“It is the new frontier of advertising,” says an expert in advertising and product pleasantly in the analysis that Businessweek dedicates to the overwhelming growth of the latter. “Thanks to all this data, you can have more impact and guarantee that people are really seeing the content you are in,” he concludes, after analyzing how the market is positioned.
Product placement is not exactly a novelty. Some iconic movie scenes are actually product placement, and the history of cinema has been linked to this advertising format since its inception. In the 20s and examples are recorded and in the 30 is when it becomes a recurring source of income for Hollywood studios. In the new media that were appearing, as happened with television, the format found new life.
In the environment in which advertisers and content creators now operate, product placement is finding a new life. The projections speak of outstanding growth , even in a period that drags a certain drag on advertising investment after the crisis caused by the pandemic. In 2021, investment in product placement will rise by 13.8% and new VoD platforms, such as Disney +, will be one of its great drivers.
And the context makes the potential of product placement seem even greater, as just demonstrated the analysis of Businessweek of the emerging opening statements this article. There has been a kind of perfect storm that makes the market much more receptive to its potential and that, one could say, takes refuge in it to reach consumers.
A perfect storm
The sum of several recurring trends in the market right now explains this growth in interest in the practice. They have created the perfect storm for the upward pull ofproduct placement. On the one hand, consumers themselves are fed up with advertising.
They already were in the past of traditional advertising, but now they are also – and a lot – of Internet advertising. This rejection of ads, which are seen as heavy, annoying and intrusive, leads to a refuge in product integrations, much more organic and much less annoying. On the other hand, there is the crisis of linear television.
For advertisers, it means a drop in the potential of the usual ads. They are losing those viewers. For content producers, it is a significant economic drag. Large television networks are creating series that previously monetized with ads, but now launch on streaming services or are seen without them.
The audiovisual industry has thus become much more open to product placement, because the income it generates helps them cover costs. It is a way to have an income stream and to reduce content production costs.
What technology changes
At the same time, and finally, product integrations in series, movies and the like are having a new life because everything behind it has also become more sophisticated. Technology has made product placement much more sophisticated and much more ambitious. Companies employ ‘data driven’ strategies, as explained in Businessweek , to make them better. They no longer seek that products work within the story and integrate with it, but also that they reach the right audience.
Instead of betting on the blockbuster of the summer because this will reach a guaranteed mass audience, we seek to use more niche audiovisual products that reach your typical audiences. One of the companies that offers product placement services to advertisers, BEN, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict what content will be hits among which audiences (and thus make recommendations to their brands) but also to adjust products.
In the near future, product integrations are expected to be tailored to specific niches. You may be watching the protagonist of a series eat Lay’s potatoes, because you are his niche audience, and your neighbor will see him enjoying some Cheetos Gang.
With this, the impact will be refined. One of BEN’s managers predicts, as reported by the economic media, that the impact of Super Bowl advertising on consumers will be achieved, but every week.
