UK Product Placement - opening the door to brands

Want your beer flowing in Rovers Return? How about having Jamie Oliver noshing your brand of bangers? Previously money can't buy marketing strategies, until now....

Quite a surprising final story on the BBC late evening news this Saturday. Product placement in UK TV shows will be legalised at some point in the near future. The news represents something of a turnaround for the Government, with Culture Secretary Ben Bradsahw reversing his predecessor Andy Burnham position. Burnham said a year or so ago that lifting the ban raised "very serious concerns" and was "blurring the boundaries between advertising and editorial". This turnaround will bring a level certainty to what is something of a grey area of UK broadcast law.

I say grey area as product placement certainly exists, its just not legitimised. We would send brands product and key messages to props agencies with the hope they would get used in high rating shows. ZenithOptimedia London indeed had tremendous success with a COI 'Flu Jabs' Eastenders campaign in 2006 - not only were the Henry Cooper emblazoned posters we provided clearly seen on screen. But the soaps producers decided to incorporate the Flu Jabs season into the storyline (with Jim Brennan desperate to avoid the needle with Dot egging him on - classic stuff). But no money would change hands and no exposure was guaranteed.



This is all about to change with this policy decision. More will no doubt be announced at the official unveiling on Weds (at the Royal Television Society lecture) but we can hazard a guess at what this new future may hold of us.

Commercial stations and independent producers (the BBC will remain exempt - with the old 'send a prop and pray' model in place) will be able to accept payment in return for guaranteed screen time for brands. No detail on limitations as yet but I am convinced the regulations will be tight. Here in Poland for instance, product placement is sold in packages by broadcasters - usually with a minimum guarantee of 2 x 3 second exposures per episode. What isn't clear is how many brands can be exposed in this way in each show.

The timing of the announcement is interesting for two reasons. Firstly there is the evidence of a 'spoiling tactic' by the government. The Tories have engaged with the advertising/media community to draft various white papers on the future of broadcasting - it was understood that a softening of product placement regulation was one of the areas of interest. Secondly it comes at a time with ITV lobbying heavily for the removal of the CRR (a trading mechanism put in place by OFCOM at the time of the Carlton/Granada merging to avoid clients facing significant hikes in TV ad rates). Relaxation or removal of the CRR is by far a bigger deal for the beleaguered broadcaster. While broadcaster commentators like Peter Bazelgate reckon product placement could be worth up to £125m a year in the UK (based on the US experience of PP bringing in 5-6% of TV revenue).

I think this estimations are ambitious, great for headlines but probably unlikely to be reached for some time. Numerous reasons for this but a key issue will be the timelines that producers work to versus the speed with which clients tend to need to bring products/services to market. For a decent prime time drama, you are probably looking at 6-9 months between filming and airing. This timetable would put off any would be product placers - even a high profile broadcast sponsorship deal can go from deal to air in a matter of weeks and most clients businesses are based around the 2 month advanced booking deadline which UK broadcasters tend to insist on.

However that said, one can easily imagine the big winners here. It will be the shows that have shorter production schedules and offer bigger audiences - namely live talent/reality shows. Its no surprise that this picture of American Idol has been trawled out on all news outlets when this story broke. The deal between American Idol and Coke is reported to be worth $35m per year. Its a huge rating show, its live or 'as live' and I am sure its ad breaks and sponsorship billboards are very well sold, meaning product placement is the only way the broadcaster can maximise revenues in a hit programme. I imagine it'll go the same way in the UK.


In reality, the net benefit of the relaxation in product placement regulation is likely to be worth about £20-30m per year in the UK. A help but not the answer to commercial broadcasting's woes.
Despite UK movie going audiences being quite used to product placement in films, it will be a case of suck it and see on TV. I agree with Robin Wright's assessment on the Guardian today - like everything in advertising, product placement can be done well or badly (you'll see both in every James Bond film "Is that a Rolex", "No, I wear Omega"....and???).

To do it really well we, as the media agency community, need to add to our existing skill sets and learn from experiences in other markets. To ensure the UK does product placement better than anyone else we're looking for natural fit between brand and programme. Shoe-horning in will turn off audiences and only increase the pressure on the TV market.

Here's an example I was shown from Poland on perhaps how not to do it....



Product placement - Telekomunikacja Polska SA
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Orange Warsaw Festival 2009

The latest installment in the cultural game of chicken which is the search for Poland's 2016 European Capital of Culture took place this weekend

The Orange Warsaw Festival is the second annual installment of a partnership between the telco giant and Warsaw city hall in an effort to convince Poles and more importantly, the Euro mandarins who'll decide, that Warsaw is indeed the most culturally rich, diverse and deserving city in Poland.

Warsaw and 6 other Polish cities (for the record: Gdansk, Torun, Lodz, Poznan, Lublin and Szczecin) are battling it our for the right to join a Spanish city (9 candidates there) as 2016 European Capital of Culture.

Its clearly an accolade which can pay back handsomely. A 2004 study by the European Culture Commission (Palmer Study) demonstrated that the choice of European Capital of Culture served as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of the city. Plus the tourist dollar that is sure to follow, makes this a big deal in any country, let alone the 'newer' European territories.

So the Polish rivals are going at it hammer and tong to prove their worth. This is great news for inhabitants and tourists alike - in a country that loves a festival anyway, you can't move for them now (in Warsaw this weekend you could add a Jewish festival and Brazilian festival to the Orange affair).

It also presents opportunities for brands to get involved, to help candidate cities shoulder the financial burden of putting on big shows and get what they can in return in terms of engagement which an audience.

So far this summer, Poznan got out the traps early with a season of concerts which included a rare Polish outing for Radiohead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3jOFxALtgY .

Gdansk has been playing the Solidarity of Arts card - not surprisingly in the year Poland celebrated 20 years of democracy.

The Orange affair in Warsaw was perhaps as the capital city should offer. It was big - estimates of 35,000 people over the 2 days. It was set in a remarkable and hugely iconic (indeed symbolic) location, right underneath Stalin's Birthday Cake - the Palace of Science and Culture. And it was very accessible - free in fact.

I noticed that beyond the usual levels of event branding (clear ownership but not over the top) and Orange 'experience' areas. Orange also used the event to bring together many European employees for a conference in Warsaw. A good move this when this type of budget is under more scrunity than ever. And also a - for this was the weekend when Orange was without doubt the dominant brand in a city centre littered with special build posters and ambient media.

But the really interesting aspect for me is this public:private partnership approach. Its nothing new but it seemed that these 2 partners seemed to find a common ground - never easy as commercial requirements often run contrary to less flexible state-owned institutions. In harder economic times, this flexible and open appraoch to commercial content partnership is vital.

Hard hitting ambient poster from Australia

Something I stumbled on today while browsing random Blogger pages. Amongst the countless weird hobbyists I found this site http://criacaocriativos.blogspot.com/ by a Brazilian graphic designer.

The image below caught my attention, but I had to look twice to really see what was going on in this poster...

It's a campaign by the Australian Childhood Foundation - www.stopchildabuse.com.au/ - broadly it follows a similar theme to NSPCC's 'Full Stop' and Child Line's 'Don't Hide It'.

However, I think the image and effect of this poster is almost overwhelming. Not least because of the incredibly powerful dehumanisation of the child.

Click on the above blog to see the making of video plus Melbournites reactions. What is really shocking is how few people react - at least someone 'rescued' the child dummy and got a nice surprise.

Plaudits to JWT Australia for their excellent pro bono work here.

Moments in Life

This is simply a beautiful piece of film

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVPalNZD_I

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Orange extend their film partnership...by about 500 miles

Something that I came across in Poland last week that seemed worth commenting on.

UK punters will be well aware of Orange's long-term and very well executed use of film as a brand communication vehicle. The amusing Gold Spot ads at cinemas and the Orange Wednesdays have been part of the film experience in the UK for some time

So I was interested to see that Orange Poland (re-branded here a couple of years ago) have also chosen to follow the film route. But happily, they aren't copying and pasting but applying a decidedly Polish take.

Like most of continental European, the Poles tend to holiday during a certain season (pretty much July and early August). With the Zloty suffering against the Euro and the country gripped by talk of economic crisis (really not that bad so far - fingers crossed...), as a consequence holidaying in Poland remains the best bet for many Poles - for at least one of their summer holidays (seems most people have two).

The options are three-fold; coast, lakes or mountains. With the deadly Polish roads actively keeping the population stable (there was a weekend when 66 people died on Polish roads recently - and not in 2 coaches), many Poles let the train take the strain.

Orange have understood this and have provided an addition to their regular summer cinema season in key Polish holiday resorts.

http://www.orangekinoletnie.wp.pl/

So running on the line from Sopot (twinned with Southend on Sea no less...) on the north coast to Zakopane in the Tatra mountains in the south, rail users could watch a vary of films - new and classic- in a branded Orange coach. Unlike Orange Wednesday, no Orange phone is required to settle in for the flick.

Once in each holiday town - Orange have also set up screens to keep you entertained when you're grown tired of talking to your family...

Capturing a great sporting moment

I just love this image - taken by Tom Jenkins for the Guardian - the players consumed in joy and just visable is the little brown urn that England and Australian battle for over the course of a long summer every 2 years or so. Try explaining that to confused Poles.

Writing in buildings

This is a building opposite me in Warsaw. Normally an unremarkable office block. But last night transformed with the symbol of the Polish 2nd World War resistance to mark the 65th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.