Amy Alba & Evan Shapiro's Prediction for Streaming Hybrid Revenue Models with the Boom of Product Placements

I recently sat down with Evan Shapiro for an industry coffee chat about the Ad Sales TV Industry changes related to measurement and push back on Nielsen with their MRC accreditation loss.

We had a great chat where we also talked about Product Placement as shifting trend for SVOD platforms to generate ad revenue in combination to their subscription revenue. Making some kind of hybrid between AVOD (ad support streaming like Pluto & TubiTv) vs SVOD (subscription supported steaming). Well Hulu has successfully launched the hybrid model with subscription to their live package which includes commercials and premium content. Moving to product placement revenue vs traditional ads helps support or lower the production costs of all this content they need to release to compete.

WELL…. As predicted… @ChedderNews just posted this great Video about the history of product placement and the trend explosion. AND they even note the new Netflix Original Movie “He’s All That” which I mentioned to Evan laughing about how OBVIOUS the product placements were and how MANY there were.

So, to celebrate my birthday month I did some research on the topic of Product Placement, which really launched when I was born… well TMI putting my age out there, but hey in today’s world it’s rare to have data privacy anyways.

Well Chedder News did a great job highlighting WHY this is going to be an ongoing trend based on the ROI and KPIs. Here are the key takeaways facts from their video.

• Product Placement spending in Media went from $512M in 1984 to $3.459 Billion in 2004 with 50% in TV and 36% in Film.

• PQ Media Content saturation doubled from 2010 to 2019 with 500 shows further fragmenting audiences.

• Audience performance comparison: Friends Season 2 Nielsen Ratings, had 31,700,000 viewers so the 5-week Diet Coke Product Placement campaign hit those viewers.

• According to 2018 study from Branded Entertainment Network, product placement is

  • 11 % more effective in driving purchases and

  • 10 % more effective in supporting brand affinity over traditional 30 second commercials.

  • Hulu specifically, those numbers reach 89 % and 74 %.

• PQ Media predicts product placement will bounce back to 13.8 % growth in 2021

• https://cheddar.com/media/why-product-placement-is-suddenly-everywhere

The History from my birth to present 1982-2021

• 1982 Kick off the Golden Age of Product Placement Partnerships

• 1982 First Successful Ad Campaigns launched from the product placement with ET and Hershey’s which in exchange launched a $1 Million dollar ad campaign for ET and Reese Pieces. This became a huge success to launch this new Hershey’s product which is now a staple in the candy industry.

• 1983 Risky Business, Tom Cruise relaunched the now iconic RayBan Wayferer glasses

  

• 1989 Births the King of Product Placement Strategy… Pizza Hut. Starting with product placement in Back to the Future Part 2. With their future 2015 Pizza in a bag. And Future Glasses with Pizza Purchase Campaign.

                               

• 1990’s - Dominoes Pizza+ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , but they didn’t secure exclusivity.. In comes the Product placement King…Pizza Hut to seize this branding campaign opportunity. Pizza Hut sponsored the whole marketing campaign, reportedly to the tune of $20 million. They even add a Pizza Hut commercial to the intro of the VHS movie! As more TMNT shows, products and movies came out, Pizza Hut was attached to each and every opportunity for advertisement and branding.

                 

• Over 2 million cassette tapes of the show’s soundtrack were sold that year with the purchase of a personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. So let’s do the math, this means they sold at least 2M pizzas to TMNT fans, at $13 per pizza, thats a minimum $26M in revenue directly tied to their TMNT campaign! But lets be honest, who only buys just 1 pizza so lets double that to $52M!

 'We're just absolutely thrilled to get the world's most famous pizza eaters to hook up with the number one pizza company in the world. Pizza Hut will launch the most aggressive promotion ever done in the record industry to support the Turtles' new music, which I'm sure all of America will love."

-Senior Vice President of Marketing for Pizza Hut, David Novack, said in press statement on Pizza Hut's behalf.

• 

  1995- Diet Coke product placement and massive brand sponsorship with the Show Friends becomes determinant to the show with too much criticism from audiences. But those eyeballs were all tuned in all 30+million viewers for season 2.

• 2000’s- The traditional commercial value of $5.5B wasted in 2007 with TIVO and DVRs allowing you to pause and fast forward those critical ad sales revenue commercial spots…. In comes PRODUCT placement again to become essential to brand marketing strategies.

• By 2007 Product Placement Ad Sales goes up to $3.4 BILLION, due to fast forward ad views lost

• 2010’s Reality Contest TV + Product Placement. Remember American Idol Judges stands? oh look they must be drinking Coca Cola from their big red branded cups. 577 product occurrences were found in American Idols 2011 season across 39 episodes. The official sponsors, Coca-Cola, AT&T, and Ford, paid up to $50 million to $60 million a year, compared with $25 million to $35 million that was spent in the show’s earlier years. This article from NBC breaks down the top 10 shows with highest product placement in 2011. https://www.cnbc.com/2012/01/05/Primetime-Shows-With-the-Most-Product-Placement.html

• 2014- Ninja Turtles are back but with now exclusive pizza partner- Pizza Hut  

•  2019 Streaming wars and content ups the ammunition for product placement. Total Shows in JUST the US alone reached to 500 which fragments audiences and reduces visibility of ads.

• 2021 Que to the Product Placement Acceleration Phase!

Netflix “He’s all That” over targeting the younger brand adverse audience in this Netflix Original with the swagger of the Pepsi in your face campaigns from 1995 Friends product placements. THIS one is Roast worthy of its just too much… but hey with all that buzz they get even more press and views.

So, let’s tally this one up… With 34 specific Brand product placements from

1. Beauty products: Alo, EOS, and LLia, Garnier skin cleaners, Sonic Pro Go Smile toothpaste,

2. Food: Lucky Charms, Frito-Lays, Doritos, smartfood popcorn, Sunchips, cheerios

3. Fast Food: Pizza Hut, KFC,

4. Beverages: Pepsi, Mug Rootbeer, Mountain Dew, Core Water

5. Home: ADT security,

6. Auto: Nissan Leaf Car,

7. Social Media: TikTok,

8. Home Cleaning: Mr Clean surface spray, Bounty Papertowels,

9. Toys: Legos,

10. Apparel: Kappa Shorts + Slippers, com, Kubota Cap, Animal House Vintage Apparel Store, versace mens underwear, Spiritual Gangster sweatshirt,

11. Electronics: Apple-Macbook, iPhone, Ipad, Bose Headphones

    

But to drop the mic on product placement, according to Netflix He’s All That Only released on August 27, 2021 has an estimated 55Million views as of September 8, 2021. That’s pretty impressive and I’m sure the Brands are happy about the exposure regardless of the negative movie reviews.

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/every-viewing-statistic-netflix-has-released-so-far-september-2021/

Kind of like when no one wanted to admit they love the Spice Girls and Hanson in the 90’s yet had their albums on repeat at home.; ) Mmm Bop so Tell me what you want what you really really want?!