In some cases product placement is evident, clear, in others it is much more discrete and hidden. Or it can be an artistic choice of the director, or an important character of the plot. In any case, this is the first time in which product placement is so evidently referred to. In our Country, as well in Europe in general, this is unpopular. However, yesterday, during an interview on Radio 101, Ricky Tognazzi, maybe with a pinch of irresponsibility or premeditation, declared that the reference to Crodino in the title and on the playbills has given an important economic contribution to the movie itself. For the record, this evident aspect in the movie has not bothered the critics that, on the web site www.movieplayer.it, have written: “The movie is able to manage product placement since the title itself”. That is to say: if the movie is well-done and the public is not dazed, the placement is a good resource… not a conspiracy.

I am sure the movie is really beautiful (Ricky Tognazzi, Enzo Iachetti, Dario Vergassola, Serena Autieri are some of the characters), but I am going to watch it because it’s loyal and brave.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 It has started on March the 11^th so it’s really not the first web serial of the history. And it’s not the first one proposing a product placement… we have already talked about this in other occasions. What’s new about “Celia&Chloe” are the premises. About one year ago the Multinational Johnson&Johnson did a research to understand how and where to propose its products for skin healthcare dedicated to teenagers. The traditional 3-minutes advertising Clusters were not the right thing: it seems that they were stood only in case of a “Lost” episode and they were however too expensive both for the spot realisation as well for the space purchase….. the creative équipe has thought at last about a Soap Opera formula but on the web 2.0. The company has already decided to involve the Walt Disney to produce a serial to publish on the web at no expenses but with a very good product. And its task at this point was to push the Clean&Clear products as those of Disney. So, Ladies and Gentlemen here “Celia&Chloe”: two sixteen girls that love Hannah Montana and face the mirror, because of their spots, at least twice a day every day. The result has been really pleasant and even the critics have appreciated as product placement is well integrated, with credibility and without any restraint within the plot. For all those that disagree because of the advertising ethics, I can say that at the beginning of each episode, during the trade name, the brand of the products appears to underline the goal of the commercial operation.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

Do you know Vyrus ? … maybe not. Do you know Denzel Washington ? Most of you.

So, this simple equation finds its balance in “The Book of Eli”, a movie set in an apocalyptic future, where a lonely hero has to help and save a scholar who owns the last book of the Bible (Eli’s one) that represents the world’s salvation. The director is Albert Huges, the home producer is the Warner Bros and the main actor is Denzel Washington. It will get out in 2010 and during these days in the Hollywood studios they are shooting the scenes inside. In a particular scene, Denzel visits a museum where the best features of the past are kept. At the beginning, up to the screenplay, the scene had to be about a super motorcycle, a symbol of technology, design and the best of XXI century. A choice not so easy…, until the direction, thanks to our Agency, has discovered a real jewel completely handcrafted, drawn as only the Italians are able to do and quick as only people from Romagna can built. We are talking about the Vyrus, very prestigious motorcycles that have already conquered Hollywood (One of the biggest Star has got one and came personally to Italy pick it up). This time however the Vyrus becomes the icon of the future technology in the movie event of 2010. A goal so longed-for and prestigious that the President of the Vyrus Company, Ascanio Rodorigo, has succeeded to achieve beating brands much more important though not so valuable. All this without paying anything: the Production has wanted its motorcycle as “artistic choice”, charging of all the expenses during the shooting, included a 55.000 dollars insurance on the same Vyrus.

…ah I was forgetting… this is a leak… keep it for yourselves !

p.latini@oratorio.biz

WE TV is a nice channel (watched by 20 millions of families in the USA) completely dedicated to women world with a web site www.wetv.com much more interesting if possible.

This is not the usual channel transmitting telenovelas and “Sex and the City”. We TV produces even shows, cultural events, news, researches, programmes about animals, job, health, etc. Very often, in this period, it has become a sort of point of reference as it has succeeded to answer very quickly to economical and social changes of its audience. It knows their fears, tastes, moods, and wishes, thanks to frequent public opinion polls that help to change its programme schedule, its format by creating something new when necessary.

Three days ago, its General Manager, Kim Martin, presenting seven new programmes for the 2009-2010 season, spoke about its new philosophy to media buyer by calling it “advertiser friendly”. “By sure some of these will be ripen for product placement”, she declared too.

If I know a little bit the dynamics of this environment, WE TV is going to be the forerunner of a new generation of Shows where the brand will be no more an intruder that does cover the show’s costs, but a character that interacts with its audience without any commercial hypocrisy.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

Somewhere it is called “I love shopping”, in the rest of the world “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and it is the cine transposition of the first very lucky book by Madeleine Wickham written in 2000 with the nickname of Sophie Kinsella. The movie has become a phenomenon. Among its fans there is one of the coolest magazine of the United States, the Village Voice that has put a series of questions about the inopportunity to celebrate this consumers’ culture during the most serious economic recession of the last 80 years. It is hard to consider this a philosophical movie being inspired by a teen-agers’ book; but today this opulence bothers even more such a temple of the shopping as New York, where the same Village Voice is weekly and free distributed, thanks to the ads of shops, theatres, restaurants and any kind of fun.

The movie has been labelled as “a boring ads way for griffe” and for what concerns its screenplay, the magazine has asked the opinion of psychiatrists and psychologists to underline that the frenzy to buying is a serious irregularity of the behaviour and is almost considered an illness. In such a difficult economical period, thanks to these considerations and to such disgusting screenplay, all the Americans have been discovering all the weaknesses of the economic frenzy.

Moreover the production has given such a look and has done such artistic choices to get over any social implication that this kind of movie could have while presenting on the contrary a good and the only right formula between the demential and the optimistic. Thanks to this lots of Europan Fashion Companies could have easily found visibility with very low costs and with certain results. A production so much different from the snobbish “The Devil wears Prada” that maybe it could suggest a possible solution to get out of this mess called “The Crisis”.

On the success of the movie I could bet.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 Before the world realized the recession, in the United States there was a lively discussion on the TV mobile: the TV you can watch on your mobile, on the car navigator, on the netbook, on the mp3… etc. The Time Warner had ready, since then, a project called “TV Everywhere” through which it offered a service with a fixed monthly cost between 10 and 20 dollars. The analysts had foreseen the birth of formats created on purpose for this new kind of entertainment, with shorter programs than those on the web (a walking time or the time to park one’s own car), and the employment of different languages that even advertising could exploit. Today on the contrary, Wayne Friedman, a Variety’s journalist, informs us that the American market is not even ready for this new project. As soon as the economy will get better, the TV Mobile will be the future. Its predecessors, the web serials and novellas, we have talked about a lot in this blog, are by now considered a mature product with a well-defined public. The Time Warner plan foresaw and foresees a huge budget for product placement, thanks to some formats already planned with a tree structure, where the audience rate (immediately collected thanks to the new technologies) allows to value how and with which Sponsors get on the program. In this way it becomes possible to raise the efficacy and penetration of its commercial potentialities, together with the liking of the show in which the product has been inserted.

If I am not been enough clear please write to me.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 The over 40s will remember for sure a serial quite stupid based on the life of a group of four boys, called “The Monkees”, very fond of music. At the end of the story those four “star-and-striped Beatles” had more records sold than the public watching them ….. that was not so few!

Well, the 2010 version of that media project is called “The All for Nots” or “AFN” as the numerous fans called it. Five boys from Brooklyn, musicians, actors and showmen all together, travelling through the USA, singing their mixed rock-pop-punk songs, as the better bands do. The thing is that their concerts and above all their life on the road have become a serial distributed only on the web of the most important portals (Veoh, YouTube, Bebo, and much more). The program has been immediately a success, a few episodes have been sufficient to get a number of spectators such as a “prime time” on a national channel. It began last year in March but during the summer the famous Billboard had already dedicated time and space to it. “They are not really a band…. But actors playing music”…this was the definition of the journalist Leah Kauffman that did not mean to lessen their importance, on the contrary she approved the geniality of Kathleen Grace, the inventor of this program. And this was not her first exploit, hers is in fact the famous “The burg”. Thanks to such a success, the Sponsors have arrived: so all their concerts are underlined by the presence of products of any kind such as the Chrysler Van that they use to travel around (as in the famous 60’s and 70’s), has become one of the icons of the program. The car market and the Chrysler for first thank and congratulate on the great choice.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 Product Placement is nowadays a universal concept. The techniques applied are more and more refined and you can find it everywhere. The other day on the plane (after 11 hours you would read even the bar code of the refreshing tissues) I read a very interesting article on the British Airways house-organ (to tell you the whole truth, it was on the February issue of “Business Life”). The journalist spoke about the attempt to place Cadillac again on the USA as well on the European market, where it has never succeeded in. The reasons of this failure on the East side of the Ocean seem to be the exaggerated dimensions of Cadillac models not fit for the very narrow streets of the Old Continent. Not to speak about the elevated petrol consumption and the maintenance costs. But suddenly one of the most cheered Presidents of the USA after JFK, has chosen a Cadillac to parade before the TV cameras of all the world. It is not clear if Cadilllac has to be given credit for this product placement, thanks to which it has obtained a great image return, or just a political choice of the new President that has chosen the more prestigious brand but even the one with more economical problems to give a political and economical message to the country… however it is, that’s always product placement. At the same time Cadillac has presented its new model, called CTS that has the same dimensions as a BMW 5 and it’s well fit for a global market. The biggest car Company of the USA has so been able to exploit the more important media window on the earth; and as consequence you get to know that besides the armoured anti-military attack sedan, you can have even the more simple but prestigious CTS… in Obama’s word !

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 It’s a week to the most glamour event of the year and the race to visibility is almost finished.

The night of the Oscars is a powerful machine, always winning, prestigious and efficacious.We know very well how provvidential it could be to go on the red carpet for a fashion company. However, though it could be reasonable to think the contrary, the costs for appearing during this kermesse are really very very low. With an investment between 5000 and 8000€ you can become actor and performer of this long live broadcast that starts 5 hours before the prize giving on channel “E”.

Another cost, of a few thousands of euros, would be to be put within “the gift bag” that everybody, both Stars and Winners, receive from the organisation of the Event.

Maybe it’s a good idea for the next year !!!

p.latini@oratorio.biz

The Economic crisis that has involved the press and TV editors of Great Britain is contributing to push up the “normalisation” of product placement activities in the United Kingdom. The Hollywood Reporter relates about the drastic solutions that the important and historical English channel ITV is going to adopt to survive. First of all the freezing of the managers’ salaries with a contract superior to 60.000 pounds a year. However, according to the general director of ITV, Ruper Howell, the rise and first of all the survival of the channel, pass through a well-planned product placement programme, for which he asks for a precise body of legislation to the government that could allow the editors to profit this new source of income. A few days ago only I spoke about the controversies in Parlament and now a negative event is going to turn into a positive solution.This new opportunity will defend the subscriber, though the biggest difficuties seem not to be ethic, so clear to everybody, but the inexperience both of editors as well as of the sponsors will provoke a few scrapes that only time and a good law will help to solve.

p.latini@oratorio.biz