Product Placement in Europe soon official

von | Mai 24, 2007 | Ad News, Blog

Paid display of products in TV-Shows without any referrence to the story was – so far – illegal in Europe. Or at least in Germany. Some German TV stations lately got into trouble for displaying products in soap operas. This might seem trivial to people in the US, where this is normal, as far as I know. But in Germany it caused a big scandal.
Now the European Commission put a decret up, which allows TV stations to display products in TV shows. Only prerequisite: it needs to be clear that it is an advertisement. I wonder, how they will manage to indicate that, without interrupting the story?
Kids TV shows still must not have any product placements, but can now be interrupted every 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes, writes German weekly magazine Spiegel.

Is this the „answer“ to increasing media fragmentation, consumer control and ad resistance? It is certainly a nice try, but I don’t think that will make it any better. I even think it will make things worse. Increase the clutter and users will find more ways to blank out any advertisements.

Viral movie promotion for batman

von | Mai 22, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Online Advertising

It is amazing. A viral campaign apparently already started for a movie, that will launch in 2008. That is at least 7 months down the line. I wonder how early is too early?

But, given the fact that it is a viral campaign, they need some time for spreading it.

There is a good overview about what has happened so far over here.

It seemed to have started with a static site, then some unbranded posters appeared in some US cities. Then:

Within 48 – 72 hours, all of the posters in major cities were defaced to resemble the image seen at the URL I Believe in Harvey Dent Too. If you went to that URL the site would ask for your email address. After you submitted (reusabale database anyone?) you were sent an email with the coordinates for a pixel that you could removeBatman4 from the site.

With users able to remove just one pixel each, a viral effort was underway to spread the word to get others to register and remove a pixel. In less than a day, thousands and thousands of unique visitors had visited the site to remove a pixel – ultimately revealing the face of the new Joker, Heath Ledger.

And then it goes on even more – I suggest you go here to continue to read. Really cool stuff – reminds us of „Snakes on a plane„

Measuring billboard viewers‘ eyeballs

von | Mai 14, 2007 | Ad News, Blog

There is a new technology, that counts the eyeballs that are viewing a billboard. And not just the ones close to it:

Xuuk eyebox2 is a $999 portable device with a camera that monitors eye movements and automatically detects when you are looking at it from up to about 35 feet away. Until now, Vertegaal says, such eye-trackers have been ineffective beyond 2 feet, required people to remain stationary and cost more than $25,000

Another example of classical media becoming measurable. Even better than the internet, where you still can’t measure eyeballs, only pageviews – yet you don’t know if the person really saw your ad.
(found at here)

    Online Branded Entertainment at Honeyshed

    von | Mai 11, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Online Advertising

    There is a Businessweek article about Honeyshed, which seems to be a new site for branded content. Apparently, this was launched by agencies in the Publicis Network (Droga5 and Digitas). From what I gathered, it is supposed to provide a platform for clients for offering branded content, be it videos, text, audio, whatever, I don’t know.

    Honeyshed intends to erase the line between branding and entertainment altogether. But its content won’t be traditional online advertising. No banners. No rollovers. No 30-second spots. Instead, it will provide a mix of live programming and character-driven sketch shows paid for by—and promoting—sponsors, which will collaborate with Honeyshed to come up with suitably entertaining concepts aimed at the ever-capricious but nonetheless influential demographic of 18- to 35-year-olds.

    (I am glad they chose this age bracked – it means I am *just* still part of it!)

    „There’s a lot of so-called branded content out there, but it doesn’t have many places to live,“ he says. „It gets lost on YouTube or it’s like bud.tv, a brand in isolation. In contrast, this is totally transparent and completely entertaining. It’s overt advertising based on the idea that people love brands. They just don’t necessarily love it when brands interrupt or deceive them. This will make brands the life of the party rather than the uninvited guest.“

    Seems to be an interesting concept. Some launch they’re own channel (Bud TV and Audi TV), and some launch things on YouTube. Which will get more attention? Umair from the Collectivegeneration Blog doesn’t quite agree with the approach of honeyshed…