Every single first-year show we’ve launched has an advertising partner in place, which has probably never happened in broadcast TV.
- Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment
In Brian Stelter, "Low Ratings End Show and a Product Placement," The New York Times, November 13, 2008
When NBC ordered the cancellation of My Worst Enemy recently, it meant more than the demise of a series that many in the network were sure would succeed. It also marked the end of a program that it had sculpted to highlight General Motors cars in a deal that had GM underwriting some of the production costs. Such "product integration" deals are becoming common on television, and NBC's Silverman is one of their greatest proponents on NBC-Universal's broadcast and cable properties. The reasoning behind it is straightforward: The network gets money to help create the programs, while advertisers get the ability to present their products within programs at a time when viewers are increasingly likely to use DVRs to fast-forward through regular commercials.
In the case of My Own Worst Enemy, NBC and GM "teamed up early in the production process, created commercials together and carefully added the Camaro and Traverse brands to the story lines." The lead character, played by Christian Slater, had two personalities; he drove the Traverse sport utility vehicle in his ordinary middle-class father manifestation and the Camaro converticle when a secret agent. Of course, even the best laid plans cannot guarantee success with the audience, and Nielsen's ratings doomed the show.
The demise of My Own Enemy by no means spells the demise of the basic product-integration business model. Quite the contrary: NBC not only has built several current shows around advertiser interests (including Knight Rider, with Ford), it is pushing the concept forward with gusto and sensitivity to the interests of specific advertisers. In the words of Marc Graboff, the other co-chair on NBC Entertainment, "It's not about sticking a Coke can on a desk anymore. It's an evolving form."
Showing posts with label product placement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label product placement. Show all posts
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Product Integration Is Increasingly Acceptable Everywhere on TV
They may be purists, but they'll get over it if they need to.
- Ilene Chaiken, creator of The L Word series on Showtime
In Claude Brodesser-Akner, "On Ad-Less L Word, Brands Become Part of Plot," Advertising Age, August 7, 2008
Chaiken is referring to the concern writers might have about writing marketing messages into episodes of The L Word episodes. The L Word is much-discussed series about lesbians on Showtime, a subscription network with no commercials. Ratings suggest that the program attracts a bit over 300,00 prime time viewers aged 18-49 each week. Research further suggests that these viewers are mostly upscale females--the kinds of consumers advertisers covet. With production costs rising, Showtime agreed with Chaiken about the acceptable of inviting marketers to pay to be included in the program. The network gave Chaikin "the power to control all brand integration for the show's final season, as well as for a spin-off series launching on the network next year."
Advertising Age has learned that for $300,000 a marketer can buy an "integration package" that will link the marketer's products with the show: "either incorporate a brand into existing L Word storylines or allow the brand to work with the show's writers to create customized storylines, participating in one episode or across several. " Although this type of blunt sales approach may be unusual for a subscription channel, it is becoming the norm across many television channels. Another Advertising Age article on the same day tells of a new small-business makeover/advice series on the A&E cable network called We Mean Business for which Dell will not only be the exclusive technology sponsor, it will "will be integrated throughout the half-hour episodes, from laptops and servers to point-of-purchase solutions to help streamline costs and day-to-day operations for local businesses such as bakeries, specialty stores and salons. "
- Ilene Chaiken, creator of The L Word series on Showtime
In Claude Brodesser-Akner, "On Ad-Less L Word, Brands Become Part of Plot," Advertising Age, August 7, 2008
Chaiken is referring to the concern writers might have about writing marketing messages into episodes of The L Word episodes. The L Word is much-discussed series about lesbians on Showtime, a subscription network with no commercials. Ratings suggest that the program attracts a bit over 300,00 prime time viewers aged 18-49 each week. Research further suggests that these viewers are mostly upscale females--the kinds of consumers advertisers covet. With production costs rising, Showtime agreed with Chaiken about the acceptable of inviting marketers to pay to be included in the program. The network gave Chaikin "the power to control all brand integration for the show's final season, as well as for a spin-off series launching on the network next year."
Advertising Age has learned that for $300,000 a marketer can buy an "integration package" that will link the marketer's products with the show: "either incorporate a brand into existing L Word storylines or allow the brand to work with the show's writers to create customized storylines, participating in one episode or across several. " Although this type of blunt sales approach may be unusual for a subscription channel, it is becoming the norm across many television channels. Another Advertising Age article on the same day tells of a new small-business makeover/advice series on the A&E cable network called We Mean Business for which Dell will not only be the exclusive technology sponsor, it will "will be integrated throughout the half-hour episodes, from laptops and servers to point-of-purchase solutions to help streamline costs and day-to-day operations for local businesses such as bakeries, specialty stores and salons. "
Monday, July 28, 2008
Singer Chris Brown's Product Placement
[B]y the time the new jingle came out, it was already seeded properly within popular culture.
-Steve Stoute, chief executive of Translation Advertising
In Ethan Smith and Julie Jargon, "Chew on This: Hit Song Is a Gum Jingle," Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2008
Stoute is a former senior executive at Interscope Records. He is now the chief executive of Translation Advertising, which is a unit of Interpublic, the agency holding company. One of Stout's goals for Translation is to use music to support the aims of clients. In 2003, for example, he hired Justin Timberlake to write and record a song for McDonald's that expressed its "Im Lovin It" theme. The Timberlake song, though, was never released as a recording. In 2007, as part of a promotion for the Wrigley gum company, Stout engineered a new wrinkle. He enlisted R&B singer Chris Brown to write a melody that could also be used as a jingle for the client Doublemint gum ( the favorite Wrigley gum among African Americans). He asked to write lyrics for a recorded version of the song and the jingle.
Jive Records released the recording in 2007, and it became a top-ten hit. Only the phrase "double your pleasure, double your fun" would have given away the connection to Doublemint; that was its longtime slogan. Nevertheless, Translation and Wrigley kept quiet about the connection between the song and the gum. As Stout suggest, they wanted the song to become part of the target audience's life. Then, when new gum commercial echoed the song with new lyrics, the commercials would reinforce the song and the song would reinforce the commercial. A few record company executives seemed concerned that the song was created for advertisers without telling the audience. But they said they went ahead with its release because "the song was so potent and strong. That overruled us being maybe a little hesitant."
Translation and Wrigley undoubtedly see this as a triumph of a new form of product placement. In an where recording artists are industry struggling to find new ways to make money from their songs, and where marketers are struggling to find ways to get target audiences to connect emtionally with their brands, it is not hard to predict that we will see attempts to copy and extend what Chris Brown and Translation have done.
-Steve Stoute, chief executive of Translation Advertising
In Ethan Smith and Julie Jargon, "Chew on This: Hit Song Is a Gum Jingle," Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2008
Stoute is a former senior executive at Interscope Records. He is now the chief executive of Translation Advertising, which is a unit of Interpublic, the agency holding company. One of Stout's goals for Translation is to use music to support the aims of clients. In 2003, for example, he hired Justin Timberlake to write and record a song for McDonald's that expressed its "Im Lovin It" theme. The Timberlake song, though, was never released as a recording. In 2007, as part of a promotion for the Wrigley gum company, Stout engineered a new wrinkle. He enlisted R&B singer Chris Brown to write a melody that could also be used as a jingle for the client Doublemint gum ( the favorite Wrigley gum among African Americans). He asked to write lyrics for a recorded version of the song and the jingle.
Jive Records released the recording in 2007, and it became a top-ten hit. Only the phrase "double your pleasure, double your fun" would have given away the connection to Doublemint; that was its longtime slogan. Nevertheless, Translation and Wrigley kept quiet about the connection between the song and the gum. As Stout suggest, they wanted the song to become part of the target audience's life. Then, when new gum commercial echoed the song with new lyrics, the commercials would reinforce the song and the song would reinforce the commercial. A few record company executives seemed concerned that the song was created for advertisers without telling the audience. But they said they went ahead with its release because "the song was so potent and strong. That overruled us being maybe a little hesitant."
Translation and Wrigley undoubtedly see this as a triumph of a new form of product placement. In an where recording artists are industry struggling to find new ways to make money from their songs, and where marketers are struggling to find ways to get target audiences to connect emtionally with their brands, it is not hard to predict that we will see attempts to copy and extend what Chris Brown and Translation have done.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Private and Public Developments in TV Product Placement
If you can't measure it, you can't sell it.
-Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBC Universal
In Alana Semuels, "Research Firm Nielsen Tallying Product Placement Ads," Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2008
The measurement of product placement in television programming has become a major activity during the past few years. Marketers increasingly make deals to have their goods show up during the action so viewers will have no choice but to see them. (When it comes to commercials, they can always switch channels or fast-forward on their DVRs.) The Nielsen research firm has ambitions to become the major go-to company in this area (as it is with television ratings) and it has augmented its own audits of products in programs with the purchase of IAG Research, which uses a different method to track placements. Other companies audit placements in different ways, all trying to prove their value to marketers and their agencies, who need to justify their activities. "Advertisers spent $2.9 billion in 2007 to place their products in TV shows and movies, up 33.7% from the year before, according to media research firm PQ Media. This year spending is projected to hit $3.6 billion, not including "barter" arrangements -- in which a company gives away products to be used in shows, rather than paying for them to be placed there."
In the midst of all this private research activity, the Federal Communications Commission has responded to critics who argue that consumers need straightforward information about when products are being placed in programs in exchange for money. "Such disclosures currently run during the credits, but the agency plans to examine whether product placement notices should be written in bigger print and displayed for a longer period."
-Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBC Universal
In Alana Semuels, "Research Firm Nielsen Tallying Product Placement Ads," Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2008
The measurement of product placement in television programming has become a major activity during the past few years. Marketers increasingly make deals to have their goods show up during the action so viewers will have no choice but to see them. (When it comes to commercials, they can always switch channels or fast-forward on their DVRs.) The Nielsen research firm has ambitions to become the major go-to company in this area (as it is with television ratings) and it has augmented its own audits of products in programs with the purchase of IAG Research, which uses a different method to track placements. Other companies audit placements in different ways, all trying to prove their value to marketers and their agencies, who need to justify their activities. "Advertisers spent $2.9 billion in 2007 to place their products in TV shows and movies, up 33.7% from the year before, according to media research firm PQ Media. This year spending is projected to hit $3.6 billion, not including "barter" arrangements -- in which a company gives away products to be used in shows, rather than paying for them to be placed there."
In the midst of all this private research activity, the Federal Communications Commission has responded to critics who argue that consumers need straightforward information about when products are being placed in programs in exchange for money. "Such disclosures currently run during the credits, but the agency plans to examine whether product placement notices should be written in bigger print and displayed for a longer period."
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