Friday, March 30, 2007

Nielsen Reaching into Product Placement!!


I travelled to the Nielsen Ratings website a few days ago to check out some research for class and came across something revolutionary for product placement!!! On March 21, Nielsen announced that they are creating a new, web-based system called Place*Values, which "allows users to quickly determine the past performance of product placements and evaluate new placement opportunities." We can now see what and where products are being placed in the media, as well as if products are being recognized by consumers and if these consumers are more willing to purchase them based on seeing the placement.

I think that this is a great opportunity to see if product placement is indeed effective in the media. As criticism over product placement saturation and cannibalism increases, this system will give marketers a chance to see through their product and through the minds of viewers. Obviously, THE CONSUMER is the most important player in marketing, not the placements. If people don't want to see your product or see it too much of it, they will not buy it. That's a fact of advertising, and this system will help to find this.

Many TV channels and companies have signed on to this new system, including A&E, CBS, CourtTV, Discovery, FOX, Magna Global, Mediacom, OMD, PHD, Scripps Networks, Sprint, The Weather Channel, Twentieth TV and Zenith Media are the first users of Place*Values. I am sure that FOX will be reeling in the product placements (view my March 9th post on American Idol) and I am not sure what placements are present on The Weather Channel. I will have to check that out...

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see the information that this new program provides. I am very excited to watch this process unfold as we begin to decode the heart of product placement!

1 comment:

Kim Gregson said...

10 points for both week 8 and 9