Deborah Taylor, member of the Federal Communication Commission of the USA, on November the 20^th was invited to the Annual Promotion Marketing Association Law Conference and devoted an entire part of his speech to Product Placement. She has supported the important growth of Product Placement, despite what’s happening to all the other promotional channels, with its capacity to propose and present the brands never in a intrusive way and never in a “too much hidden” one. A larger public is devoted to thematic pay channels and this shuts out any commercial break or restricts it a lot. The answer to this phenomenon is Product Placement itself. Despite some Consumer Associations have submitted an application to the Commission about its presumed ads hiding, Deborah Taylor has explained that her Commission has supported this kind of promotion as there is nothing hidden while everything is disclosed. With the secondary advantage never to interrupt the show or to lessen its importance (except in rare cases). She has concluded her speech by affirming that the Commission will follow monitoring this communication channel as all the others but does not believe necessary to limit it in any other way with respect to the Consumer defence.

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Maybe not everybody knows that the Chief Executive Officer of Kraft is a very strong woman whose name is Irene Rosenfeld. With 3 degrees and a past as manager of Pepsi Company, this 50-year-old woman is one of the 6 women present in the special list of CEO (Chief Executive Officer) that mention only the first 500 main Companies in the USA.

During an interview published last week on USA TODAY she has asserted 4 things, three of which really interesting. The first one is that during this period of economic crisis people get out less often (first though obvious datum for marketing) with the consequence to watch TV and navigate in Internet much more than in the past (other interesting and obvious datum) and eat at home (third thought). The fourth information is instead that the 99,9% of American people has at least one Kraft product (such asPhiladelphia, Ritz, Mawell, etc..) in their kitchen.

All these info can be sufficient to assert that the investments of the next year will be in this direction, that is on TV and Internet, easily enjoyable by people at home. More specifically it is reasonable to think about activities of Brand Integration and Product Placement in Format such as TV Serial and Shows so loved by the American public (American Idol and American Chopper for first).

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Recently the Zippo Company… the one that sells those lighters that never blow out… is appeared on the walls and the train stations of half Europe. The Visual is nice so I have given a peep to the web site. The link of the story is a sort of flash Story Board, divided into main stages. The last one is dated 2007 and says

 “the Zippo lighter is present in more than 1500 American hollywood movies and in 2006 it appeared in all those that got an Oscar nomination as Best Movie”.

This Company should be rewarded with an Oscar as “Best Product Placement Player”!

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 A new and innovative idea that reinforces the product placement comes from a very dynamic and courageous country. Korea has its own movie tradition but the commercial experimentation has usually come from Hollywood, for example, with the invention of Format, Serial, Soap Operas, Reality, Brand Integration, etc…..

However a new movie with something different has come out: “Humming” directed by Park Dae-Young with Lee Cheon-Hee and the very pretty Han Ji-Hve. The plot tells about a bitter-sweet love story quite adapt to a female public with a good packaging (the story though foreseeable is dynamic and with a good ending) but with a great innovation called Colophon Voiceover Placement. The film reviewers have not appreciated this solution even they admit it’s a good escamotage to obtain budget without giving up the product. It’s a kind of product placement but “at the contrary”: imagine a good ending full of tears, the last song starts and the credit titles begin to run. Suddenly the voices of the actors off screen name and thank all the companies that have provide the products for the movie production, the set and the characterisation of the same actors through clothes, accessories, make up etc… Viewer are so marvel and the idea so smart!

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 As happening in Bollywood even Hong Kong movie landscape is changing. At least this is what happens for the movies that are sold worldwide and that until now have been divided into two categories: the action movie about martial arts (Bruce lee and Jacky Chen at first place) and the historical movies where a few action scenes have always been present.

From sometime onwards, besides the more sophisticated production distributed only in the

téatres d’essay, it has begun a occidental-style strategy both in plots as well as in the marketing planning. It’s the case of “Connected”, produced and directed by Benny Chan Muk-Sing with actors of good and very good visibility such as Luis Koo and Barbie Hsu.

It’s a remake of the Hollywood “Cellular” of 2004 (by David R.Ellis with Chris Evans and Kim Basinger) and even in this resembles the Indian covers that look at the American movies.

In this case it is interesting to note that besides the product placement of Motorola, two other International brands such as Tissot and Pepsi have been involved. A great entrance in the entertainment Chinese market probably due to the good relationships between the cast and the three brands. Barbie Hsu is in fact the testimonial in China for Tissot while Luis Koo is the same for Pepsi but all over Asian market.

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 In the specific list of Tv Product Placements, Coca Cola got the first place both in 2006 as well in 2007. Do you think it could have lost the same chance during the first semester of 2008 ? not at all !!!!… To have an idea of the job done by its marketing office, it is enough to get to know that in 12 months the brand has got recognizable 2990 times. The second place belongs to 24 Hour Fitness with 1765. To reach this result the management office of Atlanta has come to an agreement with successful Productions such as American Chopper and American Idol, that normally do this kind of operations. The first one has placed different brands in a recognizable way 3706 times, while the other “just” 3223.

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  The worldwide economic situation is taken the big Companies and the most important Networks to tighten their bonds and study more effective and lasting plans of Brand Integration. This is Brian Lowry’s theory from “Variety”. Lowry has a great reputy in business television. He spent the last seven years as editorialist at the Los Angeles Times before going back to Variety that he had left in 2003. During all these years his articles were specifically about the analysis of the changing and new trends around Media Industry landscape. In his article he writes that during these last years Product Placement operations have contributed to the popularity of actors (both media and entertainment industry), and now they seem to be willing to go on together to get out from this uncertain economic situation. NBC and General Motors are very good in standing out in this field for aggressiveness and prompt reaction as well as for the ability to obtain results in popularity and business terms. Thus explained the remake of “Knight Rider”, nice 80’s Tv serial, famous in Italy with the name of “Supercar”, set in our times. Continue Reading

 At the beginning of the past century Henry Ford asked himself about what it will become a real nightmare for generations of marketing manager, commercial director and corporate planning consultant. The question was: “How much will I obtain from my advertising investment?”. The only, and great answer he was able to give was the famous aphorism:”I know very well that half of my investment is useless. The problem is: which half ?”. To this question the Nielsen is trying to find out good answers employing very specific ways. For two years they have been offering their Clients the “Product Placement Valuation Study”. Its aim is to provide an assessment of the factors that contribute to product placement effectiveness. This study covers 50 programs and 10.000 respondents called to fill in a questionnaire which represents the basis for statistical analyses aimed to develop product placement and integration future plans.

At the moment the Media Companies interested are: A&E – CBS Inc. – CourtTV – Discovery Networks – FOX – Magna Global – MediaCom – OMD – PHD – Scripps – Sprint – The Weather Channel – Twentieth TV – Zenith Media

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 His last movie “Kabul Express” has been such a real worldwide critical success to get The National Award as the Best Debutant Director. Right now Kabir Khan is working on a new movie, still in collaboration with the elegant Movie Production Yash Raj Films, placed both in India as well in the USA. The Partnership between Hollywood and Bollywood is getting closer: the actors go here and there, the Directors move around and the plots cross. Thus nothing strange if the title of the movie is “New York” where it is set. Between the actors John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan Khan. As in all Bollywood good quality movies, the music is very important (often in India the soundtrack sells more than the movie) and will be composed by Pritam Chakraborty, a composer that has worked a lot in Bollywood, more or less luckily; with a great talent to get talked about and even to surprise when none least expect it. The waiting time for this movie is 6 months more when it will get out in the cinemas almost worldwide.

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On theatre on december 19^th, “Tale of Desperaux” will be the Universal’s Christmas Animation. Product Placement is use to be on this kind of production, but not so simply in this case, because the middle age plot. So lots of companies like Campbell Soup, Wendhy’s, Mama Rosa’s Pizza, Nutella and other, signed a partnership about Creative Utilization. In this way an heroic mouse voiced by Matthew Broderick, will be the great testimonial for some of the most important brand’s food.

Kim McGough, Senior Manager of Campbell Integrated Marketing, strongly asserts “ is a “perfect opportunity” That’s because in the animated feature soup is a rare and preferred verboten treat…. and we are according to McGough.

Do you agree too, write to p.latini@oratorio.biz

In a “normal” economic situation advertising gets necessary, in a “critical” economic period it becomes vital.

But if it is impossible to renounce to promotional marketing, it’s not true that it should be of quality. I believe this is what many big and medium Companies think while broadcasting here and there spots and old visuals. Repeated ad nauseam, a Facebook group of about 9,000 people organized recently to stop Toyota’s obiquitous no-interest payment options

However there is a service called Product Placement, where you pay only the space… and the creativity, the good one, comes from Hollywood Producers… for more info please write to me…. p.latini@oratorio.biz