OH REALLY

Product placement is going to take over your favorite show

Amazon,Peacock, and even ad-tech firms are betting big on product placement, abusiness that’s growing since streamers have fewer ad breaks.

In the early 1980s, the chocolatier Mars did what Elliottsimply could not do—turn down E.T. The company declined to let M&Ms be thesnack du jour of America’s favorite extra terrestrial. Instead, StevenSpielberg settled for Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces, and the rest ischocolate-coated history.More than 40 years later, Mars is testing tools thatmight offer a shot at redemption. In what feels like something out of ascience-fiction film, advertisers are using technology to digitally insertthemselves into television shows after filming has wrapped to make up for lighter ad breaks on streaming services.“All of asudden, the 15 minutes of ads that they used to have on national television[or] cable is no longer an acceptable experience for viewers,” Andrew King, VPof product at ad-tech firm TripleLift, told Marketing BrewThough audiencesmight not notice (or ideally notice, but just enough), product placement is a $23 billion industry that’s growing. 

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