in his studio Media Reactions As of 2022, market research agency Kantar found that the ad value of product placement in televised stories was down -0.7% year-over-year. Other techniques such as Out Of Home (OOH) went to 0.6%, while online video tops the list with 7.9%, followed by streaming music with 6.9% and content on social networks with 6.6%.
For Ernest Riba, chief strategy officer for Latam at the Wunderman Thompson agency, the product placementfocused on a brand being part of a movie script, is still current, functional and provides competitive advantages to brands.
“It’s shielded from emerging behaviors like ad-hopping or ad-free subscription models. It also circumvents the growing limitations in terms of privacy that the big platforms have been pushing and that have reduced the accuracy and profitability of the entire ecosystem of display advertising on digital channels”, he says.
Another advantage of product placement in movies is that the brand doesn’t go unnoticed, but it’s not unwelcome either, given the entertaining context that surrounds it.
For the audience, according to the Kantar study, an advertisement is positive when it gives confidence, the information is relevant and useful, it is fun and entertaining, of better quality and innovative. It is negative, on the other hand, when it is repetitive, boring, excessively focused, intrusive and with too much publicity.
“To raise the advertising value, it is necessary to create a unique advertising proposal. Designing an ideal campaign involves playing with frequencies, targeting and fun in advertising, without forgetting that each channel has its own personality and can be used to transfer it to advertisers”, says Montserrat Rivas, Kantar Mexico Media Director.
However the product placement It also has its weak points. Jeff Greenspoon, global president of Solutions at Dentsu, says that the success of the technique lies in how the brand appears on the market. film. If this is not part of the script naturally and instead comes out over acting it is counterproductive.
“Content creators, writers and producers must play with the use of the product so that the viewer feels that it is something organic, that is, that the brand can connect with the narrative of the content,” he explains. “Today this technique is in full evolution, it is not only appreciated in movie scripts, but in other formats.”
The evolution of the technique
The consolidation of connected television opens up many possibilities. It is now possible to insert products into the content programmatically and variable. A practice that has yet to be developed, but that will have a great impact by allowing product “advertisement” in a segmented way, even in old content. From the catalogue, says Riba.
Obviously, this potential still does not reach the immersion of the product in the script or the plot, but it does facilitate visibility in a specific context that can be of great value for a brand.
“Another emerging phenomenon in this same framework is the possibility of making purchases directly from the same platform (on-platform) in which the content and the product are displayed. Although this has been a promise that has been on the table for years, we are convinced that the specific weight of streaming platforms and their need to diversify income streams will ultimately be the factor that will unlock the phenomenon. We can even find some pilot projects that anticipate this possibility, such as Netflix Shop intended to market the merchandising (cross-sells) official of the platform”, considers Riba.
This phenomenon of buying in a single click on the product displayed on a platform has all the ingredients to grow and develop in the near future. According to data from Wunderman Thompson, 85% of online shoppers in Latin America say they want to go from inspiration to purchase as quickly as possible.
But the potential of this technique goes beyond connected television. Also the revolution in the economy of content creators, as well as the expansion of video game culture, open up the possibility of new formats of product placement on consumer platforms and screens that transcend television and that we will see grow a lot on social networks.
The challenges ahead
According to the experts consulted, the immediate challenge of product placement it is in the measurable return on investment, in a scenario in which 67% of advertisers prefer to use media that can be easily monitored and/or demonstrate their profitability, according to Kantar.
“The power of product placement of impacting the notoriety of a brand or product, or of shaping uses and attitudes around a product is not in doubt. Although it is difficult to model or measure the impact in order to calculate a return on investment”, Riba reiterates.
However, the specialist also affirms that the threshold of a product placement dynamic, segmented and connected with a direct gateway to electronic commerce anticipates a great change in this regard and makes us optimistic about its evolution.