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!