NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The Association of National Advertisers’ annual TV & Everything Video Forum is supposed to be a place where marketers gather to figure out where the business of TV advertising is going. That quest has yet to be completed. But this year, advertisers had no trouble showing us where TV has already gone.

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DiGiorno’s pizza-servers deliver hot bread-and-cheese to the audience on CBS’s ‘People’s Choice Awards.’ Speaker after speaker lined up example after example of shockingly intrusive pacts that placed — nay, shoved — commercial messages deep into programming. Subway spokesman Jared Fogle told a couple of Sunday-football hosts about Subway low-fat sandwiches. Alec Baldwin sang the praises of Cisco teleconference equipment on “30 Rock.” And the cast of Fox’s “Glee” sent forth tens of pizza-servers to deliver hot bread-and-cheese from Kraft Foods’ DiGiorno pizza into the audience on CBS’s “People’s Choice Awards” (We hope Fox, CBS and Procter & Gamble, producer of the program, were paid well for the concession.).

Taken individually, these moves from commercial break to in-program content seem fun, novel, even entertaining. Placed together in this fashion, however, the parade of in-show appearances by paying advertisers took on the form of something more pernicious.

Never has it been more clear that commercials and content are fast becoming one and the same, wholly indistinguishable from each other.

What’s going on? We’ll tell you:

Media outlets, roiled by the recession and changes in the TV business, have bent, even broken, many of their own rules
Big TV networks once thought of their programs as blue-chip real estate (of course, we’re talking about practices after the heyday of “Texaco Star Theater” and the like). They weren’t terribly eager to overtly insert products into many of their shows. They were afraid putting Lincoln-Mercury into an episode of, say, “Las Vegas,” would tick off General Motors and Chrysler. They felt such stuff, if not handled properly, might cheapen their programming. When products did appear, they did so with great subtlety and with the barest nod to their existence, such as a “promotional consideration paid for by” in the credits.

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From ‘Star Trek’ on ‘Lost’ to Subway’s ‘Chuck’ Campaign, Broadcasters Become More Blatant With Brand IntegrationsWhen product placement gained more sway, particularly in the earlier part of this decade, the practice was believed to be better suited for sports telecasts and reality shows — stuff that viewers didn’t always hold sacrosanct. And when the technique gained more traction in comedies and dramas, networks certainly made sure the viewer wouldn’t be distracted from the story, characters or dialogue.

So much has changed in just a short period of time. These days it’s the stories, characters and dialogue that are being usurped by advertisers to gain notice from viewers. Stephen Colbert will hold forth for Doritos on Comedy Central. A character in “Chuck” will utter Subway’s “$5 footlong” slogan during the show. Characters in the CW’s “90210″ sing the praises of Dr Pepper in such a way that it’s clear to any intelligent fan that the dialogue is present not because the writers and producers felt it would advance a storyline or create an interesting moment, but because someone paid for it to be there.

Would any of this happen if the economy were faring better, TV networks didn’t have so much digital competition, and DVRs weren’t showing up in a third of U.S. homes? Hard to tell. But we’re seeing the networks cede even more as time goes by. Now they’re letting characters from their shows appear in traditional ads. In recent weeks, characters from NBC’s “Chuck” began showing up in ads on the network for Honda, while the casts of ABC’s “Ugly Betty” and “The Middle” have been set free to appear in ads from Nestle’s Stouffer’s on the Disney outlet.

At some point, ads and shows might blur so much that the notion of a “commercial break” becomes a silly, antiquated thing of the past.

Advertisers have had it with trying to game ad breaks
No matter how great anyone’s 30-second commercial is, anyone with a digital video recorder and thumb on the remote can obliterate it, and there’s really little defense. Why else have movie studios turned to placing the title of a movie and its opening date in the top third of the screen during ads? Because they hope to get the barest hint of info out even if consumers choose to fast-forward past the trailer.

Besides, why run ads when evidence suggests taking over the shows helps boost consumer recall? Tony Pace, chief marketing officer of the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, told the ANA assemblage today that memorable product alliances with content such as Reese’s Pieces’ appearance in “E.T.” or Junior Mints’ role in an episode of “Seinfeld” were quite powerful. “The stickiness of those events is greater than advertising,” he said.

To create such stuff, he said, advertisers must go beyond just plastering a logo on-screen or putting a sandwich in the background of a scene. Instead, he suggested, “we don’t talk product placement.” The idea is to weave marketing messages into the programs. Fans of NBC’s “Biggest Loser” might recall that one episode featured the contestants walking from their base to one Subway, where they were able to buy snacks, then to another, where they’d be able to dine.

And Mark Stewart, VP-global media services at Kraft Foods, said the company was beginning to realize that blasting an ad out to the masses was less important than coming up with methods that made people react: “Exposure has absolutely nothing to do with engagement,” he said.

People react to what happens in their favorite programs, while they actively try to avoid commercials. You figure out where the advertisers will want to be going forward.

We have no one to blame but ourselves
We say we hate ads. We say we love “American Idol,” “24″ or “The Closer.” Yet we ignore the fact that the ads are the main reason we get to watch those shows for a relatively minimal cost (depending on your monthly cable nut).

So our burgeoning glee in being able to dispense with commercials is going to lead, oddly enough, to more commercials. Except this time, the ads will take place during our shows, not between segments of them. Ads are like weeds; you kill them in one place, and they take root in another.

Hope you enjoy a slew of promotional messages taking place during sports banter, or coming out of the mouths of Jack Bauer, Kate and Sawyer from “Lost” or the gang over at “CSI.” Because in slaying the 30-second beast, consumers may have created another monster that won’t be subdued easily, if ever.

Pioneering Auction Presents Unprecedented Marketing and Brand Integration Opportunities at Attractive Auction Rates on January 20, 2010 at Christie’s New York City

    LOS ANGELES, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Brand in Entertainment (BiE), a
premier integration firm specializing in partnering with companies and
advertisers across numerous mediums to join brands and properties, has
announced their first Inaugural Integration Auction, Scatter Categories
2010 to be held on January 20th at Christie’s in New York City. The
invitation only auction produced by Empire Entertainment, Inc. and
Honeysweet Productions, will invite professional representatives and
advertising agencies to bid on exclusive packages to feature their services
and products among a variety of media platforms. An online auction preview
catalog will be available on BiE’s Web site by the end of November.

    Leveraging relationships with major advertising firms in the U.S. and
abroad, as well as with major studios, record companies and independent
production companies, BiE’s Inaugural Integration Auction 2010 will auction
off choice brand incorporation opportunities in a multitude of platforms,
including network television, online/Webisodes, graphic novels, films,
plays and more.

    “With the ever-growing list of media options, the advertising world has
been seeking a way to easily integrate their brands across today’s myriad
of content offerings while keeping an eye on maximizing value,” said Rolfe
Auerbach, Chief Executive Officer of BiE. “Our Inaugural Integration
Auction 2010 is the innovative complement to this desire by offering
content properties and brands the unique opportunity to partner with one
another through a highly productive, seamless event.”

    The live auction will feature the three most exciting auction category
opportunities led by famed auctioneer and BiE Chief Operating Officer Tere
Morris, while the silent auction will utilize IML technology. IML will
allow the auction attendees to place instant bids on items using keypad
devices. Viewable in real time on large-screen TVs, the keypads enable
participants to keep track of the bidding activity.

    Following the red carpet at 6:00 p.m. EST, recently appointed BiE
Chairman Jim Rose will be on hand to welcome auction attendees and present
a keynote address. Rose, a prominent figure in the advertising world, is
the current Chairman and CEO of Mosaic Sales Solutions and has previously
lent his expertise as CEO of MPG, the media buying arm of the leading
international advertising and communications group Havas.

    Inaugural Integration Auction 2010 Event Details – January 20, 2010

    Red Carpet/Cocktail Hour              6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
    Welcome by Jim Rose                   7:00 p.m.
    Live Auction                          7:15 p.m.
    Silent Auction featuring IML          Ongoing – tables close at 8:30 p.m.
    Technology
    For 2010, BiE currently has 33 films and 25 television projects
scheduled and is working on such films as “Henry’s Crime” starring Keanu
Reeves and James Caan, “Unamerican” starring Jessica Biel and John
Leguizamo, and has just finished work on “Meeting Spencer” with Jeffrey
Tambor.

    Brand in Entertainment is consistently ahead of the curve searching out
new opportunities for its clients and pairing these opportunities with
emerging technologies in order to create unique branding advantages. BiE
recognizes brand objectives and works with filmmakers to ensure that the
integration is a part of the mythology of their storyline. For more
information on Brand in Entertainment, please visit
http://brand-inentertainment.com.

    About Brand in Entertainment

    BiE is the premier Brand Integration firm with more than 35 years of
advertising experience. Based in Los Angeles, California, they work
directly with national and international brands to organically marry them
with entertainment properties. BiE is the matchmaker of Hollywood and
Madison Avenue, unifying entertainment properties and brands. Respectively,
BiE is sensitive to the creative integrity of the filmmaker/content
producer and seeks to create brand integrations best suited for the
storyline.

New York, NY (PRWEB) November 17, 2009 — PRWEB) November 17, 2009 — Rolfe Auerbach, President and CEO of Brand in Entertainment (BiE) announced today that the world’s major product brands and their advertising agencies will be invited to New York City along with entertainment media producers for a first ever ‘Product Integration Auction.’ During the announcement, it was revealed that an innovative new auction format will be utilized and the COO of BiE, Tere Morris, will be the featured auctioneer. Ms. Morris stated that her professional career as a noted auctioneer led her to the idea that she feels is “a remarkable new concept in brand integration opportunity.” Morris added that BiE will provide the first ever opportunity for leading producers to offer premier ‘product integration time’ directly to the appropriate brands and their advertising agencies via a live auction.

Tere Morris

According to Ms. Morris, BiE’s goal is to offer agencies and brand managers the opportunity to successfully integrate their brand objectives into a project’s story line while maintaining the integrity of the content. This opportunity is a win-win according to Morris, “producers get additional funding, and brands get additional exposure.” She added that the innovative concept of a product integration auction creates efficiencies and opportunities for producers and advertising agencies by saving them time and ensuring the best return on investment.

The Inaugural Integration Auction, to be held at Christie’s ‘Woods Room’ in New York City, will be a red carpet event on the evening of January 20, 2009. BiE is working diligently to offer the absolute best content available for bidding consideration. BiE’s auction preview catalog will be available on-line by end of November 2009, and continuously updated with new content, closing one week prior to the event on January 13, 2010. Tere Morris is a licensed Auctioneer in the City of New York, license number 1333460.

 Brands and their Agencies will attend the red carpet event by invitation and prequalification only – and will have the opportunity to bid on brand category packages that will achieve their brand objectives, integrated across multi media platforms.  In today’s world of Tivo, and online viewer ship, it’s time for brands to consider new ways to integrate their brand objectives directly aimed at their target demographics. In preparing these brand category packages, BiE has worked diligently to offer the advertising clients the absolute best content available in film, television, webisodes, live events, video games, Broadway, graphic novels, and music videos – including your project(s).

Each registered guest will be provided with the latest bidding technology, an IML, which is an electronic, hand held device bidding device, which will simply and easily allow them to bid on the desired brand category package, at our silent, “genre” theme bidding stations throughout Christie’s “The Woods Room”.  Plasma screen televisions will be placed strategically, allowing everyone to view – including the press which will be attending the event – the bidding in real time. BiE will then auction off the three HOTTEST Brand Scatter category packages during the LIVE portion of the event.  We will invite the advertising clients RAISE their bidding card to insure they are the winning bidder on these spectacular brand integration opportunities, including your project(s)

 One way to be certain of your project receiving the most careful consideration by the advertisers attending the Inaugural Integration Auction, Scatter Categories, 2010 will be to supply your top talent to be present on the red carpet – so that your project will stand out in the bidding process.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 10, 2009 — Brand-In Entertainment, a premier brand integration firm based in Los Angeles, formally announced the involvement of Nespresso® as a primary sponsor of the highly anticipated new series, Hollywood on the Rocks. Hollywood on the Rocks will be a contemporary show featured on Ovation TV, the only National cable channel devoted to art and contemporary culture. Mini Movie Channel is the show’s producer. The series will be a uniquely formatted program featuring Chris Gore hosting celebrity discussions and reviews of current and notable short film projects. Elena Muravina, CEO of Mini Movie Channel, commented, “The highly personal interviews and short films presented in the series are naturally complimented by the Nespresso specialty products that will actually be utilized in the series.

“Nestlé Nespresso is an operating unit of the Nestlé Group, the world’s leading food, beverage, nutrition and wellness company. Shanin Molinaro, Marketing Director, Nespresso North America stated, “Sharing Ovation TV’s passion for arts and culture, Nespresso is pleased to be a part of the network’s original new series, Hollywood on the Rocks.” Rolfe Auerbach, CEO of Brand in Entertainment added, “Brand-in Entertainment is proud to bridge the partnership of Ovation TV and Nespresso, two brands that clearly reach affluent and discerning demographics. The collaboration between Nespresso and Ovation is a completely new business model using brand integration.” In response to the announcement, Kris Slava from Ovation TV commented, “We couldn’t be more pleased to have Nespresso as a partner in our new series, Hollywood on the Rocks. Ovation’s audience is always highly engaged, and this is just the sort of entertaining, informative look at contemporary culture that they respond to.”

For More Information, Please Visit:

Brand-In Entertainment                              
www.brand-inentertainment.com

Nespresso
www.nespresso.com

OvationTV   
www.ovationtv.com

Rolfe Auerbach, CEO of Brand-in Entertainment

© Copyright, PR Web. All Rights Reserved

AFM, The Premiere Marketplace for Independent Film and Entertainment Production and Distribution, will be held November 4-11, 2009 in Santa Monica, California.

Santa Monica, CA August 19, 2009 — Founded in 1981, the American Film Market (AFM) has become the premiere global marketplace where Hollywood’s decision-makers and trendsetters come together. Unlike a film festival, the AFM is a marketplace where production and distribution deals are closed. In just eight days, more than $800 million in deals will be negotiated, on both completed films and those in the initial stages of production; making AFM the largest film and distribution market event in the world.

With the announcement of Brand-in Entertainment (BiE) as the official brand integration company of the 2009 AFM, AFM Managing Director Jonathan Wolf stated, “It’s a great benefit to independent film makers to have Brand-in Entertainment as the official brand integration company of AFM 2009. They are a leading resource for secondary funding of entertainment projects.”

BiE President, Rolfe Auerbach, added, “For the last two years Brand-in Entertainment has enjoyed participating as a sponsor of the AFM. We look forward to the 2009 market in our expanded role as the official brand integration company of 2009 AFM. And, we look forward to the opportunity to meet with more producers and add their projects to our already impressive list of quality films.”

It’s a great benefit to independent film makers to have Brand-in Entertainment as the official brand integration company of AFM 2009. They are a leading resource for secondary funding of entertainment projects.For the last two years Brand-in Entertainment has enjoyed participating as a sponsor of the AFM. We look forward to the 2009 market in our expanded role as the official brand integration company of 2009 AFM. And, we look forward to the opportunity to meet with more producers and add their projects to our already impressive list of quality films.With the reality of Digital Video Recorders and today’s multi-tasking consumer, I believe effective brand integration is key for the successful sponsorship and funding of entertainment projects. According to Mr. Auerbach, BiE will be holding meetings on new films throughout the AFM. BiE creates product-integration in projects and assists them through secondary funding in a variety of entertainment media including Theatrical Movies, TV Movies, TV Series (both scripted and unscripted), music videos, music tours, Broadway, web-isodes, books, graphic novels, Internet and mobile phones.

Mr. Auerbach added, “With the reality of Digital Video Recorders and today’s multi-tasking consumer, I believe effective brand integration is key for the successful sponsorship and funding of entertainment projects.”

Please contact Karon Crosby at               818.261.0335   for more information. www.kcprm.com.