My last post...

Over the past semester I have been able to experience blogging for the first time, as well as learn all about product placement in the process. I am glad that I picked this topic for my blog, because I have learned a lot about an area that is increasing in popularity very quickly as I am getting in to the field.

It would be a really long post for me to go over everything that I have learned about in my research, but here is a quick summary of what I found most interesting:

• Movie product placement-- The bottom line? It's a great idea! (If you can make your product fit within the plot of the film, of course) When you think about it, think about how large of a budget films have to spend promoting their release. Now if your product is within that movie, all that promotion equals more people seeing your brand. Not to mention, when a film comes out for rental or purchase, it will cause people to view the film several times and increase exposure. Think of all the old movies you rent because you haven't seen them in awhile. You product is forever within a movie that people could potentially be viewing for years!

• Television shows -- Very similar situation. People simply aren't watching traditional commercials anymore. They have their TiVos and they have the online versions of shows with much fewer commercial breaks. So how do you reach them? By putting your product in to the show itself. This again will get the repeat exposure because people can watch many shows at any time online or record them to watch multiple times on DVR's, etc. Also, with the popularity of TV shows in DVD sets, your product can live forever within the show rather than being shown once during the first airing and never again.

• Video Games -- What better way to reach that hard to get audience of young males than by inserting your brand in to their favorite video games? Even with this audience that does not watch as much television and does not respond to commercials, you can get them exposed through video, computer, and online games by finding a way to integrate your product with the theme of the game.

• Other Avenues -- As the idea of product placement grows, so does the arenas in which it can be found. For example, the Fall Out Boy music video which I wrote about in an earlier post. (watch "Thnks fr th Mmrs" at falloutboy.com) There is also reverse product placement, in which a brand creates the show, much like the Gillette reality show discussed earlier in this blog.

Overall what I have learned in a nutshell is that product placement is growing fast. It's a great alternative to traditional advertising that has grown in popularity because it seems to be very effective. (to learn about how it is measured, check out iTVX.com) The main goal of product placement, however, should be to find a show in which the product or brand fits seamlessly so that it is not even noticed as product placement. Like I have said earlier, the Nascar themed movies and shows are a great example of this as Nascar is based off of sponsorships. Finding the perfect show or character to link your brand or product with is the key to successful product placement.

I highly recommend checking out www.brandchannel.com, as it is one of the best product placement websites I have found over the past few months.

On another note, what I learned from doing this blog over the semester is that you really have to promote yourself to get your blog out there and read by others. I posted comments and sent one email to a few other blog owners, but did not ever receive a response or a post back. If I were to do it over again, I would make more of an effort to find other great product placement and media blogs and promote my own through them.

This has been a great experience for me as I got to learn all about blogging and all about product placement. I hope you've enjoyed reading it!

Keds in Top Model

Keds brand shoes has done some product placement over the years, in shows like "The OC", "Alias" and movies like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Aviator". They are trying to revamp the brand and appeal to a younger audience, so the recent placement in "America's Next Top Model" was perfect for the brand.

They were featured on the show as the incentive for the winner of the week's challenge. The winning model received the opportunity to star in a full page ad in Seventeen magazine. I thought this was unique too because they used their product placement to support a magazine that they were going to be in, hopefully in turn driving up sales of the issue. And what better vehicles to use to increase sales among the young markets than a teen magazine and a CW show that is very popular among young females.

The brand also has a line of men's shoes that will be featured in an upcoming Brad Pitt film. The movie is called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons" and will show Pitt's character wearing the sneakers throughout. That will come out in 2008.

It seems like Ked is one brand that is definitly on top of the product placement game. They have found great ways to integrate their product in to plots without being too in your face about it.

read the article

Perfect Stranger full of Product Placement

Today I read a few articles reviewing the new movie "Perfect Stranger" starring Halle Berry, Giovani Rivisi, and Bruce Willis. While the movie is not getting very good reviews, the product placement within it is getting plenty of attention.

Bruce Willis plays a murder suspect who works at an advertising agency - the perfect chance for products to integrate themselves within the plot. According to the article "So Far From Perfect" in the Pittsburg Post Gazette, there is "no need to position cans of soft drinks, labels to the camera, when you can plug Victoria's Secret or other companies serviced by the ad agency. It's like watching a very special Apprentice." The other major brand that got in on the idea is Reebok, who is also featured as a product that Willis' agency is working on.

According to the articles that I read, the product placement is not very subtle at all, but it works well because of the agency setting that it was written in to. Even though it sounds like the movie isn't impressing too many people, I'll have to go see it and check out the product placement!

To read more about it, check out these articles:
"So Far From Perfect"
"A Perfect Stranger? What's His Real Story?"
"Avoid this Perfect Stranger if you Can"

Grey's Anatomy

Today in class we talked about Grey's Anatomy being one of the shows benefiting from college students now being included in the ratings process. Because we are targeting that age in our project and it is one of my favorite shows, I decided to watch the latest episode to see how much product placement I could spot.

I didn't find as much as I thought I would, although I am sure it is a very expensive show to place products on. What I did see included:

1. Pringles brand chips on the counter in the background of the main character's house. They have such unique packaging I could tell right away what they were.

2. On the fridge there was the logo for Breast Cancer Awareness, the pink ribbon. Although this isn't really a product placement, it is an easily identifiable logo for a good cause that is associated with a medical show. It fit well.

3. Starbucks coffee. With the hectic schedules in the hospital, it is no wonder the characters drink so much coffee. What I noticed, however, was that four times they showed the easily identifiable Starbuck's cup in a main character's hand. It's a great fit for the lifestyle of the characters.

4. One character, a man in the hospital, was talking on a Nokia cell phone. This one I found a little out of place since you cannot have cell phones on in the hospital, but hey I noticed it still!

5. While doing research for a surgery, I noticed the dell logo on a laptop that one of the interns was using.

6. While two characters were out to dinner in a sports bar type place, there was a lit sign for Falling Rock Ale in the background. I am not sure if this is a real brand or not but I noticed it.

7. Although it was not shown, there was a mention of PowerPoint in the episode as well as the residents were doing presentations for promotions.

And finally, though it was not product placement, I noticed that Nissan sponsored the episode on ABC.com. The Nissan logo was displayed above the screen for the entire thing, with three short ads thrown in to the episode. The commercials did not bother me even though they are impossible to close without watching the entire thing. I think Nissan did a great job because they made the ads interactive, which wasn't as boring as just sitting through them. It also helped that they were not the same ad each time but different ones.


To watch Grey's Anatomy, go to ABC.com.

Forget commercials, produce shows!

Today's USA Today featured an article that is all about how the Gillette brand is going to sponsor a new show called "Fast Cars and Superstars: Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race" that is an entire show based on the idea of product placement. The show will be on ABC, which carefully decided whether or not the show was going to be effective entertainment and not just a long infomercial for the brand and NASCAR.

The current traditional advertising of Gillette features several young NASCAR drivers, including Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman, that will now be the stars of the ABC show. In each episode, they will train celebrities how to drive cars (covered in the typical NASCAR branding) and eventually how to participate in time-trials. The article compared the show concept to that of "Dancing with the Stars" except with fast cars instead of ballroom dancing.

Because NASCAR already has so many brands associated with it and people are used to seeing their favorite drivers and cars plastered in ads, this show seems like it will work without being too "in your face." Much like the movie Talladega Nights which I wrote about earlier on in this blog, viewers may not even realize so many brands are being shown to them during each episode.

The concept of creating a show around a brand really isn't new since that is how soap operas got their start. It has, however, started to become much more popular as an adaptation to the change in traditional media viewing, etc.

Some other brands that also are trying out the show producing arena are Toyota, Axe, and Bombardier Recreational Products.

It will be interesting to see how many viewers the show can generate. My prediction would be quite a few since NASCAR is so popular and people are still in to reality based television. Good for Gillette!

To read the article, click here!

Measuring Product Placement

So all this research on product placement, where it is, and how its growing has led me to wonder how exactly the effectiveness can be measured. I did some research and found iTVX which is a company designed to measure the quality of product placement for brands. Their website is full of a lot of interesting and helpful information.

Here is what i learned:














iTVX will be using the Q-ratio system, which is a measurement system similar to CPMs. It is a system with over 50 factors that will be used to determine how effective and how high quality each product placement is. Once the Q-ratio is more popular and better established it will be easy for companies to use the system to set benchmarks. In addition to the Q-ratio the company also offers services such as the iTVX Instant Access Player, the Media Pro Valuator, and Strategic Consulting to help with all of a brand's product placement evaluation needs. To read all about it, go to their site!


iTVX also has an awesome section on it's site called "Featured Product Placements of the Week" and an index of great articles on product placement! The site is a great resource -- check it out!

Are music videos next??

You may have not noticed it yet, as I certainly have not, but product placement is slowly making its way in to the music industry. Because of the changes with music and a large decline in cd sales, bands have to come up with better methods for producing expensive music videos. Enter product placement!

According to the New York Times yesterday, the pop/rock band Fall Out Boy was able to significantly lower production costs for its latest video by teaming up with Proctor and Gamble's Tag Body Spray brand. Their video features the brand throughout and is also downloadable on the band's website thanks to the partnership. According to the article, the video has already been viewed more than 100,000 times!




The product placement works well in this case because the band really liked that the typical ads for the brand take a sarcastic and edgy theme, which works with the image of Fall Out Boy. When I watched the video, I only noticed the Tag Body Spray in one quick frame but I also noticed that the band members were continuously using Nokia Slider cell phones. The article doesn't mention their part in the sponsorship, but it is something that stood out to me.

I think this is yet another great opportunity for product placement and I also think this is definitely going to become more popular very quickly. It not only helps brands become seen by an audience that is not receptive to commercials, but it also helps the music industry because of the enormous costs associated with producing music videos today.

I wasn't aware that this was going on within the music video world, but I am now going to keep an eye out for other brands taking advantage of the opportunity!

Want to read more about Fall Out Boy's partnership with Tag? Click Here.
To see the video for "Thnks fr th Mmrs" or just learn more about Fall Out Boy, check out their site!

Why Product Placement is a great idea!

Today I was surfing the web looking for stats and facts about product placement and I came across movieplacement.com where I learned lots of interesting things!! So I decided to share them on here....

#1. Your average film spends somewhere around 18 million dollars to market the movie. This means, every person they reach that comes to the movies to see that film, is going to see your product. And every time someone rents that film later on or watches that film on television, they will see your product!

#2. Television commercials are aired once, are extremely expensive to air and produce, and only reach around 10 percent of viewers. One product placement within the show you would have bought commercial time during reaches everyone who is watching the show, and not just the first time it airs! Every time someone TiVo's and rewatches, or goes back to watch the episode online, or even watches the show in syndication later is going to see your product!

#3. Television shows on DVD are becoming extremely popular.. which means your product placement in even just one episode has potential to be watched several times by the same person, causing frequency with only one payment for placement!

#4. More and more video game consoles are coming out, and most generate large amounts of hype and interest. A large number of 18-48 year olds enjoy playing video games and using these systems so putting your product in to a new game for Wii or Xbox is going to reach tons of people each and every time they put the game in!

#5. The site makes includes some great cases of where product placement has worked wonderfully... its really interesting so check it out!!


In my opinion, the more I learn about product placement the more I am fascinated. It really is a great new way of breaking through the clutter and reaching your target audience in an age where the traditional ways of advertising are being challenged.

Product Placement Leaders

I decided to look in to what brands have really made product placement work. What I found was an article from AdAge called "10 Favorite Product Placement Deals" featuring some of the most successful integration of products in to media.

Number 1 was the children's toy brand Transformers, which is coming out with it's own movie in the near future. They are very successful because they found a way to take a toy and brand it in to television and movie characters, increasing sales and interest in the brand.

Number 9 was the Bravo television show "Project Runway" which successfully integrates several brands of beauty and fashion products in to each episode. Some of the most frequently featured brands on the show include L'Oreal Paris, Macy's, Elle magazine, and Tresemme. They used products that work very well with their plot, making the product placement work perfectly.

Number 6, American Express, I found very interesting because it seems reverse of what normally occurs. Instead of television shows featuring the American Express products being used by characters, the American Express website features sneak peeks of the latest episodes of both Fox's "Prison Break" and ABC's "Lost". I thought this one was very interesting and a great idea on behalf of the two networks.

Other product placement leaders include Chevy on "The Apprentice", Burger King, Budweiser, Axe deodorant and body spray, Dodge, Toyota Prius, and Amazon.com.

Check out the article to read more!

Product Placement in Blogging

Since starting this blog I have focused on product placement in the movies and in television, but today I read an article that caught my eye. With the rising popularity of blogging comes the use of product placement within people's personal blogs. People are being paid to write favorable reviews of products on their blogs so that other people will read it and become interested.

The article ("Blogging for Dollars Rases Questions of Online Ethics") questions whether or not being paid to promote brands is ethical for bloggers. In this article, several cases are described in which people are accepting money in exchange for writing about a product or service in a positive light. However, these promotions are not distinguishable from the person's opinions.

In my opinion, the problem isn't that people are paying to promote their brands on blogs, it is that the bloggers are not saying what in their writing has been paid for and what is personal opinion. I think for it to be ethical, people who are reading the blog need to know that the endorsement was paid for.

If this starts to happen, I think that product placement on blogs is a great idea. Blogging is an up and coming trend that many many people are taking part in. With so many people today surfing the internet and becoming technologically savvy, why not take advantage of this by using blogs to promote products? As long as it is clear that is in fact a paid promotion, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Product Placement in "Talladega Nights"

Over the Spring Break I happened to watch the movie "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" starring Will Ferrell as a famous Nascar driver. I assumed I would see a lot of product placement considering this was a movie about Nascar, a sport that heavily relies on brand sponsorship and endorsements. The film was packed full of brands! In the beginning I tried to keep track of how many I saw, but quickly realized that this would be pretty difficult.

Because the movie was about Nascar, it gets away with the bombardment of brands throughout it. I think perhaps that most of the people watching weren't too overwhelmed with so many brands as most people are used to seeing Nascar cars and apparel covered in sponsors.

The most noticeable brands found in the film are Wonder Bread (Ferrell's sponsor), Perrier (the opponent's sponsor), and Old Spice ( A sponsor to Ferrell's best friend). According to brandchannel.com, these three brands can be seen almost 90 times within the movie. Other noticeable brands were Applebee's, Shake n' Bake, Sunoco, Taco Bell, Dominos, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi, Budweiser, and Hummer. For a complete listing of the brands found in the film check out brandchannel.com.

I was interested to see so many product placements in a film such as this one because it is targeted mainly towards a younger audience. This includes college students, as many of us in the class are targeting in our projects. It was also interesting to see how a film worked with many many products placed in it because we will undoubtly see increased product placement in most films in the near future. Luckily for this film, the Nascar theme allowed for several different products without being too distracting from the actual plot.

Product Placement in the Movies

Because I have mostly focused on product placement in television shows throughout my posts on this blog, I decided to do a little research on recent movies utilizing the trend. I went to brandchannel.com to see the films that have been at the top of the box office over the last few months to see what products were being placed within them and what the similarities and differences were.

Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage, was a box office favorite over the past few weeks. (It came out in mid February). As you would expect, the product found throught the movie are consistent with the plot. Some of the brands featured include Coke, Marlboro, Harley-Davidson, Pennzoil, Sony, Texaco, Jack Daniel's, and Ford.

Norbit, the comedy featuring Eddie Murphy as multiple roles, also featured Coca-Cola. (As did Epic Movie and Stomp the Yard) Murphy's film also featured brands such as Adidas, Converse, and Cheez-it, along with multiple car companies.(Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes, Ford, Volvo, and MG)

Besides Coca-Cola, which I was actually surprised to find in so many movies, Epic Movie and Stomp the Yard also incorporated Apple, a brand which I have written about before for their prominent use of product placement. Epic movie had many food brands including Doritos, Rold Gold, Frito's, Cap'n Crunch, and Ruffles. Stomp the Yard had multiple professional sports teams, mostly baseball. They include the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, and LA Dodgers. Although I haven't seen the movie, I was surprised by this as the previews led me to believe the movie was about step dancing.


The leader's so far this year in product placement within the movies seem to be Coca-Cola, Ford, and Apple. It was very interesting to see how many movies about different subjects managed to incorporate so many similar brands!


Check out the lists of placement within the movies at brandchannel.com!

Product Placement on MTV

In class we have been doing our project on Pinkberry, an up and coming frozen yogurt chain with most of them in the greater Los Angeles area. The chain has been recieving a lot of buzz following the many parking tickets customers recieved just to wait in line for the dessert. In fact, the New York Times called the restaurant "The Chain that Launched a Thousand Parking Tickets."

Last week, as I have been playing close attention to all the product placement I see on television, I noticed the characters on MTV's "The Hills" talking about a date that one of them had at Pinkberry. I was very excited to see my blog topic and project topic come together!

So tonight I watch this week's episode of "The Hills" to see what other products were featured in the show. I wanted to see if our target audience research matched the target audience that seemed to be targeted through the other product placements. The good news is, it seemed to fit perfect with our target consumer, as the characters on the show are in college and are interns in West Hollywood, California.

Some of the products I saw were Starbucks Coffee, Aquafina Water, Apple computers, and Orbitz gum. Lauren, the main character, is an intern at TeenVogue so there was plenty of product placement for both Teen and regular Vogue as well as many fashion companies including Chanel (sunglasses and purses) and Dior (sunglasses). Lauren drives a sporty seabring convertible for which the chrystler sign is prominately displayed in all of the driving shots. She also is constantly seen using her Blackberry.

I was extremely pleased to find these product placements because we found that our target audience was hip, trendy, young women who enjoy being trendsetters. They are technologically savvy and are constantly multi-tasking with their technology, so I found the Blackberry to be an appropriate fit. Starbucks is seen as trendy as well. Overall I found the products placed in to the show to fit exactly what our target audience is looking for, so it is wonderful that Pinkberry got mentioned in a previous episode!



You can see episodes of "The Hills" at MTV.com or learn more about Pinkberry at Pinkberry.com!!

Targeting College Students

With all the research my group and I have been doing on college students for our Pinkberry assignment, I was excited to read that it was recently announced that Nielsen is going to start counting the 18-24 range in their ratings. This will help tremendously for advertisers to reach this demographic not only through traditional commercials but also through product placement. This is especially important because this young generation is more likely to use the new technology such as TiVo and online episodes of their favorite shows.



According to the article, two thirds of all college students own a television and over seventy five percent of these college students watch during primetime between 8 and 11 pm. Not surprisingly, the ratings for Grey's Anatomy is expected to increase quite a bit due to the amount of viewers within the age range. This is vital information for those who want to target "generation next". And targeting this demographic is a great opportunity to get young people to try brands and perhaps form relationships with certain brands that will last throughout their lives. This age group is also more likely to respond to product placement and try the brands that their favorite characters are using.

I also found the article interesting because we have been learning about the ratings process in class. And although the Nielsen ratings aren't a perfect representation by any means, it will absolutely help paint a picture of the media habits of a group that previously has not been represented at all.

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Read the article here!
Or learn more about Nielsen at their site!

Online Video

Recently I have found myself watching my favorite shows days later online more and more. With a busy class schedule and plenty of extracurricular activities, it is the perfect solution since I don't have TiVo or DVR. I jump online, type in the name of the show on google or yahoo, and there it is. It's as easy as that. And although I notice the three or four ads spread throughout each episode, especially because you cannot continue until the ads are finished, it doesn't bother me until they use the same exact three or four ads throughout.

I just read the article "Online Video Saves Commercials" from PC Magazine, and the author brings up a very good point. These few ads throughout the online airings of shows allow marketers to target a very specific audience who chose to watch the show and therefore will sit through the few ads to see the entire episode.

I got thinking about how this could relate to product placement. This provides a great opportunity to perhaps integrate your brand in to the actual episode through product placement, as well as advertise in the short commercial break. This of course would have to be done subtly or not too overwhelmingly as viewers could potentially get annoyed with the brand. Because traditional commercials are on the decline, this is a prospective idea for many brands to use to get their brand out there and increase their brand awareness and brand equity.

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Want to see my current favorite shows online? visit ABC.com for Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, What About Brian, and Brothers and Sisters!
or check out Prison Break's Myspace to watch episodes of my number one favorite right now!

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I also recently visited a few product placement and media related blogs out there and left comments promoting this blog. I'm learning quickly how this works!

Other Prominent Product Placement Leaders

After writing about Apple on Monday I decided to look into what other brands were leaders in the product placement category. I wasn't too surprised with what I found.

After reading an article called "Brandchannel's 2005 Product Placement Awards" on businessweek.com, I learned that Ford, Gatorade, Audi, Coke, Ebay, and Calvin Klein were also fierce competitors in the product placement arena. Like Apple, these brands frequently use a form of barter or trade to get their products shown in film and television rather than paying for each appearance.

Ford, with 19 appearances in films during 2005, had 50 percent of all the number one films that were released. Gatorade has become a staple in all sports films and television. The article also brings up how during the superbowl teams sometimes dump the gatorade on the winning coach after the fourth quarter. Even that is great product placement for the brand, and to a huge audience! Audi is seen in many films as a sleek and sexy brand of vehicle. Calvin Klein brand clothing can be found on famous actresses such as Scarlett Johansson.

These products were doing this well in 2005 which only leads me to believe that they are probably still leading the market as the trend in product placement becomes more and more popular.

Apple is Everywhere

In an earlier post to this blog I discussed how I noticed that in each episode of Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw would sit and write her articles at her apple laptop. Today I read an article from the Washington Post, "Apple Gets a Big Slice of Product Placement Pie", and learned a lot more about the product placement that apple participates in.

Some other popular shows that you can find Apple products in are 24, The Office, Las Vegas, and CSI. A recent episode of The Office even featured a storyline about an apple Ipod that apple did not even pay for. In fact, most of it's product placement is not paid for but rather made in exchange for something else with the networks or movies. I know personally Apple products are definately a brand that I notice a lot in the media. They have been using the technique for a long time, as they were one of the first brands to make product placement popular.

I think it's very interesting that in the article they mentioned the proportion of product placement of these Apple products to how much market share Apple actually has is not equal. They make up much less of the market, but much much more of the product placement in the media. I personally think this works, however, because like the article mentions, Apple is known as the brand for creative people and creative personalities. In almost all of the product placement I have seen of the brand, this is the situation it is used in. Especially if they are not even paying for most of it, this is a great strategy to build brand awareness among consumers by the Apple company!

Come On Down!

As I was just flipping through channels, I happened to stop on CBS's The Price is Right. A woman was playing a game in which she guessed the price of certain items and her total had to be within $2 of the overall total of the products combined. As the camera scanned down each item, including Tidy Cats, Chunky Salsa, and Pringles potato chips, I found myself in product placement overload. The whole point of the game allows for brands to be showcased on the program and for everyday consumers to guess the prices.

As I never really paid much attention to it before, I was really surprised that I hadnt realized what a great opportunity for product placement the show is. Those that are watching are probably stay at home parents, retired people, or people who work night shifts meaning that they are likely the ones doing the grocery shopping. Although there are many many products shown on the program, if it is a product someone has never used before it may spark interest for the future if they see Bob Barker and the contestants interracting with it.

Also, the brands that people already use are reinforced because the whole point of the show is to know the price of the item and if you are already a user chances are high you will know that information. This in turn helps you do well in the show, and perhaps even makes you even more glad that you use the brand!

You can go to CBS.com and check out episodes of the show. See how many of the brands you use that you can spot!

In the Movies

Today while I was doing more research about product placement, I came across the website brandchannel.com. On this site listed by brand and by movie was all of the product placement in some of the biggest movies of each year from 2001-2007. It was really interesting to search through them to some of my favorite movies of the past six years and see what product placement was included. For each one I tried to remember if I had actually noticed the product in the film. Surprisingly enough, a lot of them I did actually remember. (Most of which were sports teams or cars)






For 2006 some of the movies with the most number of products integrated into the story were The Pursuit of Happyness, Borat, The Departed, Invincible, Talladega Nights, Miami Vice, Click, the Breakup, Mission Impossible 2, and Big Mama's House 2. Talladega Nights was the one with the most listed products, which I found interesting since it was not the most popular movie of the bunch. I was not surprised by the amount in the Persuit of Happyness or the Departed as both of those films recieved a lot of recognition over the past year. (including Golden Globe nominations!)


For the most part all of the products placed fit well with the theme of the movie. Talladega Nights had a lot of Nascar and Auto type brands. Invincible featured numerous sports equipment brands. Miami Vice featured tons of popular cars and electronics.


Overall I thought it was really cool to actually see how many brands were put in to each movie. For the most part I would say that all the brands worked well within the movies that they chose.

Reverse Product Placement

Today I read the article "Forward Thinkers Push Reverse Product Placement" and learned all about a form of product placement that I had never really thought of before. Reverse product placement is the idea of creating a fictional brand in a fictional environment (the article uses the idea of Duff brand beer, the favorite of Simpson's character Homer) and turning in to a real life product. Another example the article uses is that of Willy Wonka Chocolate Bars that are now being sold on every candy shelf but started out in the famous story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The reason I really found this concept fascinating was the fact that in class we have been talking about how to break through to the target market of young male consumers. Reverse product placement is perfect for this as it is commonly used in videogames. It is a great way to introduce a product, get people talking about it, and then selling it in real life.

Although it may not be a huge opportunity, there is definitely something there, especially for reaching that hard to target younger male audience.

Some other examples in this article of reverse product placement already out there are Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurants from the Forest Gump movie, Potion drinks from FinalFantasy video games, and Bertie Botts Beans candy from Harry Potter. Judging by the popularity of all of these mediums, reverse product placement is bound to gain popularity in the near future.

"Who ate all my Kashi?"

Today I sat down to catch up on the latest episode of ABC's What About Brian, and I decided that through the entire one hour episode I would write down all of the product placement that I saw. At first I wondered if I would find any, and then the show literally opened with one of the main characters looking in to an empty cereal box and saying "who ate all my Kashi?". From there she went to the refridgerator, took out a carton of tropicana orange juice, and grabbed a package of pop-tarts from the cupboard. It was actually fun to pay attention, because I would have never normally noticed these things!

Watch ABC Shows!


Although the product placement calmed down from there, some of the other brands that I noticed were Glade plug-ins in the wall, a bottle of Tabasco sauce on the table, and a bottle of Coffeemate creamer in the door of the fridge. One of the characters took his daughters fishing wearing a nice looking Carhartt jacket. Yet another character, a young trendy woman, carried her Vera Bradley luggage in to the cabin where all of the friends were staying for the weekend. I noticed that they were all drinking the same kind of beer throughout the whole episode, bottles with a yellow label with the word cervesa on it, but I did not recognize the brand. The same young trendy woman pulled up in a very new looking black and sporty Audi, while the family with three kids pulled up to the cabin in a Chevy Venture minivan.

I was amazed by all the little things I could find when I was looking hard enough. And now, looking back at my list, I realize that all of the products were placed correctly with the right characters to tell the story of the brand. There is of course the family with the minivan, the outdoorsy dad in a carhartt, the young fit woman eating Kashi brand cereal, and the trendsetter woman with the designer bags and brand new Audi.

It was very interesting to see what products could be seen in this show since it is not as popular as some of ABC's primetime dramas. I will continue to keep an eye out for all the product placement I can find!

Audience Tracking Troubles

I recently listened to a podcast on AdAge called "Audience Tracking Issues in a Time of Media Upheaval". It was an interview with MediaWorks Editor AnnMarie Kerwin, and she had a lot of very interesting things to say.




With the trends in media watching moving more towards interactive watching through downloads on cell phones, computers, TiVo's, etc, there are some difficulties in measuring audiences. This is causing a need to develop new ways to track who is watching what media. A lot of different ways of doing so are being developed today as these new forms of media continue to grow in popularity.

Because people are becoming more engaged with their media use, there is definitely the potential for advertising to become stronger. However, the industry will be chaotic for a period of time while we figure out how to adapt to these new methods.

I found this interview interesting because these changes will definitely have a large impact on the use of product placement. Without a doubt, there will be an increase in the use of product placement as well as developments in how it is done in order to adapt to the changing industry. It will be very interesting to see how everything takes place in the near future!

"All Marketers are Liars"

For audience research class we took a look at the speech made my Seth Godin at Google called "All Marketers are Liars". (Check it out!!)

I personally thought he had a lot of great things to say. Basically he focused on how marketers need to change from trying to sell products to people that do not have any interest in them at all and instead figure out the best ways to sell a story to people about products that they do have an interest in. Word of mouth is truly an amazing tool. Getting people talking about and excited about your product has priceless benefits. So instead of bombarding people with advertisements for things they do not need or use or are willing to buy, focus on marketing more effectively to your target and get them talking about what you have to offer. Get consumers interested in the story that you are selling with your product.

Obviously he talked mostly about online advertising on sites like Google since that is who his audience was, but I think that a lot of what he said can pertain to product placement as well.

When you give Carrie Bradshaw an apple laptop in each Sex and the City episode, you are selling a story of that brand of laptop to an audience who identifies with or is interested in that character's lifestyle. With marketing trends moving more towards product placement I think that there is a lot of opportunity for brands to get their names out there using placement in media that their target is watching. They not only will get the attention of more of their target, they will also sell the story that goes along with the product.

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Kay and I am a sophomore at Ithaca College where I am majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications. Although I have been learning tons of interesting concepts about the media, I decided to focus this blog on the idea of product placement.

The main reason I find product placement so intriguing is the direction that advertising is going in today. Although there is plenty of it already in everything we watch, there will soon be even more product placement in movies and television due to new trends such as TiVo and DVR's. Because people are using these devices to cut commercials from their television viewing, placing products within the shows allows for the product to be seen as well as become connected to a program that the viewer knows, enjoys, and identifies with.

Over the course of the upcoming weeks I plan to take a look at the changes in product placement that are occurring today as well as where it is headed in the future, how effective a tool it can be, and also how media professionals feel about it. I am hoping to learn a lot about the topic and I look forward to sharing it all with you!