Earlier this year I reported on how product placements are creeping their way into television content as a reaction to technology advancements that allow television viewers to skip traditional television commercials (i.e. zap commercials). The logic on the part of marketers is that they must expose their brand to consumers one way or another and if traditional television commercials don't work then they must find ways to get their brands worked into the content of the shows.
Gary Levin has a story in today's USA Today entitled, "The newest characters on TV shows: Product plugs", that also discusses this relatively new form of advertising. Advertisers are paying large sums of money to have their company and product brands featured in the content of television programming.
After you read my previous blog post and the a USA Today story, I have three questions that I'd like my blog readers to comment on.
1) If you are conscious of brands either obviously or overtly featured in television content, does that create positive or negative feelings toward those brands in your mind?
2) Are you more likely or less likely to buy certain brands if they work their way into programming in this manner?
3) Do you believe there should be full and obvious disclosure in television programs when advertisers pay a fee to have their brand featured in the content?
We are on a slippery slope here, folks.
Soon marketers will find a way to bombard us with commercial messages in every imaginable fashion and we will be forced to tune it all out. How can we trust the integrity of anything if we do not know what is creative content vs. what is paid-for promotion?
A word of advice to marketers: Make the strength of your brand and your message be so compelling that consumers will want to hear your brand's message without you ramming it down their throats. If you have to sneak the message in somewhere, then you probably are not very confident in your brand's promise or value proposition.
And, hey, as long as I'm talking to marketers and television advertisers, let me ask you a question. Just exactly how are you going to measure results of product plugs in television content?
That is one ROI calculation I'd like to see.
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