Lots of people wonder about product placement and how to distinguish between a real artistic choice of the director or a necessity of the screenplay. Most of the times this distinction is impossible as the two alternatives coincide.

Let’s imagine a movie in which the director has to furnish the house of two lawyers in New York. He will need a lot of furniture, fashion and design accessories. The simplest and easiest thing would be to address to a good product placement agency that could have as Clients furniture Companies. In this way he could have all that he needs without any cost and choosing what he wants….. The alternative would be to find out an artbuyer (in Italy we call him/her “trovarobe”) and pay his/her account as well as the necessary products for the movie. This is the best kind of product placement, the one for artistic choice. An option that even in Italy, nowadays thansk to a rule, is allowed. In other situations product placement becomes unavoidable. This can be referred to some products that have become icons. The famous magazine Variety has recently cited one case referred to Bride Wars (La mia Miglior Nemica). A comedy produced and directed by Kate Hudson with Anne Hathaway, a story of friendship and marriage that has not really thrilled the chief editor Todd Mccarty who has however quoted, in his article, the case of product placement about Budweiser, the national american beer that in the movie, as well as in the real life, has become an elegant and sophisticated (.. don’t ask me why!) drink. According to the journalist this example becomes necessary to describe a contest and underline a real tendency. Difficult and impossible to get to know if this product placement has been credit of a good agency that has been able to propose itself to the right production or just a necessity of the product itself by the movie production. But exactly this uncertainty is the factor that defines the quality of our job

p.latini@oratorio.biz

The Americans love statistics, they get them very seriously and employ them at work. During the first months of the year especially, when it is the moment to sum up dates and numbers, the statistics are very important and impressive. Some of them are really very useful to plan and/or modify our own actions. In our case I have found very interesting the list of the top ten news web sites visited in the States. The reason is simple: to know the sources through which people get informed gives us the chance to better select the channel to obtain much more visibility. Product Placement rendering gets obviously improved when news are rightly conveyed. Hereunder ten web sites not to lose after obtaining a product placement in a Hollywood Production:

p.latini@oratorio.biz

It’s just been published a research by Mediamark Research & Intelligence about the videogames among kids from 6 to 11 years old. A market  field that, as told in other posts, does not know any crisis. Some of the dates are very interesting for those Companies that want to do product placement through the videogames. A kind of communication that in Italy is not so much exploited while on the contrary, considering the economic results, it should be considered much more seriously by those brands that aim to a younger target. And Annamarie Kelly (responsible for this research) let us know that:

The 87% of kids from 6 to 11 years old in the United States has played to videogames at least once in the last month. This means almost everybody. We should not have any doubt about the importance of such a channel.

The 27% of the kids plays every day and the majority is between 10 and 11 years old. Boys play more than girls and the 15% of the kids plays less than once a week.

The 61% enjoys the adventure/speed kind of games, then sport, fighting, strategy, educational and at last the electronic replies of the classic table games.

It’s interesting to note that the 44% of the kids ask for the help and participation of at least one of their parents. This is important because last week a famous American pedagogue affirmed that the actual trend of buying kids products is changing. Until now we have considered the influence of the kids really determinant. Nowadays a consumer, much more responsible and conscious of being parents, is less inclined to be influenced by his kids’ requests unless really well-grounded.

At the end an important marketing piece of information about the games’ commercial success. More than 63% has affirmed to be influenced in his choice by the opinions of friends and parents. The 18% employs Internet for his choices. Once they have found what they are looking for, the 73% are ready to recommend it to friends and families.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

Hari Kunzru is a 40-year-old English writer loved by the critics (that almost every year award him with some prizes) and is considered one of the coolest among his readers. Well-known as novelist, it is possible to read him even on Wired UK, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and sometimes on the New Yorker. And exactly through the pages of the newspaper of the East Coast intellighenzia, Hari has spoken about product placement. He does it by relating what he enjoys doing when he is in New York with his smart group of friends. They look for the young bands that play in the warehouses of the Bronx, try to be invited by the barman of the clubs to drink something and attend the theatres to discover new interesting details for their look and way of life. All this is talked about in their blog, watched by lots of Newyorkers that love to be updated on the last fashion tendencies and the places that are “in”. In particular the product placement scouting is one of the most famous game. It is very simple: the most interesting movies are selected on the base of the director, the plot, the location, the actors, etc. During the movie they look for interesting details such as the hairstyle, the clothing, the house accessories or the mobile, and then try to find out the shop or the distributor of that product. After that, any detail is put in the blog such as the movie frame where the product appears, the address of the shop, the price, etc. And immediately that product becomes cult symbol and gets famous all over the nation. And blogs like this spread the news in the old World as well. It should to be evident that these are product placement of real objects, with a concrete value employed with experience within the movie.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

In USA when the Super Bowl is played there is a sort of “game within the game”: it is known as “Brand Battle”: the stake is the visibility during the most important event of the year.

Yesterday, one week after the final, the Los Angeles Times published all the numbers and the winners’ names of this “commercial challenge”, that for some time has been thrilling the American public opinion and the agents/brokers all over the world as much as the fantastic reception on the field. The stakes were 40 millions of viewers in America and an ads investment, valued by Joyce Julius Associates Inc, of 37 millions of dollars for what concerns product placement only, that is the datum most longed for. The winner was Gatorade, on the screen with its brand for 27 minutes. The American Research Institute has valued its visibility in 30 millions of dollars. A huge result obtained by Gatorade through the banner at the field’s border, the classic bottles on the table of the commentators before and after the match and above all by providing the players with something to drink during the breaks. But the real stroke of luck was when the Steelers celebrated the victory by watering their coach (in this case, Mike Tomlin) with the energetic drink.

The next challenge for the “image impact” will be on the red carpet in Los Angeles… I will keep you informed.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 “The secret life of the American Teenager”, has become the most watched serial for families on the American pay TV. And it’s exactly this that has provoked so many discussions among marketing managers and the public opinion in the USA. Last July for the first time on ABC, a Disney’s channel by the way, it has immediately provoked reactions because of its plot, based on the story of a very smart and very pregnant teenager in a “High School” world.

At each episode, the audience rating has reached 4 millions viewers and this despite the negative reaction of different Evangelist preachers that have blamed this programme as well as the Disney itself for being no more the reference point of the families. Behind all this it seems to be, on the contrary, a very deep marketing research lasted different years: its result is the necessity among young people and their families to talk more freely and clearly about important subjects, especially about sex. Thanks to the audience rating and the discussions around the movie, its fame has attracted lots of big sponsors that are wiling to be put in the story through product placement and brand integration. Among these even Procter&Gamble, owner of brands such as ACE, Dash, Infasil, Wella, Gillette, Eukanuba, Pringles and many others.

An interesting editorial case that tries to talk in a lighter way about strong subjects, proposing a serial able to attract viewers and sponsors. And this is the real magic touch of Disney.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

While the press and TV have noted, every six-months, a decrease in the car ads investments, the cinemas have on the contrary given good satisfactions to the car manufacturers so to live a moment of great vitality and economic health.

The first to realise this was Lexus, one year ago, when playing a spot in the USA cinemas to promote its IS F (quite a big sportive berlin) its call center got its lines completely blocked thanks to an unaided recall for 75%.

This year even Nissan has planned a 60seconds spot in the American theatres for its small sportive coupè 370Z. Its commercial responsible Michael Chico has affirmed to have worked a lot to find out the best commercial position, right before the trailers, and believes that in such hard period for the car market in the USA, cinema can renovate the look of its brand “because cinema has maintained unchanged its charm and efficacy”. “We will be where eyes look at”, has said his colleague Chad Jacoby, Nissan Senior media Manager.

Kia has moreover realised a special spot for cinema, not an extension of the same in TV but a new story only for the big screen “able to express itself in all its efficacy to capture the viewers’ attention”. These are Tim Chaney’s words, marketing and communication director of Kia Motors America.

All this efficacy increases a lot when the viewers are able to find out in the same movie the car just watched in the spot in a coherent, charming and prestigious environment, where they can give freedom to their fantasy and maybe give a new meaning to the brand and the model itself. Product Placement is the natural evolution of this trend and represents the most efficient and quick solution to a crisis from which is so difficult to get out.

I have been thinking about this post for months, waiting for the situation to calm down to write something much more objective. Let’s start from the facts: product placement has been growing a lot all around where the most important cinema and TV districts are present (Hollywood, Bollywood, Hong Kong and Cinecittà). The same has happened for the web investments (in some of my last posts I wrote names and turnovers). All these resources, the 40% about of the whole ads investment of different international spenders, have been damaging something else. This something else are the traditional channels. In Italy Beppe Severgnini has recently spoken about this while in the USA for a year the big editors have started to take countermeasures. A few days ago for example, Playboy closed its prestigious and famous seat on the 5^th Avenue in New York to move to a less prestigious area though much more restrained in terms of costs. The most important daily newspaper of Boston, instead, has decided for the first time in its life to sell some spaces on its first page to put advertisement.

Others have supported their clients’ tastes by realising some promotions through their news portal web, the newspaper and the ads claims of their advertisers. All around the world, everybody is more or less looking for a solution. Even in Italy… though in an Italian way. For some time, an important national media has been throwing mud at product placement with subliminal advertising. Probably this editor considers product placement, brand integration and creative utilization as his main enemies. That’s to say, if I cannot defeat you I will kill you somehow. These news have appeared obviously even on the national press, maybe the one belonging to the same editor, thus sparkling around among its readers false beliefs. Continue Reading