Product placement is increasingly becoming part of the media mix, with threats to the traditional carriers of advertising causing marketers to expand their portfolio with new ways to target their audience.
According to US research company, PQ Media, the product placement market is predicted to reach $6.94 billion by 2009, increasing at a compound annual rate of 14.9% between 2004 and 2009 (see
Surge In Women”Soft-Gambling” Online).
Television is predicted to increase its share of total product placement spending by almost 7% over the same period to 61.2%, while films are estimated to lose six percentage points between 2004-2009 with a share of 30.2% in four years time. Other media are forecast to drop one percentage point to 8.6%, while paid placements in videogames and on the internet are expected to rise.
Product placement’s growth, however, is coming at the advertising market’s expense, according to PQ Media, as marketers more aggressively migrate dollars away from advertising to alternative media.
With this in mind, PQ Media and iTVX have announced plans to release the “first global branded entertainment report on overall spending and measurement”, launching the new research in the first quarter of 2006.
Commenting on the initiative, Frank Zazza, chief executive officer of iTVX said: “PQ Media has established itself as a forecaster of branded entertainment. Together, we will have the right information for companies who seek branded entertainment spending globally. We can do customised research and turn-key solutions.”
One of the reasons why product placement is gaining in popularity is the effect that personal video recorders (PVR) are having on the traditional television advertising slot, with research firm Accenture predicting that nearly 10% of all TV commercials will be skipped by 2009 due to the fast forwarding technology (see US Advertisers To Lose 10% Of Commercial Impacts By 2009).
With this in mind, advertisers are looking towards branded entertainment and product placement as a means of reaching viewers fast-forwarding through adverts.
However, advertisers must be clever in how they position their brand, as research from FIND/SVP claims that consumers are twice as likely to buy a product as a result of seeing a television commercial than they are after seeing a product in branded entertainment (see TV Commercials Sell More Products).
One way that advertisers can combat these increasing pressures is by investing in paid placements in videogames and on the internet.
Both of these media are expected to enjoy massive growth over the coming years, with canny advertisers cashing in on the ever increasing market.
Indeed, the Yankee Group projects that in-game advertising will total $562.5 million by 2009, compared to $83.6 million in 2004 (see Advertisers Devise Ways To Cash In On Games Industry).
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