Product Placement

Product placement is when a company pays a TV channel or a programme-maker to include its products or brands in a programme.

So, for example, a fashion company might pay for a presenter to wear its clothes during a programme, or a car manufacturer might pay for a character to mention one of its cars in a scene in a drama.

This means the product must be relevant to what the programme is about. The content of programmes shouldn’t seem to be created or distorted, just to feature the placed products.

Programmes also can’t promote placed products or give them too much prominence. So there shouldn’t be any claims made about how good a placed product is, or so many references to a product that it feels like it is being promoted.

Cigarettes and other tobacco products, along with medicines that are available only on prescription, can’t be product placed in any programmes.

Alcoholic drinks, gambling products, all other types of medicines, food and drink that is high in fat, salt, or sugar and baby milk can’t be product placed in UK programmes.

Also, products that can’t be advertised (such as guns and other weapons) can’t be product placed in UK programmes either.

If a UK programme contains product placement, the TV channel has to show a special logo.

This will let viewers know that the TV channel or the programme-maker has been paid to include products in that programme.

The logo is pictured below – there are two versions so that it can be used on a light or dark background.

The logo has to be shown at the beginning of the programme, and repeated after any advertising break during the programme. It also has to be shown again at the end of the programme.

Guardian -

British television has been slow in taking advantage of the relaxation in rules allowing product placement in drama and entertainment programmes, with only an estimated six deals struck so far.

The government relaxed TV product placement rules in February, but six months on the anticipated flood of commercial deals has yet to materialise.

"It has not taken off, there are not the millions of pounds, it hasn't snowballed," said Mark Wood, a partner in product placement agency Krempel Wood, speaking at the MediaGurardian.

He added that the deals that have been struck were largely associated with advertiser-funded programmes, which were "the supertanker" when it came to advertising money going directly into shows.

There is still a debate about how to price product placement deals, and whether the exposure is worth more to brands than the equivalent amount of paid-for traditional TV advertising.

Other things holding back product placement include conservatism on the part of broadcasters worried about compliance procedures, unfamiliarity with the rules, and uncertainty on the side of companies, which are more familiar with supplying props for shows on an unpaid basis.

The tightly drawn Ofcom policed rules also forbid product placement in foods with a high fat, salt and sugar content, which means most snacks and fizzy drinks. It also bars some product placement in cookery shows.

David Charlesworth, the Channel 4 head of sponsorship, funded content and product placement said that for the past nine months he had been in discussions with Hollyoaks producers Lime Pictures about possible deals, and he expected to be able to announce two shortly.

He said that Channel 4 would then move on to discussions about Deal or No Deal, made by Endemol.

"We want to work with more," he added.

Catherine Catton, the UKTV commissioning editor, said she had turned, successfully, to genealogy website findmypast.co.uk for funds to make a new 10-part series for Yesterday, called Find My Past.

"No one knows the parameters, it's a case of suck it and see, it's a new dawn, we are feeling our way as we go along," Catton added.

She said that under the findmypast.co.uk deal the website was given three seconds' exposure three times per programme. Another problem she had found was that "brands don't know how to make television". "It's a massive pitfall. It took so long to sign the contract."

One of the highest-profile product placement deals has been for Channel 4's series Style the Nation broadcast this summer, which featured New Look, in a 12-part catwalk competition.

Matt Pritchard, head of development for independent producer TwoFour, said it was able to persuade Channel 4 to allow all the online fashion collections created by viewers to only use New Look clothes, but he said there had been a "tug of war" over the issue.

Another growing issue are contracts with presenters, actors and talent, who may be linked, or seen to be endorsing products placed in shows.

The product placement deals included in the six estimated to have ben struck so far are Nespresso with This Morning, Tresemme shampoo in Britain's Next Top Model, XBox on Sky Living and Sky1, and Mission Foods in Mexican Food Made Simple on Channel 5.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/27/tv-product-placement