Why product placement does not equal brand building

Here’s a chaos scenario for you: What if the advertising industry spends billions of dollars to build an elaborate infrastructure of new-media technology to chase down the elusive consumer, and suddenly the consumer isn’t so elusive anymore?

What, if after all that gearing up, consumers resume their more traditional ways of receiving ad messages and the new technology lies in an unused heap like Global Crossing’s excess capacity?

There are signs that this possibility isn’t so far-fetched. The ad industry is counting on product placement in movies, TV shows, electronic games and mobile phones to be its salvation, but the ugly thought is beginning to seep into people’s brains that one reason box-office receipts for movies, and most recently DVD sales, are off is because movies are increasingly one gigantic product placement. Consumers object to paying for entertainment when they’re being sold stuff as part of the deal.

Dreamworks, for instance, gave investors a nasty surprise last week when DVD sales of Shrek 2 were way off projections. Movie moguls are beginning to fear that they have to bring out DVDs much closer to a film’s release to stimulate both movie and DVD sales.

If consumers aren’t going to the movies as often, and they’re not buying DVDs with the same fervor, how are they spending their newfound extra time? There’s evidence that the new wide-screen and plasma TV sets, not to mention high definition, are sparking a resurgence in good old-fashioned TV viewing. The kind of programming they’re returning to, by the way, is not reality shows -- the genre that is the most blatant with product placement.

Read the article: www.adage.com