The RESURGENCE Of Product Placement

Rance Crain, editor and smart guy over at AdAge.com posted an editoral recently talking about product placements, entitled "Why Product Placement Does Not Equal Brand Building."

He made some decent points about how product placement doesn't help build brand. He also made some points with which I had to disagree, but I walked away from the experience with a thought that won't leave my head:

How soon will it be until you can click a button and somebody from the concession stand runs a bag of the Pieces up to your seat?

Product placement is only going to grow to be a more popular practice, and do so exponentially.

That's right, we see product placement as a bad thing nowadays, but in reality, product placements are going to be something most treasured in the near future. Every single company will want their products featured prominently in every movie and television show.

In fact, product placement is going to become such a popular thing it's almost going to become necessary. I wouldn't be surprised if product placements become so profitable that some smart person will open a chain of movie theaters that no longer charge for admission! (Though they'll still make killings in overpriced soda and popcorn)

You heard it here first, folks. Go tell your friends -- Glennon says product placements are going to easily make free movies a possibility (though I doubt most theaters will jump on the bandwagon).

Why? Because technologies are already in place now that make it possible for somebody watching a television show or a movie to simply click on a screen and purchase an item that sparks their fancy. Sure, they're not very common -- yet -- but that's only a matter of time, not of probability.

How good does that look with me sitting next to Denis Leary?!?

Imagine sitting on your couch watching Denis Leary's show "Rescue Me" (one of my favorites, by the way -- I'd LOVE to have a bit part on that show, hint hint). One of the characters walks in with a really cool jacket. You hold up your remote and click a button. The show goes on pause, and a shopping window pops up listing all of the products in that scene. Within moments, you've found the jacket, listed it in your size and preferred color, spun it around a few times on the screen, placed your order with a simple "buy me now" button click, and hit play to go back to the show. Your cable company already has your address and billing information on file, the jacket is already in the mail, and you're back into the show less than a minute later.

What companies wouldn't pay big money to have that kind of service? Talk about removing the barriers to a sale!

Imagine walking into a movie theater complex. You turn your phone from ring to "Interactive Mode," and walk up to the sign just outside of theater #8. You click a photo of the barcode on the sign, and walk into your theater. Your phone has already gone online, used the barcode information to connect your phone to the specific movie, complex, and showing information of your movie. While you're watching the movie, a character walks into the scene wearing a jacket in which you're interested. You simply click the "Remember" button on your cell phone as you keep watching the movie. Later on, you go home, and on your computer is a list of all the scenes you wanted "remembered" during the movie.

That watch cap could be my signature piece -- kinda like Kojak's lollipop! Isn't this image just inspiring?

You then browse through the products listed in those scenes, find the ones you want, and put them in your shopping cart. Moments later, the sale is made, and you go to bed, happy with your new purchases.

This is the future of product placements, though it's only a limited view. I'm simply writing this article using examples with the tools I know exist today. The actual execution of these ideas will eventually be much more robust, and strangely, familiar and non-invasive.

Getting back to Mr. Crain's points about brand building -- who cares? The value of product placements is in harnessing both impulse buying and in skipping over the "work" a consumer has to go through trying to figure out the manufacturers of the products in which they are interested. Think about this: one product placement allows a consumer to skip from seeing something to having it in a shopping cart for evaluation and customization.

Don't worry about building brand in product placements -- worry about making great brand building experiences during that shopping cart/evaluation phase of your online buying experience.

And, when your company explodes with growth, and you find yourself living in Beverly Hills next to the producer of "Rescue Me," do me a favor and walk over to your neighbor and hook me up with a bit part, in thanks. We'll call it even when I land the role.