Win, draw for Burnett branding

Call it a tale of two series. "The Apprentice" and "The Contender," two reality shows loaded with product integrations this past season, had very different outcomes for advertisers who paid record fees for their products to be featured in the programs executive produced by Mark Burnett, widely considered to be the king of reality TV and brand integration.

Despite a double-digit decline in ratings for "The Apprentice" in its second year on the air, representatives for many of the brands integrated in the series at a cost of $1 million-$4 million per episode say they had some of the most astounding marketing successes to date that could be directly tied to branded entertainment. The brands featured in "The Contender" had more of an uphill climb in reaching a broad audience, given the show's weaker-than-expected ratings, but it turns out that at least some of "Contender's" integration sponsors had a safety net built into their deals that is quite unusual in the branded entertainment realm.

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