Best of Marketing

Digital product integration is enabling post shooting insertion

The new trend is all about digital product integration,    
where a marketer's products can suddenly appear in scenes of TV shows after they've been   
shot. Currently, advertisers including Chevrolet and Dannon yogurt are using the new       
technology, which is expected to grow in popularity as marketers continue to seek new ways 
to reach consumers who routinely record programming and then skip through commercials      
during playback. While traditional product integration can be obvious and sometimes         
heavy-handed, the digital technique strives to be more subtle by making the product         
relevant to a storyline, sneaking a brand name or ad message in while people are watching   
their favorite show. For instance, when Kellogg wanted to get its products into a TV show, 
Marathon Ventures, a marketing firm that specializes in digital product integration, found 
a scene in which stars of "Yes, Dear" were drinking wine and eating cheese and fruit, and   
inserted a highly visible box of its Club crackers on the coffee table. "Digital brand      
integration is part of the evolution of product placement. It's simply another tool         
marketers use to get products integrated into shows," said Marathon founder and president   
David Brenner. "If you can put it in a package, we can put it in a show."

Local TV is an efficient vehicle for product placement

Morning television shows produced by local TV station have become a gold mine for 
marketers seeking a place to promote their brands via product placement and 
program integration. Opportunities still abound on the local shows, unlike at 
prime-time andnational levels, where marketers are finding it difficult to secure 
available space due todemand. Those other platforms are also more expensive than 
local TV, where producers arehungry for free content. 
Appearances on local shows often come in the form of four-minute lifestyle segments 
dedicated to one brand that feature a brand's spokesperson chatting with the show's host
 and delivering the product's message to viewers. Third-party endorsements may also 
appear, as well as follow-up information about a product on a station'sWeb site. 
The marketer controls how its brand will be presented, who the spokesperson will be, 
signage, scripting and what the segments will look like.

Product placement on bonus DVD scenes

Mediapost reports CBS will put a bonus scene from CSI: Miami on its website featuring a plot twist that will not be revealed to television viewers until later in the season. This is already a smart marketing move for the broadcaster, but the the big news for advertisers is that the bonus scene page will be sponsored by General Motors' Hummer brand of trucks which will also actually appear in the bonus scene itself.

Product placement on the increase thanks to video-on-demand viewing

Product placement will increase its impact when viewed via on-demand services.
When viewers pay for a viewing (even a modest amount as is planned by the networks), their conscious (or cognitive) rejection is mitigated, and their attention and awareness is heightened as they become more receptive to content--interest, engagement, and involvement are all psychological variables at work here that have a positive effect in terms of messaging, entertainment, and communications.
This opportunity can also serve to move product placements from a passive, added-value advertising element to one that is primary and accountable for driving brand impact, intention, and sales. The basic principle at work here is that the quality of the placement will become extremely important as it achieves a higher level of prominence and impact.

Product placement gone wrong?

There are a number of things that can go wrong with brand integration:
- you can get cut out of a scene
- you might overpay for an insertion in a flop movie
- they might use the product in the wrong context or by the wrong characters
- product might be shown in a negative light

Also there the writers of a show often don't like to deal with product placements because it influences their creative process and artistic integrity. In addition, writers are probably more upset because they don't share in the revenues generated by product placement

Product placement is getting better and competitive

As we hear the 100th story about advertising clutter and diminishing impact, in came the product placement or brand integration to the rescue. It's become common practice in the United States now that audiences, especially television audiences, have so many better things to do with their time than sit and watch commercials. The advent of TiVo, a recording system that allows the viewer to skip adverts altogether, has been a particularly big spur. Hence the profusion of mentions, from the casual to the clunky, of Pepperidge Farm biscuits on Frasier, of the hi-tech company Cisco on the counter-terrorism drama 24, of Amazon.com's search engine A9.com on the teen drama The OC. I was impressed to learn that The Contenter integrated 7500 product placements in 9 months in 2005. So you need to handle this more professionally than sending some free props. I see different levels of brand integration in TV shows, film or even combined with internet:

So the series 24 was supposed to be ad free, but wasn't there a Ford explorer that the main character drives? Here you can see an apple computer being used in the show.

Product placement of the next level can also be seen in alternative media beyond the traditional film and TV shows like books and video games.

The trick of properly done product placement is to not over do it. It needs to feel real. Like in real life you will order a Coke and not a refreshing, delicious Coke.

I have felt the power of product placement myself when one of my brands was placed prominently in Friends. I had everybody who knew me calling me up and telling me they saw it. Sales jumped triple digits.

Some famous product placement deals:

Risky Business - Ray-Ban sunglasses

Back to the Future - Pepsi products

Demolition Man - Taco Bell (In the future, everything is Taco Bell...)

You've Got Mail - America On-Line (AOL), Apple, IBM and Starbucks

Austin Powers - Pepsi and Starbucks

Cast Away - FedEx and Wilson

Men in Black II - Ray-Ban sunglasses, Mercedes Benz, Sprint, Burger King

Laura Croft - Jeep Wrangler

According to a 2003 Chrysler press release, "The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is the most capable Jeep ever built, so the heroic and extreme environment in which Lara Croft uses her custom Wrangler Rubicon in Tomb Raider is accurate... This is more than just a product placement.  We have created a 360-degree integrated marketing campaign around the movie and the debut of the Wrangler Rubicon Tomb Raider model."