Monday, September 24, 2007

Invading the content (Part 1)

Moviegoers, for quite some time now, have been encountering what is referred to as Product/Brand placement woven into the cinema, as a part of it. It is a well-researched topic, and all possible angles of the issue have been researched, in India and abroad. In television, however a big gap exist between the phenomenal growth that is happening in product placements in TV programmes and the actual quantum of research that is happening.

Invading the content is a serious attempt in this regard (the funny ones that I have done before ,can be read here) after going through studies conducted about cinema so far and wherever needed have drawn parallels with TV and at appropriate instances have justified that Product placements in TV is distinctively different vis a vis Cinema. I am trying to trace the evolution of product placements as a Brand promotion/communication tool, establishes the reasons for increasing product placements in Indian TV scene, discusses measurement of cost effectiveness of such placements and as a concept propose a ‘model’ to determine the deciding factors of audience intolerance, which shall be named as the ‘Audience Intolerance Threshold Quadrangle’. It also proposed some generalized suggestions aimed at advertisers to prevent the audience stepping into intolerance threshold. This is a modified version of my paper in the same name ,which appeared in he Journal of Marketing Communication last year.......

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Ramya Krishnan, the once silver screen diva of the south, stands tall in the center of a set made to look like an Egyptian palace or interns of a pyramid, proudly displaying glittering jewellery and glowing habiliment and proclaiming the names of a famous Chennai silk shop, and the Chennai jewellery shop where she located them from. The audience applauds, women bedazzled and men suspicious ,and the programme is titled ‘Thangavettai’or ‘the gold hunt’, which appears in the popular Tamil channel- Sun TV on prime time.

Product placement* in TV shows is a near to common phenomenon these days. A Lux sponsored fashion show weaved into the storyline of the popular Star Plus serial ‘Kahin To Hoga’, or an actor engrossed in a ‘Fair & Lovely commercial’, again as part of the storyline of yet another Star Plus serial, Kumkum — product placements, in television, is clearly on the rise. In cinema it has shown growth for quite some time now .The effect of product placements in cinema has been a much-researched topic but, the effect of product placement on TV programmes is an area yet to be researched fully, for different reasons. Invading the content is an attempt to throw light on this promotional tool and its interesting and growing influence, in India.

* Product placement is defined as the inclusion of, or reference to, a product or service within Cinema or a TV programme in return for payment or other valuable consideration.
[As per The Ofcom Broadcasting Code (UK), published in May 2005].


To be continued >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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