Posts tagged product placement
Can the UK handle the ‘US style of marketing’?
Aug 17th
Product placement will be allowed in the UK in 2011, and with many new rules and regulations around the medium, marketers may be reluctant to take advantage of this “US style of marketing”.
The Wall Street Journal calls product placement the “US style of marketing”. It also points out that product placement was born in Europe back in the 1890s when films were financed by brands. Somewhere down the line the form of advertising was banned, but now the European Union has relaxed the rules and we’re set for explosion of advertising – some of us may not even be able to tell.
The EU has changed the laws and now editorial and advertising are allowed to be mixed. The catch is, the two must be distinct from one another and programmes must disclose whether or not they are ‘advertising’ anything.
While keen to allow commercial broadcasters access to a new source of revenue, the EU authorities want to ensure viewers know when they are being sold to.
Of course, the rules also forbid tobacco advertising within shows and ban product placement of any kind in children’s programs, documentaries and news programs.
Last month, broadcasting regulator Ofcom published a set of proposed rules banning the placement of alcohol, junk food and gambling services.
While the new revenue will aid some broadcasters, (adding an estimated extra £30 million a year to the bottom line) many have remained cautious about product placement because of its vast restrictions and viewer unpopularity.
Product placement won’t start being used in the UK until next year, but Spanish and French broadcasters have already started implementing this ‘US style marketing’.
But why now? Read the rest of this entry »
Apple makes a splash with product placement
Mar 10th
The UK government has confirmed on various occasions in various proposals that it will eventually allow product placement on British TV to provide a new revenue stream for beleaguered commercial broadcasters – the time to move on this is now, as Apple as proved.
Last year, the Apple brand dominated the product placement industry with the tech giant appearing in 18 of the 44 films that topped the box office last year including Drag Me to Hell, Orphan, The Hurt Locker and Funny People.
The statistic excludes several other Apple product placements in movies that did not top the box office – Apple really is everywhere and it’s clearly a brand that’s willing to pay big bucks. So when can the UK expect to see some of that dosh?
Italy’s government approved a decree that allows product placement on TV earlier this month. Its decision is expected to benefit Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset broadcaster and at the same time lowers the amount of advertising that pay TV players can broadcast begging the question: will product placement replace traditional TV advertising?
With more and more TV shows being watched and downloaded via the internet, product placement looks to be the silver bullet to lost revenues and a sure fire way to get your brand into the hands and infront of cosumers on the go.
Brand analysis firm Margaux Matrix estimated last month that product placement on Coronation Street could be worth up to £330,000 per week to broadcaster ITV.
Placing point-of-sale and poster advertising in key locations around the set of the show is estimated at being worth a further £230,000 on average across the episodes.
Margaux Matrix also said that if alcohol product placement was permitted it would bring in a possible £181,000 a week, representing an additional annual income of over £9 million.
This is clearly a market waiting to be exploited, as demonstrated by such brands as Apple already.
TV in the digital age, what marketers are in for
Jan 14th
TV, the way we watch it and how we interact with it, has changed dramatically as technology evolves. But are marketers ready to follow suit?
Given today’s radical new report in public service broadcast, I thought it was worth a look into what TV is going to be like in the ‘digital age’.
I know what you’re thinking, we’ve been in the digital age for some time now, but this decade, the teens of the millennium, TV is going to become vastly different.
For one, the digital switchover looms (2012) and as we saw in the noughties, it will not only change the way we watch TV, or where, but how advertisers reach us. Consumers have the power and ability to skip the ads, and they do, with such services as Sky +.
But, while this does seem a negative point, it has been a catalyst for some of the most creative and engaging TV ads in the past two years. I hate to keep mentioning it but Cadbury’s Gorilla advert is a perfect example.
It also embraced the power of cross-channel marketing – using a combination of social media, viral marketing and TV ads. The use of multiple channels isn’t anything new though, it has been greatly experimented with, but going forward, I think we can expect to see a lot more of this from now on.
Also, internet TV is here, well and truly. And at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, Yahoo unveiled a widget that will allow consumers to access the internet through their TV sets. We’ve been watching TV on our computer screens for a few years now, but this goes one step further, bringing the web to us from the comfort of our couch.
I think a lot more broadcasters will be trying to get more of their programming online once this Yahoo widget truly takes off. Catch-up TV, in particular the BBC’s iPlayer, have experiences massive growth in the past few years by offering this simply convenience. However, some broadcasters are still fiddling with the model.
Channel 4’s catch-up service for example was originally a paid-for-service. Each TV show you downloaded was around £2. The service eventually went free after limited take up, but now the broadcaster has signed a content deal with YouTube to feature its shows.
Catch-up TV (or, on-demand TV) poses a problem for advertisers and broadcasters as the number of commercials and sponsors are limited – most shows only feature one ad. But with product placement in Britain expected to get the go ahead before summer, we could be about to see many more broadcasters jump aboard.
Also unveiled at CES was 3D TV. Programming is about to get a lot more interesting, we’re being coaxed back to our TV screens and advertisers will follow suit with highly creative and interactive ads that jump in front of your eyes and burn in your memory – remember, 3D is an experience.
Technology has allowed TV to now be consumed in more ways than we ever thought – the internet, 3D, mobile and digital. The opportunities for advertisers are endless and TV advertising certainly isn’t dead yet despite what some broadcaster’s revenues said last year. In fact, I would say we are at the new dawn of TV advertising, and it’s about to get a whole lot more creative.
Lastly, where does all this leave public service broadcasting? The Policy Exchange report is calling for radically reforms, especially of the BBC. With the way that television is evolving, ultimately the PSB channels will have to fight to keep up. Let the content wars begin…and perhaps product placement really is the solution for easy revenues for broadcasters.
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