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Product Integration Trend Speeds Decline of 30-Second Spot

A continuing trend in advertising, product integration, has companies abandoning 30-second commercials to intertwine their products into the plots and dialogues of some of TV’s prime-time shows, reports The Los Angeles Times. Nielsen Media Research has been tracking product placements and reports that the number of placements and the new integration rose 30 percent last year to 108,261.

Television shows like 24, Desperate Housewives, Arrested Development, and The Office are challenging traditional thought that scripted shows are creative efforts divided up by 30-second commercials. With no standard model for placements, some companies suggest products for a show, while some buy their way into a storyline. One website matches potential companies with shows. Another company digitally inserts brands into films and shows.

Companies and producers have teamed up with networks to deal with the anticipated decline of the 30-second commercial. Some companies are financing TV shows in return for their product’s integration into the day-to-day activities of the characters. 

Though some criticize TV shows with product integration as being too much like infomercials, the group of viewers known as the millennials, the 8-28 year old group, gives companies credit for finding new ways to reach them. There are no quantitative studies on the effects of product integration.

Peter Tortorici, ex-CBS Entertainment and head of the media buying agency Group M, said that the best integrations match ‘the sensibility of a program to brand sensibility. It has more to do with subtext than with seeing a product.’