I give a suggest. Take part to “7 productions for 7 products”. For several weeks I have worked upon this project and now it’s the moment to speak about. For years I am really convinced that Product Placement is a big chance both for the Companies as well as for the film-makers. However sometimes it is obvious to believe that its success depends on the spectators number, the actors’ fame or the Studios that produce it. Well , this is not always true.
The intuitions of a brand, its ability to gather the weak signals, to understand the values and propose new solutions can even pass through its support to new, full of talent, artistic and bold productions.
These are the marks through which all the brands would like to be known.

On the other side there are lots of people (more or less young) with good ideas, talent and unexpressed potentialities that could become their best medium.Briefly, I would like to invite all the Companies, whose vision is supported by innovation, new proposals but even faithfulness in their public, to communicate their interest in planning even with low budgets, some actions of product placement within independent though good quality productions. And again: I would like to invite all indipendent film-makers as well as producers and directors, young and old, with more or less experience to take part in this competition with their ideas. In a few weeks I would publish a web site with the adhesions; for the moment the first and most enthusiastic can write to me in this blog.

It has not been talked so much here around but the S.A.I.F.F., celebrated a couple of weeks ago in New York (the big town a little bit lab and workshop together), is one of the most interesting world movie event.

It’s a festival dedicated to the Southasian film-makers that work in the United States. The countries interested by this event are India, by sure, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and above all the Indian Diaspora. It’s the celebration of the cross-over movie, a sort of inter-ethnic and bipolar marriage, that in the last few years has proposed different good works (lots of them pointed out in this blog) able to attract public from anywhere to make it closer to different kinds of reality.

During this sixth edition, where everything has been showed, rewarded and reviewed, the most ambitious prizes have been won by the actor and producer Sunil Shatty for his interpretation in “Red Alert the War Within”, based on the true story of a poor worker (Narasimha) become a terrorist in order to give a better future to his sons, that lives the contradictions and the ethical, moral and spiritual conflicts of his land and the whole world.

The prize for the best direction has been given to Anjali Menon for “Manjadikuru” , the story of a woman, her ideals, faith, perseverance and courage. Two projects that would have been a great chance for product placement, to propose to different and faraway people a philosophy of brand able to unify and communicate as much as these pioneers from the West Coast. Men and women full of ideals, courage and creativity, able to give us some fresh new air… as well as a bucketful of cold water.

 For the first time (and we hope to be one of the last one) even Product Placement has made the mistake to speak about itself. The news appeared today on the most important magazines of the sector in the United States should have been that Harley Davidson has decided to plan product placement activities all along Hollywood productions. In the next years its image should be connected not only to movies, but even serials, musical videos and games.
But the real news was not this one. I would like to speak about the consequences of this choice above all in Europe in the medium period. But I have to underline the real news that seems to be as follows:The Harley wants Americans to get closer to the motor world. For this reason it has decided to appeal to XY Agency (I do not want to reveal it being paradoxal) to make its motorcycles well-known on movies, serials, etc. The Agency XY has accepted to co-operate to this project with the help of KZ (the same as before).

The news ends here. Within a few lines the “Harley” barnd has been reported once while the Society twice … thrice if you consider that the creative of the Agency is quoted as well.
As it happens on Tv, where everything speaks about TV, nowadays we talk about product placement Agencies instead of product placement itself. It is the same thing as to swithc on the lights upon the technician instead on the theatre itself or to agive a prize to the cine-camera instead of the director….

 
As we are speaking about now, knowing what we are talking upon, maybe this is the best moment to talk about. “Better Off Ted” is a surreal situation comedy, cinic, funny and with a quick and efficacious language. It’s a serial born last March in a very pat way, and has switched on a light on the world of the multinational Companies about research and sperimentation. 
If it had been a serious project, it would have closed after the pilot episode. On the contrary it makes laugh (even if you want to cry) and it’s intelligent and sophisticated and that’s why it will close its first season as a winner while the second one has already begun to be shooted….

And we have to talk about this. A few months ago it was really difficult for me to propose to some Italian Fashion Companies this product. It was clear which was the target and neither how it has to be distributed. In Italy for example it’s on Fox, but I can bet very soon it will be on the digital or on RAI2 (that lots of times fights with Fox to get the most interesting programmes). Now, besides to be clear which is the segment of “Better Off Ted”, it is clear and evident how elegant and charming is Portia de Rossi and most in general the set, the accessories and the protography. An excellent chance for many fashion and design Companies, considering that the Production has appreciated some new proposals by our creative artists.

 In september on ABC the first episode of “Cougar Town” was broadcasted; it’s the new serial with Courteny Cox on which she has bet on. It was a success with 11 millions of spectators so that the network has decided to go on with the next episodes. 
From October the 8^th “Cougar Town” has become officially a new serial broadcasted on Thursday night at 9:30 pm. The plot is about this generation of 40-year-old women, intelligent, successful, winning, elegant, charming, mostly divorced and single that are looking for love and the charming prince looking at younger partners (we can say between 20 and 30). She is really good, the story reliable, so the production has been able to achieve a presence of Courtney at the Letterman Show. Nothing more intelligent to celebrate a success or help it. The verbal menions have been lots and the nice Dave (nowadays more complying with than provocative) has liked a lot to enter this world, a sort of Sex-and-the-City new style.

So by now onwards everyone has an helpful instrument to speak about our product. Fashion and accessories first of all, but even furniture, household appliances….. There are still 12 episodes to shoot for this first season and it seems that an Italian shoes Company has already entered with several good placements. For the moment I cannot say more. For the other brands we can speak about… but you don’t have to loose your time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even if it works only in the USA (for the moment), just after two years from its birth, it is the video portal more visited after youtube (for the moment) with its 38 millions of visitors.

But Hulu doen’t work like youtube, we can say it belongs to another generation, as it allows to share and persolize its subjects and contents as well as to satisfy the requirements and important aims (money, profit, earnings) of the major companies.

Here it is: Hulu has an agreement with the most important American Broadcast Companies (NBC;, FOX, E’, Comedy Central, etc) and with the most important Studios (Universal, 20^th century, MGM, etc) for the distribution of their products. It’s sufficient to choose the serial, the Show (often live broadcasted) or the movie you prefer and download it. But I believe what’s really interesting and new in its kind is the chance, once downloaded the movie, to modify as you wish and reintroduce it on the web again.

The media planners and the product placers often exploit the movies and the serials for about 7 years but, considering the process of reniewing that some of them undergo by the visitors, we can imagine their life cycle to double. In the last years something similar has happened even in Italy with the dubbing in some regional dialects of a few episodes of Happy Days or other movies such as “An Officer and a Gentleman”, “Rambo”, etc. Hulu starts from the same principle, developing it hugely and giving new life, sometimes more creativity and appeal to many movie feature films. Sometimes even the product placements have been aimed to with the results, almost always positive to offer verbal mention and more fame to the brand, even if this was not the real intent of the “handler”.

Last week Evan Williams, Twitter CEO, was interviewed by the English daily Telegraph. What he said was already known, however his words could make the marketing and media planner strategists think about. The business model offered by Twitter (140 free marks for everybody any time you want) is mostly addressed to the telephone market. This because its shortness and high frequency are compatible with SMS, MMS and more in general with this generation that has made

the mobile become part of our lives. One of the most interesting ads campaigns by Twitter happens to be H3G (last month on an Italian advertising magazine there was a very good article by Angela D’Amelio). Moreover Williams has underlined that his social network is efficient as well as innovative and proposes new and free spaces and without a price list, contrarily to what the others do. These two facts get it closer to the marketing theories that have allowed the birth and development of product placement (artistic choice), and could even suggest the solution to the theme (already spoken about different times in this blog) of “Mobile Entertainment”. The moment to drop the logos, the icons, the colors, the graphic, the animation and the jingles has arrived before we have ever expected… even if we have appealed to since then.

Bollywood produces more movies and has more viewers than any other cinema district in the world, even more than Hollywood. It’s quite far, at least this was true until some times ago. The Hindi format is spreading out and getting closer to the western one. Moreover the numbers of the viewers and the producing quality of the movies are extremely interesting for all the world. For this reason (and even for the reason that I really appreciate that particular mood), the Bollywood productions deserve more visibility.

The GS Entertainment for example, is an interesting production studio in Bombay: these days it is finishing the post-production of Lamhaa: an action movie that will be out in December. The set is in Kashmir, once known as an earthly paradise, now at the center of guerrillas, political intrigues, spying and illegal affairs. The everlasting fight between bombs and reason is going to sacrify a territory, Kashmir, that on the contrary could become the spiritual focus point of the world. Quite a hard story about Lamhaa and we know how much difficult this could be for a placement action. Much easier with comedies, teen movies and sentimental movies. But if it’s true that a brand should communicate some values and if it’s true that the movie is even a way to present reality, so far that some brands bored by the usual glossy magazines, can find this kind of hindi movie such a faraway but charming dimension, and a future partner with incredible potentialities.

 Stephanie Savage, producer and screensaver of “Gossip Girl”, answering to a question by a Los Angeles Time’s journalist (Adam Tschorn) about the big problem of zapping, made an interesting comparison.

The big networks and the studios are trying to compensate the loss caused by the minor presence of the ads spots with product placement. Introducing the products directly within the show, you can avoid “flippering”, that provokes damages not only to the advertisers but even to the channel and the producers themselves thus lessening the fidelity of the public to the programme. It’s almost what’s happening in the music world. The selling out of records is diminishing, thus the managers of the groups and the singers have been thinking about a solution. Many have thought about product placement.

Gwen Stefani e Justin Timberlake for example, have a fashion collection on their own and wear it any time and this is an exceptional promotional way, maybe profitable as much as the records selling out. But Stephanie Savage tells something more and reveals a few techniques and interesting applications. A musician can sign a contract with a fashion Company in order to wear its own clothes and maybe exploit his/her image for ads (this is called Tie in), or can wear them only sometimes and be shooted by the press (Cameo) or once more make a fashion collection with his/her name (partnership).

All these examples should be divided into two big categories, “Inside the Show or Outside the Show”, that is during the concerts or the private life (that most of the time is public). The choices of the different kind of placement are planned by marketing strategies, depending on the budget, on the wish to monopolize more or less the same star or to the desire to be a little bit underground, something that the stylists still like.

About three weeks ago, the Culture Minister of Great Britain, Ben Bradshaw spoke at the convention of the “Royal Television Society” and what he said completely upset the orientation of the Government, kept until that moment, about product placement. The English position had always been quite prohibitive and in more than an occasion it had asked to the European Community to take an official stand to promote a European law. On the contrary the Minister Bradshaw is now working on a draft bill that “allows Great Britain to be in line with the USA and many other Western markets” (such as Australia). Even the review Variety has thought to be these very important words and the reactions have arrived quite immediately. The ITV spokesman has declared that if the Government should allow the product placement, “ the televisions of Great Britain would be welcomed on the market of the global commercial communication”, with an incoming of about 166 millions euros. This law would even stop a spread-out and ambiguous situation. The Government seems to have realised that the product placement is already part of the English families’life that, every day, watch American and Australian movies and shows where product placement is present.

Not to speak about the sponsors during the sport matches, with their brands on the players’ t-shirts, on the benches, on the pannels in front of which all the interviews take place. However the Minister has underlined that all the children programmes will be excluded by product placement so to let them think and chooce freely what they really want.

The Wall Street Journal had already perceived this when a few days ago in an article by the journalist Suzanne Vranica, it published about the news at HSN.

HSN is a multichannel (TV, Web, paper catalogue) completely dedicated to the fashion shopping, furniture, personal accessories and other gadgets mostly feminine. To speak openly, a phenomenon with a paying public of about 94 millions of people. With the new season, started this Autumn, HSN (Home Shopping Network) has decided to find out new economical resources to pay its own developing projects. Not an easy thing if you consider that, for clear reasons of coherence and seriousness, the channel has never asked for any kind of ads. The solution thought by the management has been the product placement. A choice able to preserve the credibility of the brand and, at the same time, to find out financial helps through the brand integration. Among the most important examples of the network startegy, the WSJ underlines the one about Barilla (we even knew about Kraft), become “owner” of a cook programme during which it gives pieces of advice about new recipes or better ones ‘own. After the first month of trial, the marketing sector of the channel has sent out all its commercial agents all over the world to promote such a chance. The offer is quite interesting for different brands both in Italy as well as in Europe, that would have the chance to become visible as technical sponsor (thus in a coherent contest) in a very short time to a huge public of mostly 100 millions of people.