug a gap in falling budgets.

However, Andy Harries, the founder of Wallander production company Left Bank Pictures, told the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention today that producers should retain control of how product placement was used.

“It is inevitable and to be welcomed, but I would like to see producers at the forefront of controlling product placement,” Harries said.

The Sky1 controller of drama, Elaine Pyke, added: “Bringing money into drama is an absolute necessity. Product placement is an absolute necessity. It is about time. It is really good for us.”

Yesterday the culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, confirmed that he would launch a new consultation on the issue, although he said he now believed it should be allowed in order to bring new funds to commercial broadcasters, overturning the previous government position.

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The buzz was created by Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw, who used a speech to float of the idea of more relaxed rules on such placement.

The Government appears to see the technique as a potential £100m boost for the beleaguered world of commercial broadcasting. Who knows, it could even take some pressure off the increasingly maligned BBC.

It is indeed good news for broadcasters, which desperately need something more to sell. And any potential growth area in promotional spend is bound to set tongues wagging in Soho and Fitzrovia agencies, particularly at a time when advertising is in decline and even digital marketing is cash-strapped.

But who will own this mythical pot of gold? Just like most marketing techniques at the moment, there will inevitably be a tussle among ad agencies, media shops, new media specialists and the rest.

The PR industry has also raised its hands. After all, this is a marketing technique based on content and narrative - surely the natural turf of PR. This is true, but there are some problems with this analysis.

First, product placement is already widespread in the British media. Not only gadget-fuelled Bond films, but also the myriad TV detective series, where stars always seem to have use of a pristine Lexus or Merc.

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American-style product placements are to be allowed on British TV.

The revolutionary move could see shows such as The X Factor feature Coca-Cola logos and Coronation stars drinking PG Tips.

Experts estimate it could bring in £100million to help channels struggling after a dive in advertising revenue. But critics said the move was a “slippery slope” and could end with newsreaders name-checking products during bulletins.

The change will apply only to commercial broadcasters - ITV, Channel 4 and channel Five and will not be allowed on children’s programmes. An ITV spokesman said: “It will be warmly welcomed by the commercial broadcasting industry and advertisers alike.”

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NEW YORK NBC Universal has rolled out its latest stab at branded entertainment with a series that revolves around an understanding American Family Insurance agent.

The brand, along with Mindshare Entertainment, worked with NBCU Digital Studio to develop the series, “In Gayle We Trust.” The short-form vehicle marks American Family’s first stab at branded entertainment.

The idea, according to Telisa Yancy, American Family’s advertising director, is to drive home the brand positioning that its agents are trusted advisors woven into the fabric of the community.

“We built a wish list based on telling key stories,” she said. “We believe that our agents help provide trusted advice to the public.”

NBCU and Mindshare enlisted top-flight talent. Brent Forrester, a writer from The Office, penned “In Gayle We Trust.” The series stars Elisa Donovan — who appeared in Clueless and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch — as Gayle Evans, an insurance agent who serves as the de facto life coach for a town of quirky characters.

NBCU produced 10 episodes, which will be shown on a dedicated Web site, NBC Web properties, Hulu, iTunes and video-on-demand services. The show debuted this week and new episodes, running three to four minutes each, will appear weekly.

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Media buyers and affiliate marketers could be in increasing demand due to a change in product placement rules.

Last week it was announced that commercial broadcasters will be allowed to show sponsored products on television shows for the first time.

Sarah Cooper, director at Clever Recruitment, told Recruiter: “It will be advertising and branding. It is an opportunity for anybody with branding experience to capitalise on those opportunities that are there.

“The kind of product placement will be the bigger brands. You are going to need people who really understand lifestyle branding and consumerism, as well as advertising in the best way.

“It is a whole new opening. People with a mixture of skills will be in demand - someone who understands branding, television and consumer buying power and knows how to talk to the brand themselves and tell them which programmes they need to go in.”

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In a dramatic U-turn, Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw is expected to announce changes this week that could lead to the introduction of paid-for product placement by next year.

Sony products are already highly visible in Sony Pictures films, but Carl Pring, the company’s head of brand and advertising, is sceptical about the benefits of product placement in third-party programming.

‘With general entertainment such as Coronation Street and The X Factor, it is much harder to gauge the return on investment, because we just don’t know what visibility the products will receive,’ he said.

Molson Coors Brewing Company marketing director Simon Davies cast further doubt on the value of this type of advertising. ‘With a TV ad, you have those 30 seconds all for yourself,’ he said.

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