Is Product Placement the Future of Advertising?

As a college student, I don’t buy cable because it’s an added cost I don’t want to endure…it’s also easier for me to stream TV shows online and avoid all those commercials. With the creation of sites such as Netflix, everyone can watch shows directly from their computer at any time, and never have to sit through advertisements. So it only seems inevitable that eventually people will no longer watch TV but stream directly from their computers, so what does this mean for advertising?

Recently, Netflix came out with its own original series House Of Cards, it’s a 13-episode show, which premiered and let viewers stream all the episodes instantly. IMDb recently did a movie meter on most popular show in the world right now, and House Of Cards came out on top. The meter is based on algorithms that determine levels of public awareness and interest. Netflix then announced that House Of Cards is currently the most watched program on Netflix in terms of total hours streamed and total viewers. Clearly, people enjoy the idea of not having to wait every week for an episode, and love the fact that it’s commercial free, but is it really commercial free?

One thing I noticed while watching House Of Cards is that although it doesn’t have commercials, through out the entire show they have product placements. One of the main products that is featured an over whelming amount is the Iphone, not surprising considering Apple is always ahead of the curve. They’ve commented and stated that they don’t pay for advertising but provide shows with their products in exchange for free marketing. Apple has such a strong brand that they’re able to give out their products for free, but what does this mean for other companies who’s brand isn’t as powerful as Apples? It seems that in the future more companies will begin to pay for product placement in TV shows but does the product placement work as well as a commercial would?

Apple isn’t the only company to try product placement on House Of Cards, other products like Canon have almost a full advertisement within the show. They have the lead female character take a picture of a woman, showing how well the camera can zoom and focus, and then later in the episode shows the print out of the picture as the characters talk about how excellent canon printers are. But does this type of advertising actually work? Are people more inclined to buy a Canon Camera now, or does the advertising get lost within the story line? These are question that will only be answered as time goes on, but for now it seems that this is where the future of advertising is going to be.

What are some TV shows that you’ve noticed had product placement?

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