... Product Placement Palaver

So the industry is still divided over the issue of product placement and the benefits to marketers, broadcasters etc, and as I’ve blogged on this before, I think it’s good to keep up with all the developments, to become a bit of an expert on the topic


A recent online poll carried out but Redshift Research, revealed that just over half of respondents thought the regulations should be altered. Just under half were not keen on product placement in our UK TV shows. Two thirds of respondents also said they didn’t believe that legalizing product placement would make shows more realistic. This is one of the arguments for doing so, I’m not sure if I agree either. I don’t sit watching Hollyoaks thinking ‘hmmm this pub would look far more realistic if I could see what type of pints these kids are drinking, nor do I ponder where that emo one buys his eyeliner.


Lifting the product placement ban is said to benefit broadcasters by millions of pounds a year but analysts are arguing that advertisers may redirect the spend from other traditional areas like spot ads in between shows. ITV had been leading this campaign for UK product placement, and a spokesman has stated that lifting the ban would be a ‘welcome acknowledgement of the pressures faced by an industry in transition.’ Basically the rapidly changing technology seen with set-top boxes, Sky+ etc means that less and less people are watching conventional ad breaks, just skipping the adverts; product placement would mean the ads are interspersed throughout the whole program.


The creator of Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette, has been warning the industry on these new developments though, saying the consumers must be trusted: "If (placement) is overdone or tasteless, viewers will switch off.” On a similar note, Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster, thinks that viewers could have trouble distinguishing between what is "integral to the plot" and what had been paid for as a promotional device". He warns that programme makers must not compromise their integrity. This of course, is a massive worry; what would happen if, for example, in the middle of Eastenders, we see Phil Mitchell getting into a new VW car, taking time to explain to his passenger the benefits of the new heated seats and inbuilt satnav?


Advertisers also think that if our favorite TV characters plug a product then we are more likely to buy it. Until now they haven’t been able to exploit this because of the ban, but if it gets lifted we could see loads of celebrity plugs in the middle of shows.


In the US, Nielsen Media Research revelaed there were 117,976 individual placements across America's top 10 TV channels in the first three months of last year. Four years ago the value of these TV plugs was put at $941m (£564m). Of course this price will have shot up over the years, and it means big business. That’s not even mentioning the millions to be made through film product placement.


I asked my mentor at Iris about his views on this, a man who has been in the industry for years, and is a wealth of knowledge. We pondered over who would be in control of brokering product placement deals; the advertiser, the product owners themselves, or a separate entity. It became quite obvious that the ambiguity behind how product placement would work, leaves room for questioning where us ad agencies fit into all this; it could mean the creation of a whole new type of agency. A new discipline may need to be developed, in an almost media-sales type manner, and to me its still unclear where we would sit on this.


Ben Bradshaw, secretary of state for culture media and sport, should be announcing a three-month consultation period into the changes at some point very soon… so I’ll be keeping myself and you, my non-existant readers, up to date




Sources: 
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/move-to-end-ban-on-product-placement-divides-opinion/3004749.article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entert ainment/8252901.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8253045.stm