Friday, June 17, 2005

Product Placement Should Be Product Interaction

From BusinessWeek.com An onslaught of hidden ads

Toyota Motor Corp. (TM ) has asked at least three major magazine companies to explore product integration -- that's product placement to you and me -- of its cars into magazine editorial pages. Say hello to another indicator of changing media mores

Ad-page volume at magazines last year came in below that of 1998 -- meaning the medium's recent advertising wipeout erased the gains of the dot-com boom and then some. Advertisers point to reality TV and say, hey, why not? And they're not terribly interested in print's traditional ad-edit divide.

Last weeks issue of Business Week magazine had 170 pages. Sixty of those pages were full page ads. I'm not sure what Business Week charges for a full page ad, but I bet it's pretty steep.

What if Business Week said to each advertiser, "we can make your full page ad interactive, would you like more details?" What brand manager would say No to that?

Instead of changing the actual medium, change what the medium can do.

What to know how? An exciting advertising strategy is coming.

Stay tuned.

No comments: