Product placement is relatively new to the UK with the first ever example appearing on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ show only last week. The product was a Nestle coffee machine and was displayed for the price of £100,000 for a 3 month deal, which I imagine this will rise significantly in the future. Cowley and Barron (2008) state that product placement is a “combination of advertising and publicity designed to influence the audience by unobtrusively inserting branded products in entertainment programmes so that the viewer is unlikely to be aware of the persuasive intent”. The reason why it has taken this long to for the UK to grasp product placement is the fact that Ofcom’s regulations didn’t not permit brands to do so. So I ask myself why now? We are living in a digital age where television advertising revenues are taking second place in effectiveness and value for money compared to the internet. Is this the television networks idea for gaining revenue? Allowing the audience to get distracted from there favourite TV shows due to unnecessary branding or will product placement in fact be an advantage in promoting brand awareness and products to the audience?
Online product placement is currently on the rise with 2010 being the year that online product placements expanded by 15% to reach about $46 million. This suggests that online placement is out performing television focusing on social networks, YouTube videos and other virtual environments. Is television too late to bring this method into practice? Surly the statistics suggest that people are becoming more glued to their laptops than there television screens where they can interact with brands more than ever before compared to the tacky way in which television are unnecessarily sticking in branded products.
When it comes to television, the UK audience have been exposed to product placement through American sitcoms which suggest that there has not been any trouble with the issue in the past. Yet the UK is now introducing a new ‘P’ symbol aimed to warn the viewers that there are in fact branded products inserted onto the set.
Take a look at the 2011 awareness advert:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ctqz_zqV68
This to me will be where problems will arise. Ofcom will suggest that is in fact a more ethical way by warning the audience yet I argue that this will interrupt the viewing experience. Before the products were conveniently placed in the background, yet now the audience is told that they will be appearing, they will be constantly looking out for them rather than concentrating, and enjoying the program. An industry expert suggested that the rules will be a lot tighter than that of the US, with his example being “It won’t be like American Idol; Cheryl Cole won’t be sitting on The X Factor sipping Coca Cola.” He goes on to talk about the consumers views on the issue claiming that “There is obviously a bit of give and take, they have to make sure the product is right for the show. Audiences are entitled to push back if they don’t like it.” And then went on to suggest that audiences have welcomed product placement.
A contradicting pole I found on the ITV website suggests that 61.7% of people questioned agree that it will be a distraction. Could this mean that consumers are likely to get annoyed, which will result in negatively affecting the brands image? The Trumen Show is a comedy film that points out the extreme ways in which product placement could occur in which if this is anything to go buy then I completely agree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhIIPbO_6xg
I feel that if product placement is to be successful in the UK there needs to be an element of balance. The product will have to fit in perfectly with the surroundings of the show/character in order for the certain brand to reap the benefits. There is no doubt in my mind that the future of product placement is likely to be determined by the consumer.
References
-. (2011). Nescafe coffee machine on This Morning is first product placement on TV. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8350382/Nescafe-coffee-machine-on-This-Morning-is-first-product-placement-on-TV.html. Last accessed 6th March 2011.
Clark, N. (2010). Broadcasters lick lips as product placement lands. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/broadcasters-lick-lips-as-product-placement-lands-2165656.html. Last accessed 6th March 2011
Cowley, E., Barron C. (2008). When product placement goes wrong: the effects of program liking and placement prominence. Journal of Advertising 37, p. 89-98
Knight, K. (2010). Forecast: Online product placement to outpace television. Available: http://www.bizreport.com/2010/07/forecast-online-product-placement-to-outpace-television.html#. Last accessed 6th March 2011
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