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Product placement has always been a bit of a controversial topic in advertising. Some feel that it is unethical pitching consumer products and brands in mediums meant to entertain and can be seen as disrespectful to the viewer trying to sneak in blatant advertisements. I have usually taken the stance that it is acceptable in most cases and can usually add to the viewer’s experience. Placing real products in television programs and movies makes the film’s universe seem more realistic and, as long as the brand being represented doesn’t take artistic control away from the writers, actors, and everyone else involved in production, it is an ultimately good thing. Also with the rise of DVRs, Tivos, and streaming video with the capability to skip commercial breaks, traditional television commercials are becoming less effective and being seen by relatively fewer viewers. To remedy this situation it makes sense that ad dollars would be spent on adding the brand directly to the content for maximum exposure.

AMC’s Mad Men does an excellent job of realistic product placement; the advertising firm on the “period piece” show has real brands as clients such as Lucky Strike cigarettes, Heineken Beer, and Hilton Hotels. They also use retro ads to make the 1960s they portray more realistic and engaging.

Another example of well-executed product placement is a recent episode of ABC’s Modern Family, where one of the main characters was very excited about the release of the iPad coinciding with his birthday and not only did the iPad make a cameo, it was the focal point of the episode. The main storyline was about his family going to great lengths to buy the hot new product in time for his birthday. It was mentioned throughout the episode by name numerous times with testimonials on how awesome it will be. Viewers were also treated to a demonstration at the end when the character finally received his new iPad with 37 seconds of screen time.  The episode was very well received with about 9.5 million viewers making iPad’s product placement work close to $1 million. Surprisingly, Apple did not pay a dime for this high profile placement! They did a great job of maintaining the show’s integrity while still incorporating a product placement.

This recent example immediately reminded me of past Seinfeld episodes where products and brands like Junior Mints, Bosco, Drake’s coffee cakes, and even Kenny Roger’s Chicken Roaster restaurants were the main focus of the episode and moved the storyline along playing an integral part of the episode’s plot.

Another medium where we seen increased product and brand placement is videogames. Although much different than television the same theory applies; as long as it doesn’t take away from the content and adds a touch of realism to the game’s universe it can be done ethically. So far it has mainly been sports games that feature real brands and products that add realism to the game’s universe with in-game advertisements and sponsors. For example, in every game in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series the player can skate on real skateboard decks, wears real clothing, and be sponsored by real companies. These in-game placements added value to the player’s experience while enriching the game’s universe.Although product placement in video games has been done well in recent years, it seems to be changing. It was recently reported that the next title in the wildly successful Metal Gear Solid franchise, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will feature product placement for brands like Axe body spray, Doritos, Walkman, and Pepsi Next (a flavor currently available in Asia only). This wouldn’t be a problem in most games but this game’s storyline takes place in the early 1970s, long before any of these products were available. Discussion boards and blogs are already going nuts with Metal Gear’s rabid fan base and looks like it is already starting to backfire.

I believe that content creators have responsibility when determining whether or not to include product placement. They should be the gatekeepers to determine if including brands will add value or cheapen the consumer’s experience. Product placement is becoming more and more necessary as the industry changes but ethical considerations must be taken.

There has been a recent surge in companies looking to expand their social media presence on outlets like Facebook and Twitter by offering new “fans”, “followers”, and “friends” free products. They offer coupons for free products and similar incentives to consumers for simply becoming online fans of their brand. Einstein Bros. Bagels recently offered digital coupons to users who registered as their friend and gained hundreds of thousands of new fans. TGI Fridays tried a similar campaign last year with dangerous results. They introduced a spokesperson for the brand “Woody” on Facebook who offered free burgers to his first 500,000 fans. They reached the target number of fans weeks ahead of schedule and did not plan to give away so many free burgers.  Facing potential backlash from potential customers the company had to extend the free burger offer to one million friends. Starbucks also ran a campaign to attract fans by offering coupons for free pints of their new ice cream brand. Learning from TGI Friday’s mistakes they put a limit on the free coupons and offered other coupons for a discount to fans who were too late for the free offer.

These tactics have been proven to be very effective in quickly increasing your online followers and social media presence, but are campaigns like this effective in reaching the “right” people. By using these strategies most new “fans” are not necessarily brand loyalists or even interested in the brand for that matter; most are there simply because they want free stuff and could care less about the brand. Are the fans genuinely interested in the brand or are they just taking advantage of a free deal? While Einstein Bros. gained hundreds of thousands of online fans they also gave away over $800,000 worth of free bagels.

For social media campaigns like these to be effective, brands must consider the usefulness of having fans on social media and it is a question of quality vs. quantity; is having more fans better than having loyal fans? Brands can take all their new fans and use social media try to mold them into true brand loyalists over time but what about retention rate? Fans can easily join for a promotion and take themselves off immediately after. Most brands derive value form social media by using it to educate their loyal consumers about new products or happenings in the company to build hype. They are also used to directly communicate with their valuable customers to improve performance or learn more about their target market. Some companies even use social media as another way to reach customers for customer service purposes. While quickly expanding your fan base is a good way to get in front of a large number of people how effective is it when they do not care about the message? It seems more important to be liked that simply popular. Brands can derive great value from using tools like social media but unless they understand why they are using it, understand how to use it, and have tangible goals preferably linked to some sort of return on investment, expensive campaigns like this can be largely ineffective.

In an attempt to draw users back in, Myspace has begun revamping their site for a comeback. As more and more users shift over to social network applications like Facebook and Twitter, the former leader Myspace has been surpassed while quickly losing market share. With their lack of growth compared to the enormous rise in Facebook users and Twitter boom, Myspace isn’t the juggernaut it used to be. For years they were the undisputed king of social networking but they got complacent and failed to innovate, this presented an opening to Facebook and now they dominate the medium with over four times as many members. While Facebook has taken over, Myspace has remained profitable bringing in about $350million a year mainly from advertising, but this too could change very soon. They have a shared advertising revenue deal with Google currently that has been keeping the company profitable but with the recently announced Google Buzz social networking platform it is unclear if they will renew their deal. Between these problems and a recent management shakeup, Myspace has a lot of work ahead to accomplish their goal, but their strategy seems solid.

Instead of looking at Facebook and Twitter as competitors, Myspace is now changing their strategy and looking towards these once rivals and potential partners for distribution and synchronization. They have already synced services with Twitter so tweets or status updates on one service are automatically posted to the other.

They are also shifting their target market and content strategies. They will now appeal to a younger crowd focusing on music, movies, and games by using the service to discover new music, view movie trailers, and play games in a social environment. Instead of being a “place for friends” their new mantra will be “Discover and be Discovered” moving further away from social and focusing more on the media aspect. This rebranding will include simple, clean pages to avoid the unappealing cluttered pages that have become expected with the original design. They are investing a lot in their gaming channel by working with social-gaming firm Playdom. They have also teamed with Microsoft to improve their mobile web services and revamp its look. Lastly, they are keeping music a main focus.

Myspace Music has been an extremely useful and popular medium for bands to increase exposure and connect with fans. While Myspace’s user base is down compared to Facebook, their music channel is still considered quite successful. If they can continue their success of this channel while improving their video and game channels, it could prove successful.

Many argue that Myspace is already done and their failure to innovate along with other social networking sites has already sealed their fate. With social networking dominated by Facebook, Google’s new social network, and Apple trying to take over distribution of digital media there may not be room Myspace. But with their new strategy to reinvigorate the brand and network, their resources backed by their parent company News Corp, and their still popular Myspace Music channel I believe there still is a chance for them to find their niche and survive, it just won’t be focused on networking with friends. It will be very interesting over the following months to see how they choose to re-brand and if their strategies will work.

Chado Advertising & Design has produced this high concept print ad to help the Epic Group celebrate Bangladesh Independence Day. The ad is slated to make rounds in major publications throughout Asia like the South China Morning Post beginning March 26. The ad’s main focus is “cutting edge solutions and world-class manufacturing” provided by the Epic Group with their superior technology,  constant innovation, and use of quality materials resulting in inexpensive yet superior garment manufacturing. The imagery in the ad is meant to represent the Bangladesh flag. Adopted January 13th 1972, the green flag with a red circle is a national symbol of Bangladesh where Epic has deep roots and a strong presence. The green on the flag represents the lush vegetation and greenery of Bangladesh with its vitality and youthfulness while the red represents the rising sun and sacrifices that the people of Bangladesh made to achieve independence. The red circle in the ad is displayed with a two sided coiled ribbon with one side displaying the red color from the flag and the other displaying images from different Epic Group manufacturing facilities showcasing their technologies and high quality garment work. The coiled ribbon was used because it effectively represents how the Epic Group is directly intertwined with the country of Bangladesh. This new ad will increase awareness of the Epic Group and their world-class manufacturing services to more potential clients while giving back and celebrating the history, culture, and independence of Bangladesh.

In an interesting move last week, Xerox started running ads in the Hollywood trade publications like the Hollywood Reporter in an attempt to keep its trademarked name from being used. They are requesting that mainstream media stop referring to making a copy as “to Xerox” or copies as “Xeroxes”. Typically, having your brand name directly associated with and often used in place of the actual product would be considered an honor for the brand, demonstrating its impact on culture. Take Band Aid adhesive bandages, instead of making a shopping list and writing “adhesive bandages” people usually will refer to them as band aids by habit. Same goes for brands like Q-Tips, Kleenex, and Coke. Having your brand name interchangeable for the actual name of the product means that your brand is in the forefront of consumer’s minds increasing the chance that they will use your product. Now, there is the fear of brand dilution. They fear that by using their brand name as a noun in TV and movie scripts it will devalue the name of the brand as common usage continues. It will be interesting to see if this strategy hurts or helps the brand in the long run.

Chado Advertising & Design produced a high concept print ad for the Epic Group celebrating 31 years of Bangladesh Independence. Chado produced multiple concepts centered on the Epic Group’s constant innovation and cutting-edge technologies fused with imagery celebrating Bangladesh’s rich culture and tradition. The final ad will launch March 26th 2010 in major newspapers and magazines throughout Asia. The ad’s main focus is “Cutting-Edge Solutions, World-Class Manufacturing” with the Epic Group’s superior technology, constant innovation, and quality materials resulting in efficient, inexpensive, superior garment manufacturing. The imagery in the ad resembles the Bangladesh flag. The Bangladesh flag, which was adopted January 13th 1972, is green with a red circle in the center. The green background represents the lush vegetation and greenery of Bangladesh with its vitality and youthfulness. The red circle represents the rising sun and sacrifices the people of Bangladesh made to achieve independence. The ad also has a green background and the red center circle formed out of a two-sided coiled ribbon with one side displaying photographs from different Epic Group manufacturing facilities. This represents how the Epic Group is directly intertwined with the country of Bangladesh. The Epic Group was originally founded in Bangladesh in 1971 and maintains their flagship state of the art CIPL facility in Dhaka where they produce the majority of their high-quality garments. This new ad will effectively increase awareness of the Epic Group and their world-class manufacturing services to more potential clients while giving back and celebrating the history, culture, and independence of Bangladesh.

Follow our blog and twitter stream for more updates as the launch date approaches.

Chado Advertising & Design is launching a Twitter campaign leading up to the release of our advertisement for the Epic Group celebrating the Bangladesh Independence Day. Chado will post tweets daily with interesting facts about the country of Bangladesh and the Epic Group, one of the world’s largest textile manufacturers.

Follow the new campaign here!

Chado Advertising & Design is pleased to announce that for the second year in a row we will be developing an advertisement for the Epic Group celebrate the Bangladesh Independence Day Celebration. Although they are now headquartered in Hong Kong, The Epic Group was originally founded in Dhaka, Bangladesh as a small buying agent in 1971. Since then, they have made grown in leaps and bounds into a giant multinational garment manufacturing company that produces over 36 million garments a year and employs over 15,000 people worldwide. Bangladesh is also the home to the Epic Group’s state of the art manufacturing facilities where thousands of employees manufacture the world’s clothing. With its deep roots and strong local presence in Bangladesh, the independence celebration is very important to the Epic Group.

Bangladesh Independence Day celebrates the start of the Bangladesh Liberation War against West Pakistan on March 26^th 1971. This conflict originally started because, although the populations were equal, political power was heavily concentrated in West Pakistan leaving East Pakistan open to economic exploitation. The bloody, nine-month struggle resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the independent nation of Bangladesh we know today.

To celebrate this national holiday, the Epic Group has requested a high concept, full-page advertisement for the independence celebration that will run in major publications throughout Asia. Epic Group CEO, Ranijan Mahtani presented this important task to Chado again this year after their successful ad last year for the event and the fully integrated marketing campaign for The Epic Group that followed. Last year’s ad helped define the Epic Group’s new brand identity, that follows the vision of a modern, intelligent, state of the art company while celebrating the company’s roots with the nation and people of Bangladesh. This year the Epic Group and the people of Bangladesh have a lot to celebrate; the Epic Group continues to modernize their world-class production facilities in Bangladesh, leading the world in sustainable manufacturing techniques while providing thousands of jobs. In a nation that has given them so much the Epic Group is honored to give back and celebrate the people and nation of Bangladesh.

To promote their newest product Trident Layers, Trident Gum has integrated fan twitter feedback into their print campaign. This unconventional strategy has successfully merged two very different mediums to effectively carry their message. The full-page color ads with the headline “The People Have Tweeted” displays multiple tweets from users that have used Twitter to share their enthusiasm for Trident’s newest product. Trident found the tweets while using Twitter Search to monitor what people were tweeting about the new product. Recently released it is unknown whether or not this new ad will influence readers more than regular print advertisements but it is an interesting tactic using testimonials from real customers using the popular social networking site.

The Epic Corporate video we created with Northwestern Exposure is now available to view in stunning High Definition video. To view the HD video visit Northwestern Exposure’s Vimeo page here.