During the next fall-winter TV season the Americans will watch the first season of “Chase”, the story of a marshall from Texas, specialized in chasing fugitives escaped from prison. Besides the plot (which seems to be interesting), there are other elements that make us understand the quality of the project. For example the producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, the man who more than others has realised one success after the other, such as the “CSI” (Las Vegas, New York, Miami), “Cold Case”, “without any trace” and many others. Another aspect is the distribution. For the first time with this project, Bruckheimer has been able to sell his product to NBC. A logical choice after so many successful serials for just one channel as CBS (“Dark Blue” and “The Whole Truth” for example). Meaningful for the Americans is even the title of the serial: Richard Chase infact was known as “the vampire from Sacramento”, a horrible serial killer that in few months killed 6 persons, drinking their blood and eating their bodies. Thankfully now there will be Jesse Metcalf, the main character, to free us from such concerns.

Let’s talk again about next TV season in the States to see what’s news. Let’s start from the first season of Mr Sunshine, with the coming back of Matthew Perry. Even if he has worked a lot after “Friends” (even as producer and playwright), it is quite sure that the sit-com genre is more suitable to the unforgettable Chandler. In the new project, produced by the trustful Greenlighted, he is quite a normal 40-years businessman at the San Diego Stadium that begins to think about his life. At his side the nice and beautiful Andrea Anders (Better of Ted, The Class, Joey…), the quite famous Allison Janney (154 episodes in The West Wing) and Nate Torrence (a young character actor). As other new serials, the mood of this production is light but no trivial, as it proposes a sort of revisitation os some life values, with nice and light spots. The set is New York and the shooting will begin in 3 weeks. You have really a few time.

The great outing of Sex and the City girls is the right occasion to talk about Celebrity Seeding. Let’s explain it’s something between PR ad product placement, with the aim to give the products freely to the Stars of the Show Biz and more in general to the V.I.P. (normally fashion clothes and accessories, but even design products, technological gadgets, furniture, etc.), with the hope they can use them, taken pictures of, noted on the press and obtain visibility. The good sense would like each garment and object to be selected by these people with great attention. Such a category has so much money and such acquaintances to obtain the best of the best. And it’s exactly this logical supposition that is at the base of the efficacy of the Celebrity Seedings. But the truth is different: all the people I know accept with pleasure to have and use different kinds of products free. It will be not very nice to reveal the names but I have personally see people predate some departments stores. Not to talk about those who ask their agent to call the producer or some common friends to obtail products free. In a few cases the free supply is sufficient to obtain the Seedings. In other cases it is asked even a good mediatic proposal. The most frequent example is about the design objects or white goods that become the main characters within a photo session distributed to the most important furniture reviews, very happy to publish articles about famous people and their houses. And at that point the circle gets close with the perfect logic of the win-win. The Star gets the products free, the Producing House obtains good references and visibility on important newspapers with no costs and the review gets a free interesting article. But can it be possible that the Hollywood millionaires can loose their time trying to get free the clothes and accessories even from “Sex and the City II”, as the four main characters of the movie itself are revealing just these days on channel E!. The answer to such a question is unknown, even for a rational person like me, but as it works, and works well… it doesn’t matter.

You don’t hear talking about “iCarly” very often among marketing managers. On the contrary teen-agers do. A video, among the many present on youtube, has got more than 13 millions of visits, but it isn’t so difficult to find others with such numbers. In Italy it is on Nickelodeon and gets lots of fans. Its website works seriously: the blog is very popular, the visitors are many and the sell-out of its soundtrack is optimum. The story is about a young girl from Seattle that becomes a web star thanks to a web-casting. The production is sober but with taste, good dialogues, nice rhythm and nice actors. Nothing new or experimental but it has the advantage to be always updated. The plot, the speeches, the actors’ look and the set have a perfect equilibrium between what there was (and we are fed up) and what will be (not too much in advance). In a few days in the Los Angeles Studios the 4^th season will start to be shot. 26 episodes already on programme are really a lot in comparison to other web serials. Good sign of a consolidated success on one side and of a good economic rendering for the production on the other. For placement activity it is important to go on now. The products interested are those connected to teen-agers between 12 and 17 years old.

The web serials are ready for a high jump. The producers (the real ones) and lots of actors (the true ones) are working upon even if without any great results. A few projects with a good concept and worthy cast have started though ending quite soon. Like “Gotham” that relates the story of “those with a second chance” with primary actors such as Martha Byrne, winner of an Emmy and Michael Park, that got a nomination at the Emmys too.

Well, for the first episode with 22.000 visitors, for the second 13.000 and now at the 13^th episode there are just 200 visitors. This serial has been visited in total from just 74.000 subscribers.

A little better for Streamboat , a mocking version of the show world with good actors as Michael O’ Leary and Beth Chamberin (both seen in the soap “Sentieri”). The first episode got 15.000 visitors and now is between 2.000 – 3.000 visits. Very few to interest the placement market. Different the case of the wonderful “Imaginary Bitches” (nominated for an Emmy in 2009) with 400.000 and 600.000 visits each episode and a total of about 7 millions. The story is a mix of funny and charming, something between “Friends” and “Sex and the City” with a cast of young, nice and really inspired actors. This project is connecting the independent, almost experimental and with low budgets productions with the serious Show Biz. The first project of those who really know how to produce a serial is a remake of Dynasty. Among the cast: Lilly Melgar (General Hospital), Tristan Rogers (General Hospital, Love Boat), Sandra Ferguson – Robinson (Anotherl World, Baywatch, General Hospital), John Callahan (Desperate Housewife, General Hospital, Falcon Crest, Santa Barbara), Taylor Stanley (Another World, Spin City), Derrel Witt (The Indruders) and lots more. The producers told me they are having lots of fun and have been able to create a wonderful mood. This serial is really good for luxury products (jewels, clothes and accessories), for the house (design and furniture) and the free time (auto, motorcycle, sport, gardening, etc.). To underline that Dynasty is the only serial by Aaron Spelling that has not got any remaking until now. Thanks to the peculiarity of the web, the news and the improvements of this project will be worldwide and point of reference for all that follows.

An interesting datum that maybe is known only throughout the specialized market is that in the United States there is a huge market called “Italian Sounding” where lots of products coming from everywhere are presented as “Italian”. This fraud costs about 50 billions of euros. An example: last year while I was in New York I wanted to eat “pasta with pesto”; I went to buy some “Italian pesto” in a very famous gastronomy to realise reading the back label that it came from Chile.

Now, to regain this money there are a few solutions. One is to promote the wine and food products through TV productions dedicated to high level cuisine. Few times ago we talked about Martha Stewart, but we have to quote even “The Rocco Show”, of which I want to talk more in a future post….and the “America’s Next Great Restaurant”. A mix between a serial and a reality in which a group of future chefs get in competition to obtain the funding to realise their dream. The shootings will begin in a month and the anchorman will be chef Bobby Flay. In each episode there will be different locations to place the products, that will be managed not only in a professional contest but from a professional point of view. One month is enough to plan….

 Since time the Tv formats for teenagers are a sort of mix (or “crossover”)between music and light comedy, with a little bit of action, good feelings , humour and comics.The first examples get back to the 60s when the serial “The Monkees” (a sort of stupid Beatles clone) allowed the band to sell more than the real “Fab Four” that they imitated.In the 70s other formulas like the glossy “Partridge Family”, inspired to the true story of Cowllins Family that a few years before had obtained quite a good success in the USA. Even in this case, the record sell-out was quite a good success, in fact both in 2001 and 2005 there were a few rieditions. Again in that years, David Soul, the famous “Hutch” in “Starsky and Hutch” in one episode played the guitar. At the same time his LP was played around and reached the first place in the most important music top tens….. and it was not the last time. In the 80s there was the musical “Fame”, in the 90s the R&B (“Will the Prince of Bell Air”, above all). In the last few years there have been quite two phenomenons: High School Music (the updated version of “Fame”) and the nice Hannah Montana, a sort of mp3 version of Happy Days.

However the most interesting among the recent productions is “The Jonas” by Walt Disney Continue Reading

 For sure there is a format well developed in the TV entertainment world, the wine and food one.There is the serial by the young international creative chef (Jamie Oliver); the Tv report in the week-end with chefs, sommelliers and famous critics (Vissani, Luca Maroni ecc.), the semiprofessional and deepening one (New Work by Laura Ravaioli) and those for people who have few time but lots of passion (Nigella Express).  Even on the radio there are wine and food programmes (Decanter) or weekly appointments with interesting proposals for the week-end always connected to food. The web, especially, is full of sites about the good table, or video portals with huge amounts of channels for cooking class and degustation, more or less interesting from a quality point of view. For different reasons none of them have ever approached the product placement. The professional productions maybe considering this like a conflict of interest, the minor and independent ones not so interested in the Companies that have potentially proposed themselves. On this base, the project “Five stars Pans”, nominee at the “7 plots for 7 brands” competition presents something new as it has been thought eaxctly for the web and the product placement. Let’s thing about a video on demand, divided into subjects, very short and easy for anybody through the web. The set could be any real or creative location and the placement declinations will go from furniture to kitchenware to wine and food products .

 In Italy for some reasons people have not talked about it yet, but during these days the shooting of a new reality quite curious will begin, “Basketball Wives” (on line on VH1 since March the 15^th). Realised and produced by Shaunie O’Neal (Shaquille’s wife) before their separation, she has never thought to cancel her Show because such an unpleasant event in her private life, on the contrary the most ex-famous NBA wife has just changed a few details. Thus, instead of following the troubled life of the Basketball Wives, you could follow the daylife of fiancèes and ex-wives. In the cast there are Jennifer Williams (Eric Williams’ wife), Evelyn Lozada (ex-fiancèe of Antoine Walker), Mesha O’Neal (Jermaine O’Neal’s wife), Royce Reed, Faith Rain and Shaunie O’Neal. They drive luxurious cars, live in the most prestigious houses, wear the most expensive clothes, they represent the American dream. They are always looking for news, creativity, trends and anything else to show for first just to be recognised as trendsetters…. and lots of Italian Companies should profit of this incredible occasion with product placement actions.

 Few good ideas have begun to arrive about the prize “7 productions for 7 products” we talked about a month ago. In its official version it will be almost sure that its name will be “7 plot for 7 brands”. We have to say that there will not be just one winner as prizes and medals are not its aim.Its aim in fact is to point out good ideas to propose to Companies interested in planning new product placements. The web serial budgets are so low that the brands that invest become microproducers and can manage their product/webserial even following their own strategies (through their own web company, on facebook page, youtube or metcafe, DVD mobile or selling the format to some digital stations).

And within this scenery the project “Borderman” is really a great interpretation. First of all, it is not a traditional web serial, it is not just the translation of a sit-com on the web but something new called “multiformat” as it is divided into 5 sections, one after the other, about the same subject. Thanks to this, Borderman is a perfect project for product placement, keeping its plot characteristics as well as awakening the public interest. The Companies more interested in this project should be those about sports clothing and accessories, the more casual brands, and those that get around the “Indi” music. Considering its meagre investment and its planning ductility, it is a chance really full of potentialities.

Between the 70s and the 80s (in the USA it was between 1976 and 1981), “Charlie’s Angels” charmed the TV watchers for its original formula that mixed the glamour of three beautiful girls very “posch” and the “soft thriller” plot fit for any age. After twenty years about the format has been translated into a movie with two new episodes (“Charlie’s Angels” in 2000 and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” in 2003) that obtained quite a good result with a third remake not in production yet. Moreover the plot has been used in 2003 for different videogames versions (Nintendo, GameCube and PlayStation 2) as well as for mobiles. Since the beginning of the year it has been speaking about a new version of the serial, more or less as it happened for “Beverly Hills”, “Merlose Place”, “V Visitor” and “Supercar”, serials not all arrived in Italy and those that did it (90210) with results not so good as it was expected (while in the USA they got prizes). However the premises in this case are different: the scriptwriters and the producers are among the best but above all they are the same of years ago. Very important the presence of Drew Barrymore that in the serial supports the producers Josh Friedman and Leonard Goldberg. Even if it is not still official the shootings will start in Autumn 2010. Good time for those brands (fashion, accessories, design and motors in primis) that want to make a long brand integration.

 The first to talk about “Undercover”, about a month ago, was “The Hollywood Reporter”. Only 4 or 5 lines to say just one interesting thing: J. J. Abrams will direct the pilot episode of a new concept of serial. Until now the insiders have just called it as “the Abrams/Reim Project” but now we know something more. And the news is very important considering that JJ has been directing things such as “Mission Impossible”and “Star Treck” or produced cult serials as “ Lost” and “Alias”. Even if it is not explained in the article, “Undercover” is about a funny spy couple. You do not have to campare it with the 80s comedies such as “Hart to Hart”or “Remington Steele” (Pierce Brosnan has begun from here). It is more a mix between ” Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “The Bourne Identity”. Since yesterday the operations of product placement have begun. To be present in the first pilot episodes is one of the best chances one can have to obtain great visibility. Because they have lots of public, last the double than a standard episode and because if the serial gets success, they become “a must”. And even more when the serial is produced and directed by a “Successful Producer”.

 
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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a couple of seasons (2006-2007) a Canadien sit-com got distinguished for an important use of product placement. The Jane Show followed the life of a would-be writer that had accepted to work in a big Company while waiting to find out an editor to publish her stories. Realised with a modest budget, well acted, well produced, it has not been able to go on with this project. And it’s really a pity as the marriage with important brands seemed to be perfect. In particular the one with Dyson, the famous vacuum cleaner brand that for first produced models without sack and water filter and many others innovative solutions. During the two seasons of the soap, its presence was more or less constant with lots of “verbal mention” and “hands on” managed with irony and balance. Part of this well-succeeded placement has to be attributed to the Canadian Agency that followed the Client’s interest. In the same period in fact, the most important models were present even in other programmes on shopping such as “The shopping bags” e “Dotto Tech”. A medium planning through product placement chosen by one of the most important Companies in the world to propose itself on the great Canadian market. Even if only two years have passed, nowadays it would be difficult to repeat the experiment without being defined as super exposure by an attentive public. However there is still a small place where evrything can happen, where the action freedom that the Canadian movie district had before (not so ruled as the American one) is wider in terms of experimentation and openness: it’s the serial web, wonderful as the best has still to come.