MMI product Placement Incorporation

Anoop|Bikash|Kendraj|Nitin|Praneet

Company Background
MMI Product Placement
Established 1985, Pioneer of product
placement Canada
Over 2000 product placements to its
credit in feature films and TV episodes
Self proclaim mandate 3
Leveraged its relationship with Canadian
Entertainment industry built over years
Encourage makers of Film and TV shows
to incorporate clients Brands into their
production

Select Best
Placement
opportuniti
es for its
Clients

Core
Values
Negotiate
placement
contracts for
client
Brands

Offer Value
by
providing
extremely
attractive
CPM (Cost
per
thousand)
2

Product Placement Process

First Phase
Received
scripts from
films and TV
companies

analyze each
one for
placement
opportunities

Potential Fit
Finding

inform client
and provide
details

help clients
product and
offer execution
support

screen the film

or TV episode
and notify client
release date

Second Phase
Monitor and Track these product
placements

Scenes inventoried and sent to

client

Shared with marketing managers

and used at seminars and sales
meeting

MMI had editing software to distribute scenes & Distribute via e-mail, CD Rom , DVD or VHS
Also had proprietary software to assess the impact of its placements for each client
Company facing growing competition from full service ad agencies
Ad agencies had set up product placement arm for providing client as one stop shop

Measuring Product Placement Success

Data
Collection

PQS

Value of
Placement

MMI collected data from AC Nielsen and Bureau of broad cast measurement (BBM)
People Meter to produce daily estimates of audience size and demographic characteristics for TV episodes
MMI had developed a proprietary Placement Quantifying Scale (PQS) for measuring value of each placement
Consider three variables to arrive at a number: cost of an equivalent 30 sec commercial, value or expected
impact of the on screen placement compared to 30 sec spot and possibility of multiple airings of the TV Episode
Value of placement= Cost of 30 s spot ($)*Placement Value (%)* Multiple airings factor (#)
PQS Model is only accurate as inputs you use. It is based on the quality of placement as perceived by
professional viewer.

Agency Structure

Unpredictable nature of the business

Clients used to hire the companies to seek out
appropriate placement opportunities
Amount used to vary from client to client
Most of the placement agencies were small outfits
with the experience of only entertainment industry
Fixed annual fee ranged from Cdn$ 15000 to
Cdn$50000

People Meter
measured three things:
tuning time of the TV set
channel tuned
number of people watching the channel
flaws in this technique:
sample size was very small (5000)
basically predicted based on assumptions
therefore lead to faulty conclusions
4

Industry Changing Trends

Product placements was changing rapidly with the changing times:
Brand marketers are willing to pay more
Product placement changing to payment model
TV networks are becoming more proactive

Automation and standardization started to impact the business

Digital Brand Integration emerged through which different products could be inserted
digitally into the same TV shows telecasted in different mode:
First run
Rerun
Run on cable TV etc.
It provided lots of opportunity to the owners of the movie and TV programs to realize
maximum value from the product placements
Movies such as Demolition Man, Spider Man-2 used this this concept

GREYHOUND CANADA
Canadas largest provider of intercity bus transport
Serving nearly 1100 locations across the country
An icon of bus travel, providing safe, enjoyable and
affordable travel to 6.5 million passengers each year
Market share 40%
Passengers used the service five times a year
Avg price paid for grey hound ticket was Cdn$ 45
Passengers used the service to commute to and
from work
32% earned over
Cdn$35000

Organisational Change and New Target Customer

Primary target group : aged between 18 to 24
Main idea to tap customers at early age so that they can
become permanent customers one they become working
professional
Company is in mid of organisation change, it is a 75 year old
company & reqd repositioning
Brand recognition is very high among Canadians but not on
top of mind in their travel consideration

Passenger Base
48 % had college
degree

Issues before MMI

Phil Hart, MMI need to work hard to close the deal with Grey hound
Despite MMI assurance Paul Dillon, Greyhound concerned with measuring the effectiveness
of product placement
Greyhound had longstanding relationship with advertising agencies
Making the cut the promotional vehicle for Greyhound needs
Focus on different show Corner Gas
Making the cut: Last Man Standing; Reality based TV Serial

Offer a group of amateur hockey players a second chance to realize their dreams by giving
them an opportunity to compete for a shot at making an NHL Team

Product
Placement
Frequency
Viewership

Transport these players to and fro from venue providing opportunity to integrate Greyhound bus into each episode
Schedule to premiur nationally on Global TV Network between sep 2006 to feb 2007; comprise 21 episodes

Feature an avg 3 times per episode, for 45 seconds each time

Of these a third will be exterior of bus showing Greyhound logo

Viewrship data cant be available before the show aired

Age group 18 to 24 were viewers of entertainment channel and hockey was popular with 18 to 44 age group

Alternatives Evaluation
Making the cut: Last Man Standing; Reality based TV Serial

Pros
Good exposure with serial of 21
episodes with 45 seconds total exposure
in each episode allowing the brand
image logo to be clearly viewed by the
audience.
Hockey is popular among the 18 to 44
age group and target audience is the 1824 year olds that Greyhound is aiming
for.
Show is scheduled on nationally
during the week-end prime time on the
Global television network.
The cost is desirable compared to
television commercial that is shorter.

Cons
Viewership data will not be available
until after the show aired.
Absence of track record means that
Hart could neither guarantee viewership
nor provide detailed audience
demographics.
The show is new and might not be
successful.
Greyhound may not like using a new
show.

Alternatives Evaluation
Placing Greyhound on hit show like Corner gas or Canadian Idol

Pros

Cons

Viewership data is available and MMI

can provide more accurate audience
demographics information.
High probability that the media would
be most noticeable due to viewer
statistics being the highest.
Many opportunities in the show to use
product placement.
Re-runs continue to air allowing the
product to be seen over and over
TV program
Corner Gas
Canadian Idol

It would be difficult to fit Greyhound to

the same degree as it would be placed in
Making the Cut due to the nature if the
show Corner Gas.
As the show is very popular and
established the cost will likely be higher.

Cost of 30-second spot($) Placement rating (%) Placement value ($) Viewership
14,000
100
21,000
1,150,000
10,000
100
15,000
1,425,000