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Product Placement goes Digital
Here’s an interesting twist in the convergence of advertising, technology and television. Marathon Digital, a company based in Wakarusa, Indiana, managed to digitally insert a product placement into a sitcom after it was already recorded. I guess it’s like how company logos are sometimes overlayed onto Premier League soccer pitches or the magical yellow 10 yard ‘first down’ line is inserted into NFL games; but this time it was a full 3D model of a box of Kellogg’s crackers on the table in front of the actors.
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So here’s my suggestion: The networks should go back into their catalogues of old shows (much like NBC is already doing on iTunes) and release them online with new product placements seamlessly integrated into the old content. Jump on the nostalgia bandwagon, release your back catalogues of programming, as per the Long Tail manifesto. You sell the shows for marginal costs ($1.99 or lower, maybe even free) to stimulate downloads and meanwhile, using these digital placements, charge companies for the right to have their products in the A-Team or Leave it to Beaver.
Update: Cnet.com picked up this post.
Comments
Joel…this is a tough one. Do we need more intrusive advertising? Or am I prepared to let some dumbass company buy a useless product placement so I can get some great content for free? I’m torn between philosophy and cheap-osophy. I noticed Steve Rubel was blogging about Schoolhouse Rock episodes being sold on iTunes and I thought that was cool, but I didn’t want to pay for it…maybe product placement in animated educational shorts is what the doctor ordered?
InShot.com.au and its YouTube channel InShotTV are doing some pretty cool online product placement for user-generated content. They also have a soft-launch for their Copacabana Exchange.
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