Product Placement, The Ad Alternative To Keep In Mind
The average American watches 4 hours of TV every day. For brands who do traditional advertising, TV ad buys are still a solid option. And while that still is a strategy that should be kept in a brand's marketing arsenal, that alone isn't going to cut it any longer as it is just too easy to skip those ads.
Brands who embrace alternative options such as product placement to become part of the content and storyline win as they aren't able to be ad skipped or fast forwarded. And there is a plethora of options for every brand now, as TV networks are very niche focused content, to help guarantee their own audiences. In this blog, Hollywood Branded looks at how today's high TV consumption results in traditional advertising alternatives like product placement.
How Much TV is Really Being Watched?
One of those proven paths to advertising success is through traditional television advertising. The amount of time that people are watching network and cable TV is proving that there still is an engaged audience for TV programming. With the majority of Americans spending at least 4 hours of EVERY DAY watching TV (not including streaming video on demand like Hulu, Amazon or Netflix) your brand is missing out on a major opportunity to be embedded in the content they watch.
Eurodata's study showed that the average person around the world spends nearly 3 hours a day watching TV, and America and Canada has the world’s most loyal TV viewers, watching an average of over 4 hours of TV per day. Even though all of the hubbub around TV has been with the rise of streaming services, traditional TV is still a major player in regards to the amount of time consumers spend consuming it each and every day.
That’s a lot of TV!
This stat may catch a lot of people off-guard, as what we primarily hear is how the internet is taking over everything related to media, and how TV is becoming more and more obsolete. Clearly, that is not true at all! People still love sitting in front of the TV and watching their favorite shows, and a lot of TV watching has not gone completely online. Yet.
The Alternative To A TV Commercial
For brands, this means there are incredible opportunities to get brand exposure within the actual TV content. We aren't talking about commercials here... but product placement.
What brands need to realize is that is a lot of TV watched BEYOND these 4 hours is not necessarily ON TV. It includes mobile, online and streaming views as well. And for brands who only plan on traditional TV advertising, that is a lot of platforms to try to buy your way into. Run an ad on the network. Run an ad online. Run an ad on the network's digital site. Run an ad on mobile. That is a lot of ad buying.
A smarter and more effective way to get your brand in front of people is to actually become embedded in the content they are viewing - through product placement.
This type of integrated exposure is part of many brands' marketing strategies, because it works to highly engage viewers in content that they cannot skip over. And for brands, there is a tremendous amount of content to choose from to very specifically hit your target demo, as demographics of those who watch traditional TV widely ranges.
Targeted Programming Keeps Viewership Hours Up
With so much programming available, you might ask how TV actually helps keep viewer interest. There are so many distractions across social and digital media that are also getting viewer focus, that it seems like it would be easy to get lost in that mix. And the answer to that is that TV creators target programming to very specific audiences.
If people relate to something or feel a type of connection to it, they are more likely to stay on as a loyal viewer and not move onto something else that catches their eye.
That is what different cable networks try to do anyway, and that is to have a “brand” of their own to target a certain demographic of people to their channel. There are channels for nature, sports, reality of all types and much more that have a proven demographic that tunes in to watch the shows being produced year after year, even with the threat of “cord-cutting” becoming the norm in households across the world.
Go For The Niche Viewer
Part of this decision to target programming to certain audiences was done due to fragmentation of audiences who don't share in a mass appeal to specific content. If you think about it, does your girlfriend or husband or grandma or daughter all like the exact same things?
Most likely, the answer is no, so the TV industry has realized that having a drama specifically designed for a teenager or a reality show mainly targeted for middle-aged women will get them more engaged viewership versus making a show that is targeted at a mass audience.
If a large percentage of middle age women watch the Real Housewives, for example, that is much better for Bravo versus creating a show that is targeted at all generations, that no one watches. Everyone needs their own thing, and that includes a TV show that is specifically for them, at least in their minds, and the TV industry has harnessed this to create programming that caters to specific viewer interests, which brands who target that specific viewer can become part of.
And it doesn't end with using TV programming to connect with viewers. Let’s not forget about Millennials! The generation everyone is trying to reach also watches traditional TV, but for TV shows as well as brands, having a social component is key to keeping their attention. They want shows that uniquely speak to them, that they can relate to, and are able to connect with. They want their friends to be watching, or to have a community online that they can watch with. And this strategy when obtained ensures a larger audience - and higher TV-watching consumption.
How Brands Can Benefit From Targeting Niche TV
For brands, when choosing TV content to partner with, finding the niche the program already resonates with, that also is aligned to the brand, is obviously key. By partnering up with productions that fit their brand to a tee, there is more likelihood for brands to find success around their product placement. And as the next step, to make sure that fit is organic and real to the viewer so audience viewers are not turned off by the partnership.
So ask yourself, when looking at your brand, what type of person do you imagine using and interacting with it? That is the first question to ask when looking at what type of show you want to be a part of.
As has been proven by the massive amount of television being consumed every day here in America alone, brands can piggyback off relevant programming and reach the perfect audience for them.
More TV Watching Hours = More Opportunities for Brands!
The TV watching stats from Eurodata show that traditional TV is not dying out, and is still going strong! And as mentioned, that 4 hours of TV watching doesn't even include all the streaming video platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. And that opens the door up for even more potential product placement. There is actually a tremendous amount of content available for brands to partner with out there.
We here at Hollywood Branded know just what you need to get your brand on TV!
To learn more about making product placement work for your brand, read our blog on 3 Reasons Why Productions Use Product Placement, as well as these blogs:
- 4 Common Myths About Product Placement Debunked
- 10 Surprising Reasons Why Brands Do Product Placement
- 8 Ways To Use Product Placement Assets To Amplify Your Brand Into Sales
- 3 Important Steps In Planning Product Placement Strategy
- Thinking Product Placement Cost Is High (It Isn't!)
Also be sure to check out our e-book on product placement below!
