Product Placement in the "New Media”
By Ravi Pidatala
As artists (and businesspeople) we often find ourselves exploring new and innovative revenue streams to help support our passions. In the past, this has led to a variety of stints such as the famed Mariah Carey selling ad space directly into the inlet cover of her CDs.
Nowadays, the trend seems to be pushing us into the sleek integration of product placement. Product placement saw a significant rise in the 80s, but it has never been more prevalent than it is today. With the rise of “new media”, such as online video, less and less people seem to be watching television. As more people take the dive into online and mobile media, traditional advertisers take the beating. So here is the problem—it’s obvious that the people switching over are doing so because of the ease in accessibility and the “I’m hungry now” factor, that is, why watch anything on television or listen to the radio when you can get your content faster here and NOW. So how do you advertise to those running away from ads? Well, it’s simple really, change your ads into the content people are flocking to!
Studies have shown that peer recommendation and the mimicking of what others are doing are incredibly effective marketing tools, far more so than simply being told the merits of a product via an ad-spot. So what do the companies want from you?—they want you to integrate their brands seamlessly into your songs/music videos and will pay top dollar for doing so. The “seamless” part is a subtle art in itself, since you do not want to disrupt the audience’s experience in fear of both parties losing face (artist, advertiser).
Now many people will stop right here and say wait a minute, isn’t this cheapening the spirit of music and opening the floodgates? Well I say that product placement isn’t necessarily a bad thing if done correctly. Having a product shown on screen in a music video for 10-15 seconds in the background shouldn’t damage the integrity of the song and many times pay for the video itself! What does bother me however is when the lines start to blur and you can’t differentiate what is a song and what is a corporate jingle (think Lady Gaga + Beyonce in Telephone). As actual music sales decline across the board, will product placement be a viable option to pump money back into the industry to those who deserve it? Or will it only serve to put up new barriers to entry, putting power back in the hands of the big labels—the antithesis of the online music revolution? What do you guys think?
NOTE:
For those interested in getting into the product placement game, here are a few resources that have popped up in recent times to connect you with the appropriate brands.
Brandfame is the premier marketplace connecting brands and producers sharing their videos on video-sharing websites like YouTube, metacafe, AOL Video, Revver, etc ... for live product placement and sponsorship deals.
As a producer you can do two things on Brandfame:
1. List your productions into which you are willing to integrate products. Advertisers can then find them and offer you a deal to integrate their products into your video.
2. Search for products and offer the brand a deal to integrate them into your upcoming videos.
PlaceVine is a company offering a web-based service that connects marketers and content producers to brand integration and product placement opportunities.
The Kluger Agency is a full service non-traditional advertising agency with focus on strategic partnerships and product placement within the music industry. TKA represents both corporations and artists in house, which allows brands to personally work with the artist and TKA’s award winning creative team to build integrated advertising campaigns far superior to any other opportunity in today’s market. |
