Product Advertisements in TV Dramas Go Subtle

In an effort of appealing one's product or services, firms are now using various ways of promoting their brand. One of the most fast growing marketing strategies is product placement. Product placement is having company's product or service on a show, drama, or even on movies so that whoever sees that on any media can be aware of what kind of product they are promoting.

One example that the article states is the resent hit drama from SBS called "One Air," where the main character frequently used a coffee maker from DeLonghi to brew the espresso. After few exposure of the product, the sales of the coffe maker from DeLonghi jumped about for 20 percent. It surely show how effective it is to have such a marketing strategy in order to promote their products in a short period of time.

Experts elaborates the benefit of using product placement stating that since viewers tend to related themselves into main characters in the drama or movie, companies can easily attract their product or services to customer's' daily lives. Instead of using great amount of advertisement budget on a single TV commercial, it's much economic for the company to simply sponsor hit dramas or movies. One of the good successful example would be Coca-Cola supporting American Idol which is the greatest hit reality show in America.

However, it could be vulnerable to the success or failure of the drama. For example, according to the article, "SAAB convertibles were painted as cars for the air-headed rich, after a male star carelessly drove around in one in the 2000 drama ``Juliet's Man.'" (KoreaTimes).

I personally don't like having certain company's products on the shows, drama, or movies because they often distract me from fully enjoying them. I can assume that it's a "Win-Win" situation for both production and the firm to have such strategy since the production can get sponsers easily and the company can get a great output from it. However, I belive overusing such promotion can be also risky for the production because of viewers getting annoyed by too much ads on the show, and the company having a risk for depending a lot of the success of the show. I hope both parties would find the right equilibrium for using product placement strategy.

Reference;
Han, Jane. "Product Advertisements in TV Dramas Go Subtle" KoreaTimes. May 29, 2008.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/05/123_24958.html

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