NMG releases first media evaluation results for Dolce Gusto on This Morning
NMG Product Placement evaluates the first product placement on British TV – with Dolce Gusto gaining £56,160 of exposure on This Morning, while Lea & Perrins wins £21,600 for no payment to ITV…
History was made on 28 February when ITV1’s programme This Morning featured a Nestle Dolce Gusto coffee machine in the ‘Chef’s kitchen’ set as part of a three month deal for a reported £100,000 fee.
While Nestle scored an undoubted PR coup, NMG’s report deals with the media exposure gained by the Dolce Gusto machine on set from 28 February until 9 March. Exposure was measured using NMG Product Placement’s Tracker 2011 system.
The Dolce Gusto machine has gained Tracker 2011 media value of £56,160, averaging £7,020 per broadcast.
“Our Tracker system was first used in 1987 and has continually evolved with input from clients and their agencies alike,” NMG’s chairman, John Barnard, said. “All product placement measurement systems calculate an order of magnitude, not an absolute value. However, by the uniform application of the same assumptions, benchmarking and trend analysis can be accurately determined.”
NMG tracked 62 separate appearances for the Dolce Gusto machine. Due to its location, behind the chef, 31 were fleeting background shots, to which the system ascribes zero media value. A further 31 were just good enough to justify the next quality level, which ascribes basic advertising rate card value on a per second basis.
“To put this in context, we need to consider relevant benchmarks. First to look at other brands appearing in This Morning. Lea & Perrins appeared over two days, was central to the action and gained a Tracker 2011 media value of £21,600. Bearing in mind Lea & Perrins did not pay ITV a fee they did well to achieve nearly 40% of Nestlé’s result and on the opening day of paid for product placement. Even Nutella’s exposure on 8 March was worth nearly £5,000,” Barnard continued.
Another benchmark is to compare to typical results achieved through ‘free prop supply’ product placement.
“Extrapolating Nestlé’s media value for the 13 week campaign period suggests an overall Tracker 2011 Media Value of around £400,000. Simply dividing by the reputed £100,000 fee gives a payback return of about 4:1. How does this compare with free prop supply? Based on experience paybacks of around 10:1 to 12:1 could be achieved, thus delivering an extra £600,000 to £800,000 of exposure,” Barnard said.
Beyond media values there are other issues to be weighed up, according to NMG. Will the Dolce Gusto machine blend into the background and media values become negligible?
Tracker 2011 can model different positions on the set and predict the increase in media values that will be achieved by moving the machine to a better location.
Does the ‘P’ signalling device actually reduce media values?
Also, after the PR campaign viewers certainly know that the Dolce Gusto machine was not the ‘natural choice’ of the chef or presenters, but has paid to be there.
It is unlikely that a single use pod based machine will be used on this set. Indeed, if it were used would this breach the undue prominence and editorial integrity guidelines?
“It’s early days, but by comparison £100,000 would buy a free prop supply product placement campaign lasting about three years, which would target a wide range of programmes and films not only spreading investment risk, but also finding natural opportunities where product demonstration and coffee drinking would feature,” Barnard added.
NMG will post updated tracking results on its website on 18 March.