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Digital product placement coming to Seven

Flamin' hell. Look closely at the products next time you watch Home and Away and Rafters. They may not be real.

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Product placement in TV shows is about to change forever after Seven recently signed an exclusive deal with UK digital product placement specialist MirriAd.

MirriAd places products and signage into television shows in the post-production stage, putting products into scenes that were never there at the original shoot.

It opens up all sorts of sponsorship opportunities in post-production.

The partnership will see MirriAd’s technology insert lifelike brand images into shows such as Home and Away and Packed to the Rafters.

MirrAd was set up three years ago by former BBC Ventures director Mark Popkiewicz and appointed former Endemol UK creative chief Peter Bazalgette, who was widely credited with popularising Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. But The Daily Mail also named him as one of the “Ten Worst Britons” for Endemol’s Five show The Farm, in which Rebecca Loos became intimate with a pig.

Seven will be deploying a MirriAd Hub in Sydney.

James Warburton Seven Media Group Chief Sales and Digital Officer, said: “Seven is recognised for its innovation in developing compelling marketing solutions for its clients. Our cross-platform and integration business, SMG Red, continues to be a powerhouse and our agreement with MirriAd allows to build on that success. We’re pleased to be working with MirriAd.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCrxA-n1ZkA[/youtube]

38 Responses

  1. How rude, we are bombarded with enough bloody advertising as it is , everywhere you look an ad is trying to sell us something, it’s nice to come home to watch these shows to get out off the real world for a bit, not going to happen now with these greedy advertising companys shoving more crap in our faces.

  2. This is the future of commercial advertising. The advent of the PVR has meant traditional advertising is often rushed through and not watched. This advertising is more subliminal and probably works better. Product placement is hardly new. (All the cars in Beverley Hillbillies were Chryslers). What is new about this technology is it enables the product to be modified slightly for the various markets a show is aired in.

    For those who resent it, get over it!! If it is done well you probably won’t even notice what is actual product placement and what is digital.

  3. That’s okay. If I ever find myself watching a programme on Channel 7 and one of these ‘ads’ show up, I’ll boycott the product and ask everyone I know to do the same.

  5. Yippee. Something to do while watching Home and Away with the Sister’s kids when I visit- pick the digital product placement and make a mental note of what I shouldn’t buy. I don’t like to be manipulated.

  6. This is obnoxious. Fortunately though, I’m not attracted to watch the kind of shows that will suffer this immersion destroying subliminal manipulation. Meanwhile, those who are, will think it is clever, and will probably have pen and paper on hand to make a note of the products being grafted across Alf Stewart’s bald pate, and duly add them to their shopping list.

    In the end, it may be business for Seven, but it isn’t for me. I watch for entetainment, and if that is spoilt, I have the off switch handy.

  7. It’s kind of like Max Headroom blipverts. What concerns me is will the digital product placement be capped at retail consumables or is there a far greater opportunity for other advertisers – not just of grocery items etc – to place their messages into our humble tv drama?

  8. So will they (for example) have green drink can’s so whom every pays the advertising will have their label added latter?

    I very much doubt this will reduce the number of ads or breaks during shows.

  11. In the days of Prisoner this would have been interesting, the mind boggles??

    There will no doubt be more of this as Commercial TV seeks to broaden its revenue streams to cover loses elsewhere due to the multiple outlets competiting for TV ad spend.

    I wonder if these supered inserts will be sold on a national or state basis and whether regional affiliates like Prime and Seven Central will continue to get clean versions?

  13. Son, this would be on top of advert breaks, and pop in advertising, and standard product placement.

    It’s another advertising area.

    Notice who seven were talking about. Media partners, not their viewers.

  14. I’m all for it, only if it means that we have less commercials in each break, but that will never happen, otherwise we wouldn’t have out shows running 8-11 mins late each night…

  15. I don’t mind if, like @son hopes, it results in less ad breaks – particularly during movies which were not created with ad breaks intended. Also I think equity should be negotiating the actors contracts to include the advertising and residuals for the ads as well as the programmes. David do you know if the inserts would be permanent, because that might limit what product placement might be appropriate

  18. This will add another dimension to our Home and Away watching! Now, we can point out the bad acting and the totally unbelievable story lines as well as the badly placed product placement. Some of the placements in that clip were well bad!

  19. Also if i was actors equity – i would be negotiating standard contracts to give actors the rights to approve or veto what sort of products might be inserted into their characters stories post production. This is about more than just advertising or is it true that australian tv drama is just so dramatically vacuous thats its now just a vehicle for product placement rather than good story telling.

  20. Isnt this just disrespecting the writers and directors. So they get no say about what products the characters might be using and story lines will be dictated by pr hacks post production???

  24. Well it was bound to happen. Doesn’t really make any difference to me really. Better they be some where in the background than forcing a character to use a particular product.

    In the end this is a business.

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