EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

With the extensive brand proliferation, marketers need to find newer and unique techniques everyday in order to reach out to their target audience in the most effective manner. The most commonly used methods are personalised emails, blogging, Google’s Adwords etc. The most recent trend is hyper-commercialisation: commercials tied up with broadcast media by placing various products by within films or television serials. The marketers are forced to establish that emotional connect in every possible way. It needs to be visible enough for a consumer to experience it but should not be so much in-your-face that it feels obtrusive to the consumer.

Product placement is one of the strongest branding mechanisms, which are available to a marketer who wants to change the media landscape for his/her brand. It is a very cost effective means of achieving unlimited viewer impressions across globe with the added advantage of providing an experiential connect with the product. With the number of brands in the market and the quantity of information available it is getting seemingly harder day by day to grab attention of the target audience. The kind of resistance shown by the customers to the information overflow has forced marketers to completely rework their strategies. And this is where covert advertising comes to their rescue.

“Covert advertising which is also known as Product Brand Placement, is a marketing practice in advertising and promotion wherein a brand name, product, or other trademark merchandise is inserted into in a motion picture or other media vehicle for commercial purposes.”

The three most commonly used covert advertising techniques are as follows:

1. Implicit Strategy: The brand or the product is passively put into a motion picture which is visible within the program. It is more contextual and mostly a part of the background. There is no explicit reference to the benefits offered by the product or the brand.

2. Integrated Explicit Strategy: The brand or the product is an active part of the scene and is clearly demonstrated within the program or plot. The benefits are of the product are expressed clearly.

3. Non-Integrated Explicit Strategy: The brand or the product is formally visible but does not have a direct relation to the plot of the program. For example, an official disclaimer that the program was brought to you by Pepsi.