Video Placements Proliferate
Paid product placement was a particularly bright spot last year, as spending grew 33.7% to the $2.9 billion mark, from $2.2 billion in 2006, even though it was the slowest rate of growth since 2003, according to the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast.
Most of that growth was on television, 71.6%, because of the frequency, exposure and reach that TV series offer. Coca-Cola’s presence in “American Idol” is a prime-time example of the traditional placement approach.
Films took 25% of the spending. Other media, such as newspapers, magazines, videogames, the Internet, books, recorded music and radio, made up the other 3.4%, the report found.
VSS attributes the growth to “marketers pursuing innovative ways to make connections with consumers, as well as to circumvent DVR technology that allows viewers to skip commercials.”
The leading edge in product placement is the creation of original content in serial form for placement in short-form series that appear as long-form ads embedded in TV series. These series are also placed online in Webisodes and accessible by cell phone.
Turner Entertainment has been particularly aggressive in creating triple-screen opportunities for advertisers in these short-form “microseries” that convey product messages.
A notable project was “Lucky Chance,” created by TNT, one of Turner Entertainment’s cable networks. “Lucky Chance” was a microseries sponsored by Dodge and AT&T, with the Dodge Charger and AT&T wireless playing leading roles. Carried in “Law & Order” episodes last summer, the microseries is a crime thriller about DEA agent Lucky Chance in a race against time to retrieve $50 million for crime boss Frankie Cash, who is blackmailing him.
Chance gets his cues from Cash on an AT&T mobile phone and makes the necessary moves in a Dodge Challenger. The microseries comprised 20 two-minute segments and was also accessible on TNT.tv and via mobile phones. Dodge also ran a sweepstakes to give away a 2009 Dodge Challenger.
Turner Entertainment handles production of the microseries and also spins the video content to other sites in a viral tract. In another departure from form, “Lucky Chance” is likely to see a return engagement sometime next year.
Another microseries potboiler, “Blank Slate,” started running during “Law & Order” last month, featuring the Acura TSX and RL playing primary roles. The series follows TNT’s 20 two-minute-episode, triple-screen formula.
The objective is to implant product memories in couch potatoes inured to the traditional TV ad barrage, and to use the broadband and mobile platforms for broader reach.
“Marketers and clients are forced to be more savvy, sophisticated and proactive in getting their messages out,” says Katherine Johnson, senior vice president of Turner Entertainment promotions and marketing.
Observers see a clear trend, particularly among cable networks, that figures to continue as networks and marketers strive to find magic bullets to break through the congested video landscape.
“It’s another way station along the road as advertisers try to figure out the best way of putting a product on the screen,” says media analyst Gary Arlen. “It’s experimental, trying to do something with a different approach.”
Johnson says the key is making the right match between content and client. In the Dodge case, the match was a winner as Dodge mobilized its customer base by e-mail and the Challenger elicited viewers’ passion for muscle cars.
“When you have the best marriage, you get the best results,” Johnson says. “It’s easy for the brand to take a chance and, ultimately, it’s more accepted by the viewers. The last thing you want to do is to jar the viewer.”
MTV forged a logical alliance with Hewlett-Packard in a multi-platform play around “Engine Room,” a short-form reality series that debuted last month on MTV and mtvU, MTV’s college-oriented digital channel. It features 16 competitors in four teams vying for a $400,000 grand prize in a competition involving animation, filmmaking and other skills using H-P hardware.
“It represents a new way of partnering with our sponsors to create compelling programming,” says mtvU’s Ross Martin, senior vice president of programming.
It’s the first of several such series MTV plans, including one featuring Ford vehicles in “College 500,” a cross-country road race among collegians that will debut this fall.
SNAPSHOT
Paid product placement spending rose 33.7%, to $2.9 billion
Slowest growth since 2003
Short-form series latest placement invention
