Is this an ad or what

Is this an ad or what?

Aug. 20 — Forget trying to skip TV commercials by channel-surfing, visiting the kitchen or zapping them with your TiVo. Product placement, where consumer marketers weave their brands into the content of shows, is turning up in more TV shows as Madison Avenue tries to find new ways to sell to an ad-weary public. The problem is, no one seems to know whether the marketing fad really works or not.

WHEN “PUSH, NEVADA,” a new mystery show on ABC premieres Sept. 17, various Toyota cars will have an active role in the offbeat story of a young IRS agent on the hunt for missing money. Not only will “Push, Nevada,” invite the TV audience to try to solve the mystery and win $1 million by hunting for clues at the accompanying Web site, but the program will feature Toyota’s “most involved total integration between product and show,” according to Steve Sturm, Toyota’s vice president of marketing. It’s the first time the Japanese car maker has paid to be included in a TV show.
      “Push, Nevada” is an experimental twist on the reality show genre and a prime example of the hot advertising trend of the moment — product plugs on prime-time broadcast TV shows.
      Toyota will be one of three brands — the others are undisclosed — integrated into the hour-long mystery, considered to be one of ABC’s hot new programs of the fall season. Toyota reportedly paid as much as $3 million to be part of the series which was developed by actor Ben Affleck’s production company. Sturm declined to comment on how much Toyota paid ABC.
      “We feel the show is very trendy and cutting edge,” he said. “It’s participatory and the products and [viewers] play a more active role.”
      Product placements aren’t new to television — in the 1950s TV stars like Lucille Ball would stop in the middle of a show to plug a sponsor’s brand. But in the new era of shrinking broadcast audience, skyrocketing TV production costs and the deteriorating impact of the 30-second commercial, product placements are seen as an important way to bring in additional revenue. Companies like Mandalay Branded Entertainment have sprung up to introduce consumer marketers at the earliest stages of TV show and movie development.

“The average person sees 3000 commercial messages a day,” said Scott Mednick, chief executive of Mandalay. “How does a brand get noticed and become aligned with entertainment so the target audience feels that it’s relevant to their lives?”
      So far product placement is mostly limited to reality shows, with CBS’ “Survivor” leading the way with its plugs for Reebok, Mountain Dew and Doritos. But industry insiders say it’s only a matter of time before scripted programming cashes in on the trend.
      “We’ll see it first with specials and TV-movies because a series is more difficult to construct [for product placement],” said Mednick.
      In fact the unexpected success of this summer’s “American Idol: The Search for a Superstar” on the Fox network has many consumer marketers salivating for their own show.
      “American Idol” brazenly shows off its three sponsors Coca-Cola, Ford and MasterCard as part of the contest, featuring titled segments such as “Coca-Cola Moments” and “Ford Focus on the Contestants.”
      Fox Television chairman Sandy Grushow recently called product placement “an important component of our future.”

Fox has renewed the “American Idol” for a second season, although it’s not been determined whether the same three sponsors will return.
      “We’re very pleased with the way things have gone,” said Susan McDermott, spokeswoman for Coke. “If we don’t renew, it won’t be because of lack of interest.”
      “We may see more product placement than originally planned in the new season because of the success of ‘American Idol,’ ” said Ed Martin, programming editor for The Myers Report, a media industry newsletter. “It’s unprecedented how thoroughly advertisers have fused their message in the content of the show and there’s been no rejection or consumer complaint about it.”
      As part of its broad deal with Fox television, Ford will be the sole sponsor of the second season premiere of the hour-long drama “24.” The premiere episode will be presented commercial-free except for a few minutes of Ford promotions before and after the show. Although it couldn’t be determined whether Ford cars will be featured within the premiere episode, there will be appearances of Ford cars throughout the season.
      “We’re always looking for ways to set ourselves apart, whether in the messaging we create or the way we deliver that messaging,” said Curt Jaksen, senior part of JWT Detroit, Ford’s ad agency.
      Procter & Gamble recently announced a product integration deal in Viacom, which owns CBS and MTV Networks and Discovery cable network shows for the fall.
      In November CBS will present what could be called the queen of all product placements, the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, the soft core, one-hour lingerie extravaganza which began on ABC last season.
      CBS is also reportedly considering having David Caruso’s character in the new “CSI: Miami” drive a Cadillac.
      While there’s no indication that the average American couch potato minds seeing consumer brands incorporated into TV programs, there’s no reliable research that shows whether product placements increase sales.
      Toyota’s Sturm says the car company tracks how many calls come into its 800-phone number or Web site or how many visits are made to dealers from people who have acknowledge seeing a Toyota car in a show or movie, but acknowledges that “it’s very difficult to measure.”

Doug Hall, a noted marketing consultant calls product placements an “ego-driven gimmick.”
      “This is a concept driven by the egos of the manufacturers wanting to see their products in these shows, said Hall, founder of Eureka! Ranch, a Cincinnati marketing consultancy for such clients as Ford Motor, Frito-Lay and Procter & Gamble. “If they had to actually measure the effectiveness of product placements, they’d stop doing them.”
      “Measuring them is rather amorphous,” said Mednick, adding that it’s important to bond the audience to the brand in some way.
      Product placement can be a gamble because the failure rate of TV shows is so high. For example, the WB reality series “No Boundaries” co-opted the Ford slogan, but was a ratings failure and quickly cancelled. Ford executives couldn’t be reached for comment.
      And ABC’s reality show “The Runner,” which was going to have contestants chasing each other across America in pursuit of branded products, was cancelled before it even aired last year, a fallout of the September 11 attacks.
      There’s also the risk of going overboard and cluttering up shows with too many plugs.
      “Building too high an expectation of what they can do will temper a lot of these activities,” said Eric Dahlquist, head of Vista Group, a Los Angeles agency that develops product placements in movies and TV. “In the end a lot of it won’t pan out.”