I’m abroad for a business travel… news and update from July 7th onwards

 About one week ago I wrote about product placement in the web.An interesting and recent “case history” by Rebook, a video diffused on May the 23^rd to promote the new football shoes, has as main characters Thierry Henry (Barça) e Ryan Giggs (Manchester United). The two players have infact worn these shoes during the final match in Rome.

In the video there are co-placements too (mobile and laptop by apple), maybe exchanged for a link popularity consulting. The plot relates the challenge through jokes between the two players with “Anything you can do, I can do better” as background music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqxRDIBkDbo

 This morning I was talking to a colleague, a media planner in a big agency that has seven branches between USA and Canada. He confessed his frustration in picking out the right product to suggest to his Clients to have the certainty to meet its proper target. “Once, with a 30” spot on prime time, you were more or less sure to centre at leat between 20 and 30% of 18-49 year-old target, during any day of the week. Now everything has changed”.

For example, my friend told me again, I watch the Saturday Night Live on Sunday morning at breakfast and pass over the ads. I do not wait for the news and I am sure that the audience survey do not tell us anything about what happens at home”. It is even important to point out that in the USA people spend more time in web surfing than watching TV and the market of DVD rental has reached huge proportions; all this suggests how difficult it can be for a professional person to find out and suggest to his Clients the best way through which to propose their own commercial messages. From this point of view product placement is really a solution. Its target is quite well divided considering the different kind of movies (comedy, action movie, thriller, etc.), the director, the production, the distribution, the plot, etc. Its life cycle lasts more than 30 seconds “one shot” (about 7 passages between movie, DVD, TV, summer and TV performances, etc…) and its importance is by sure bigger…maybe my friend was not only unburden over but even offering to cooperate…..

…. Because the e-commerce field in Italy has grown a lot. Its value has reached unbelievable results. Maybe it’s the world economic crisis, maybe the less available time to go shopping, maybe the lack of desire, but whatever is a simple click on the PC is much more appreciated than going out to watch the shop windows.

From clothing to electronics, to insurance policies, but it’s the clothing sector which is growing more: there are important brands such as Armani, Prada, Gucci, Energie, Diesel, Pinko, Bata. The last one is Furla, that in November has opened a European web site while the American one has been officially opened in March. And then the story of Loriblu, an artisan company very popular among the ladies of the new Russian middle class. Another popular phenomenon are the virtual outlets where you can find the most important brands discounted until 50%. In Italy, for example, between January and February, the sales have grown of 130% in comparison to 2008. The most visited portals are Born4shop, Saldi privati, Buyvip, Vente.privée. However Internet is not only a good shop for clothing and electronics as another sector which growing a lot, and allows a comparison of prices, is that of the insurances. On the web there are lots of portals dedicated to policies. In March 6sicuro.it (Assiteca Group) has born, the first site that allows to compare freely the insurance prices for cars and motorcycles of the main 18 insurance Companies. From the data processed by 6sicuro.it (with about 1.700 estimates pro-day) it has come out that the cheapest rate is half the most expensive one. In such a world that grows so quickly it is strategic to be found out, to be known and respected. Since then even product placement has had its own web alter-ego which is called Placement Popularity and it is based on concepts such as brand reputation, link popularity or video placement. These are very cheap instruments that allow to verify the results on time and as consequence the chance to optimize the communication or the product in a very short time.

About one week ago on the post “TV Serials: the ten most interesting new season proposals”, I suggested ten good occasions of product placement connected to TV projects. In different cases, they are a very good solution to start to manage this powerful communication instrument. They are quite cheap (from 3500 to 5000$ for a good positioning), have quite a short time of realisation (three months are necessary from shooting to release, and have a very international visibility. There are other cases instead in which a movie product placement is more apt to the necessities and marketing aims of some Companies. Quite often a movie character is more valued and as consequence the placement is more prestigious. Moreover the attention on a movie is really different from the one on a TV serial and the details in a dark room on a huge screen are more visible….and this is a decisive factor for the efficacy of this technique. Moreover the life of the product is longer (about 7 years between the coming out of the movie, DVD, summer performances, TV programmes and performances). Thanks to special events like “the Première” or the awarding of prizes during any Festival, it is possible to participate with support initiatives that give visibility, prestige and a good economic feedback.

For all these reasons, I could not forgive to underline ten good Features Films to plan Product Placement, Brand Integration and Tie in.

The A – Team – Twentieth Century Fox

o The Hit Television series is being brought to the big screen – set in modern times….A group of Iraq War veterans looks to clear their name with the U.S. military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed.

o Starring: Bruce Willis Woody Harleson Ice Cube

o Start Date: May 11 2009

oDelivery Date: Immediately

ØThe Widows Adventures – Gold Circle Films

o Itching to spice things up and fulfill their lifelong dream, widowed sisters Helene and Ina take off on a cross country road trip to California. Sounds harmless, right? Well…Ina never learned to drive…and Helene is blind!.

o Starring: Diane Keaton (The Godfather) Jane Fonda (Georgia Rule)

o Start Date: June 15 2009

ØRED – Summit Entertainment

o A former black-ops CIA agent now living a quiet life in retirement until the day a high-tech assassin shows up intent on killing him.  He quickly reassembles his old team and is determined to find out who is after him…and why?

o Starring: Bruce Willis (Die Hard)

o Start Date: July 15 2009

ØYour Highness – Universal Pictures

o Two spoiled, arrogant, and lazy princes who must complete a quest to save their father’s kingdom.

o Starring: James Franco (Spiderman), Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder)

o Start Date: July 2009

ØWhat was I thinking – Warner Bros

o A woman is dumped during their engagement party. The dumped brides friends spring into action and whisk heraway on a ski trip for healing and hedonism.

o Starring: Elizabeth Banks (The 40 Year Old Virgin) Leslie Mann (Knocked Up)

o Start Date: July 2009

ØTwilight 3 Eclipse – Summit Entertainment

o The next installment of the Box office Hit Twilight series – Bella a high school girl who moved to the small town of Forks, Washington and fell in love with Edward Cullen a Vampire in Episode 1 and Jacob a Werewolf in Episode 2. The relationship triangle evolves as her suitors try to protect her from an clan of evil Vampires bent on killing Bella.

oStarring: Robert Pattison (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), Kristen Stewart (Panic Room)

oStart Date: August 2009

Ø BLOWN

o About Bay Area painter Margaret Keane and her husband, Walter who couldn’t paint at all, took credit for her work. Greenlighted.

oStarring: aJim Caviezel, Samuel L. Jackson, Thandie Newton

oStart Date: mid 05/2009

Ø BULL DURHAM 2

oAbout a minor league baseball team.

oStarring: Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon

oStart Date: mid 05/2009

Ø GET HIM TO THE GREEK

o Recent college graduate working as an insurance adjuster is hired to take an out-of-control rock star from London to a concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

oStarring: Jonah Hill

Ø PLAN B

o About a single woman who gets a positive pregnancy tests showing twins through artificial insemination (her Plan B) only to meet the man of her dreams (her Plan A) on the very same day.

oStarring: Jennifer Lopez

oStart Date: mid 05/2009

Pokemon are a phenomenon so famous and consolidated (on every channel and media available), that to speak of product placement is impossible. In fact since June the 1^st, the little monsters will be object of a huge Tie In that for three weeks will go around all the Burger King Shops in the USA and Canada. On August the 24^th it will go to South America for even 6 weeks….I do not have any news about Europe instead. The operation seems to be intelligent and well-planned: for every child menu there will 2 Pokemon cards as gift, plus a gadget. Burger King has offered not only its branches but even a huge promotional campaign with TV spots, In Store material and banner on its web site. The timing of this promotion could not happen in a better moment as the Platinum version of the game has gone out for 3 months and the selling success is based on the collecting mania, that needs to be urged with projects like this. But it’s not all: the Pokemon is ready to send out the movie DVD and above has already planned the new season of its cartoons on Cartoon Network. A succession of dates and events based on two simple game cards, in the most famous public format. It’s so visible to pass quite unobserved… if it weren’t for those monsters….

The “Space Commander” was going to be 60 years old: the first ultrasound remote control that has allowed “like a miracle” to change channel without getting up from the chair. But just before its birthday, a new generation of device will be available on the market with less button and lots of options. It’s something we are trying even here with the inter-active TV (mainly polls and pay-per-view shopping), the mobile and the wideband. But the truth is that the TV has been considered until now as an entertainment and the remote control as an instrument. With the new instruments instead, TV will become a sort of multi-technological platform, through which it will still be possible to watch a movie, shows and news, but even buy, sell, chat, study, research, control, play and work.It has been sufficient to borrow a little bit of technology from videogames and laptop to offer new services that will completely change our way to consider the most loved and criticized household applicance at home. Lots of channels are ready to offer services until now unthinkable. Among these the chance to navigate in iper-reading way, just through the shows you are watching. For what concerns product placement, it will be sufficient to stop the image and click over the product we are interested in to have the name of the Company, the model, the price, etc….with another click you will get to know the nearer shop and ask to have them delivered at home, paying before and receiving a regular sales check that the TV will print thanks to an internal micro-printer. All this will happens in few months even if such a technological conversion requires 5 years more. At the moment the confusion among the Company producers is about the languages and the protocols. Some multinational Companies propose a remote control with a touch pad as the laptopI, others have a small ball as joystick, others have got inspiration from Nintendo Wii and another one just vocal commands. It’s difficult to say who will be the winner, however for the subscriber a new market is opening with thousands of opportunities, upon which we are already working.

For this reason I have thought to gather the 10 most interesting first and second seasons actually on set and present an offer quite complete where it can be possible to do a good Brand Integration.

Title: CAPRICA

Producer(s): Ronald Moore

Cast: Paula Malcomson, Esai Morales, Eric Stoltz, Alessandra Toressani, Polly Walker

Distributor(s): Sci-Fi Channel

Location: Vancouver, CANADA/

Plot: Artificial intelligences put under menace Caprica, a pacific planet where 12 colonies of people live.

Notes: apt to hightech products and “kind of futurist clothing”

Title: CASTLE

Producer(s): Armyan Bernstein, Laurie Zaks, Andrew Marlowe

Cast: Nathan Fillion, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Susan Sullivan, Stana Katic

Distributor(s): ABC/

Location: Los Angeles

Plot: a horror writer becomes adviser of NYPD Homicide department

Notes: perfect for a youth target with some exclusive gadgets

Title: DOLLHOUSE

Producer(s): Josh Whedon,

Cast: Eliza Dushku, Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz, Dichen Lachman, Olivia Williams

Distributor(s): FOX

Location: Los Angeles

Plot: in a secret blaboratory, realised by a scientific project, some people live. They are without their own memory and have been reset with different personalities and abilities. An important mission depend on them.

Notes: interesting placement for home accessories and futurist design, furniture, clithing, fashion, technological and computer products..

Title: FLASH FORWARD

Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Courtney B. Vance, Jack Davenport, John Cho, Sonya Walger

Distributor(s): ABC

Location: Los Angeles/

Plot: an experiment in a Swiss laboratory has provoked a black-out all over the world for 2minutes and 17 seconds; the consequences are unbelievable and concern the future…

Notes: possible placement of fashion products and clothes

Title: HANK

Cast: Kelsey Grammer, Melinda McGraw

Distributor(s): ABC

Location: Los Angeles

Plot: it’s the coming back on set of Kelsey Grammer, the main character of “Frasier” for more than 20 years. In this serial he is a Wall Street manager that has lost his job and is obliged to come back to his wife and sons to his home town and restart a new life.

Notes: excellent occasion for high-end products of any sector

Title: NCIS: LEGEND

Producer(s): Shane Brennan, Charles Floyd Johnson, Mark Horowitz

Cast: Chris O’Donnell, LL Cool J, Louise Lombard, Peter Cambor, Daniela Ruah

Distributor(s): CBS

Location: Los Angeles

Plot: we have already talked about this: it is one of the most loved spin-off crime show of the last ten years.

Notes: for all those that would have desired to appear in NCIS this is a good occasion.

Title: THE GOOD WIFE

Cast: Julianna Margulies, Matt Czuchry,Archie Panjabi,Christine Baranski, Josh Charles

Distributor(s): CBS

Location: Vancouver, CANADA

Plot: the wife of a politician is a defense attorney when her own hsuband is under suspect.

Notes: All those upper class brands can be inserted in this placement

Title: HUNG

Cast: Thomas Jane, Jane Adams, Anne Heche

Distributor(s): HBO

Plot: Ray Dreker has been a basket legend and now, in his fifties, comes back as trainer in a High School

Notes: sports target is the more suitable for this serial

Title:FRINGE

Cast: Joshua Jackson John Noble Anna Torv

Distributor(s): FOX

Plot: a young FBI Agent handles unexplicable phenomenons, helped by an anticonventional Dr Bishot and even more partcular, his son Peter.

Notes: it’s a good occasion of product placement for products aimed to dynamic people as well as technological ones, cars and motorcycles..

Title: CLEANER

Cast: Benjamin Bratt, Kevin Michael Richardson

Distributor(s): A&E

Plot: William “The Cleaner” Banks has made an agreement with God. To get another chance he will spend his life helping the others.