Top tips on product placement

From the end of February product placement will be introduced on UK TV, giving companies the opportunity to pay for their brands or products to be featured in certain programmes.

While it will take some time for the UK market to mature to US levels where product placement has been integrated into TV shows for years, there are other avenues for PR professionals to explore to get spot broadcast coverage for clients.

Most relevant for FMCG brands, competitions and promotions are a great place to start, and if you hit the right TV and radio shows, your brand can reach millions of people adding extra value to existing PR and ad campaigns

Where to start? Do some background research on TV production companies and speak to them about promotional opportunities for your client. They are likely to be working on a few shows at any one time and in planning for brand new programmes too so it’s worth having the conversation

Match-making It sounds obvious, but your brand needs to fit with the show and its demographic. If you want to be the big prize on Ant n’ Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway you need to have the ITV peak weekend ‘wow factor’ (think cars, beach holidays and cruises) – but a brand that’s too inaccessible to the show’s mass market audience will not resonate

Hit the airwaves With commercial radio stations there are opportunities for your brand to be weaved into the show script with brand mentions from presenters as they talk up your promotion. Of course they have to exercise a degree of editorial integrity but the scope here is huge – especially when you consider that 90% of UK adults listen to the radio every week, and many are also online while listening which gives you the chance to direct them straight to your website

Small but beautiful There are opportunities for brands without big budgets and prize values too – can you partner with another company so your product becomes part of a larger promotion? Also big TV shows often have web-only competitions and while you might not get the product shown on air, the presenters direct viewers to the website so you still get the traffic but without the high-value prize spend.

Sitting comfortably? Think about shows where you might be able to supply furniture or other props a la Big Brother’s super famous diary room chair. While you’re unlikely to get the brand name mentioned on air, its great content for you to share via social media and for your own marketing purposes.