AI & THE MEDIA

AI Fuels A New Era Of Product Placement

Realistic-looking shampoo bottles and seltzer cans are popping up on videos from digital creators on TikTok and YouTube in a new form of old advertising. Pictured: A screenshot of a recent TikTok from the dancer Melissa Becraft that used AI to digitally superimpose a poster for Bubly, the sparkling water brand owned by PepsiCo, onto the wall of her apartment.

Linda Rene, CBS Veteran Who Paired Big Brands With ‘Survivor’ And More, To Exit

Linda Rene once proved instrumental in weaving blue-chip advertisers like Anheuser-Busch and General Motors into a fledgling CBS reality competition called Survivor. Two decades later, she is planning to get off the island. Rene, an advertising-sales veteran who has worked at CBS for more than four decades, helped expand an industry practice known as product placement and was pivotal in crafting new deals that not only had advertisers providing vehicles and beverages as set dressing, but weaving their products into a show in ways that made them as prominent as some of the cast members.

Study: Brands Shifting Media Buys Into Product Placement

Seventy percent of brands will look to shift around 10% of their media budget into entertainment product placement, according to a new study.

Fox Nation Open To Product Placement Deals

The Fox News subscription service will offer marketers the chance to embed their products in some of its programs, which have in the recent past included a crime series led by Nancy Grace, a documentary series hosted by former CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, and a cooking show built around Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy.

New Tricks For Product Placement In Streaming

The streaming services have data on viewers’ spending habits and brand preferences, and they’re looking into new ways to use it.

Fewer Product Placements On Broadcast Nets

TV primetime branded product placements continue to slowly decline on broadcast networks. In the 2016-17 TV season, there were 4% fewer in-program placements — on-screen brands or products airing within a program — 4,346 versus the 2015-16 TV season, when there were 4,538 placements.

Hulu’s Dance With Advertisers, Consumers

Product integration, in which products are blended into scenes, is hardly a new phenomenon. But the practice is becoming more prevalent in an era of commercial-free streaming and ad-skipping DVRs. For Hulu, the trend represents a quandary: how to keep its relationship with advertisers who help finance much of its programming, without alienating viewers fed up with regular commercials.

‘Modern Family’ Has Realtors’ New Pitchman

This week, Phil Dunphy twice makes the point that he’s a Realtor. The plot twist was part of a new advertising campaign by the National Association of Realtors. At a time of fear among advertisers that their messages are getting lost, it represents a tactic beyond the casual product placement of a soda can or car in the background of a television scene.

Superheroes Grapple With Product Placement

Green Arrow, the Atom and the Flash have trounced supervillains, saved countless lives and brought relative peace to their world. Now there’s a new task they are slowly accomplishing: Keeping advertisers’ products from showing up in their TV programs.

Prime-Time TV Product Placements Dropping

NATPE 2015

Product Placement V2.0 Is Hot Brand Strategy

The immediate access that Hollywood studios have to actors, writers and filmmakers makes the process of creating branded content a relatively simple one, but it needs to be more than just a shot of someone drinking a product. “We have come to an intersection of media and content where marketing is content and content is marketing,” said Relativity Media’s Angela Courtin.

ABC’s ‘The Middle’ Has Fun Disney Visit

NEW YORK (AP) — The season finale of ABC’s comedy “The Middle” proved the power of corporate synergy: the network owned by the Walt Disney Co. gave prime-time attention to […]

COMMENTARY BY BRIAN STEINBERG

As It Nears The End, Lessons From ’30 Rock’

The ad industry might borrow a page from this nerdy NBC sitcom. Like her character Liz Lemon, Tina Fey is perhaps an unrecognized genius … just one who had to work harder to make her smarts seem sexy.

Ads Frequently Masquerade As TV News

During the holiday season, TV news is often rife with stealth commercials dressed up as traditional product-review interviews. Such product-friendly segments aren’t just potentially deceptive; they’re illegal, under a federal law that prohibits “payola” or “plugola,” as the practice is commonly known.

Product Placement Rises In Telenovelas

Coming off a strong upfront season — when advertisers buy commercial time before the season — the two major Spanish language television networks, Telemundo and Univision, are lining up more opportunities for advertisers wanting to incorporate their products into their telenovelas.

YALE UNIVERSITY STUDY

Product Placement As Junk Food Loophole

Companies that have pledged not to market unhealthy food and drinks directly to children may be turning to product placement on television shows instead of traditional ads to target youngsters, a new study claims.

New Snapple Tea Bears TV Show’s Name

A new, limited-edition flavor of Snapple is carrying the name of a TV show CBS’s The Amazing Race on its label, as well as being featured in show product placements and ads. The partnership also includes a co-branded contest hosted on Snapple’s Facebook site.

Galavision, Verizon In Product Placement Deal

GM To Increase Ad Spending To Push Volt

General Motors Co. plans to step up its spending on sponsorship of TV entertainment this year, driven by a growing interest in reaching more women who might be drawn to its long-time support of sports like baseball and golf. One project in development: landing a role for GM’s plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt in a reality show.