I was talking the other day with Chris Pearson about product placement. We spoke briefly about that being the next wave to hit blogs.
We already accept advertising. I do anyway, so if you’d like to advertise here, send me an email.
And unconsciously, we place products in our posts.
So if we’re going to do it, should we get compensated for it ?
I eat at Applebee’s a lot. If Applebee’s wants to compensate me for every mention of their name on this blog, within reason, is that so bad ?
I use Neutrogena shaving products. Would it hurt this blogs focus if they paid me for every time I mention them ?
I love my Dish Network satellite service. So how bad would it be to mention them every time I mention watching Monday Night Football or Survivor ?
Dockers are my favorite slacks. Yes, I’d take free slacks for mentioning them in a second.
Tommy Bahama silk shirts make me all wiggly. I’d love to get paid to have all my photos done with one of their shirts.
I play Ping I3 blade irons and have a Ping carry bag. Do you think I’d take some thank-you dollars for telling everybody about that on Travelling Golfer ? I sure would.
I drive a Toyota Camry made right here in Kentucky. I drive around 60,000 miles a year. What would it hurt for them to compensate me for every mention of that fact ?
I used a new search tool that I got today to search for info about product placement and I’ll let a little link leak tell the rest of the story.
Rexblog.com points out some product placement in the classroom – ” Yesterday, I had an experience that amused me as I imagined the meltdown it would have caused an anti-adveristing-in-the-classroom advocate. “
Over at Lymabean, Lindsey says – ” I don’t generally find time or the proclivity to turn on tv shows, but recently I have to say I have become hooked on Showtime’s Weeds. Besides enjoying the bright eyed, mellow character that Mary-Louise Parker plays, I am particularly interested in the amount of product placement on the show. “
At ITPro, they spoke about pointless product placement – ” Product placement can and does have its merits when companies are trying to subliminally persuade us to buy their wares. “
TV Squad blogs about product placement on 30 Rock – ” The Newark Star-Ledger’s Alan Sepinwall (actually his friend Phil Rosenthal) points out on his blog that last night’s pilot for 30 Rock had an interesting bit of product placement: “
Over at OnTheCommons.org, David Bollier says that product placement invasion is intensifying – ” … spending on product placement advertising is going to surge in 2006 by 25%. Global spending will go to $7.5 billion this year and to $14 billion by 2010. “
Cheryl Shuman says paid product placement outpaces traditional advertising – ” Product placement spending in TV, film and other media is expected to climb another 38.8% to $3.07 billion in 2006, driven by the continued shift toward a paid placement structure from a barter and added-value model. “
PVR Wire says that product placement is the answer to ad skipping PVR’s – ” Compared to the $50bn advertising industry, the $2bn spent on product placement is relatively small. But one of the ways that advertisers think they can get around the PVR ad-skipping problem is with product placement. “
Kick-Ass Poker talks about the world of poker and product placement joining forces - ” It was only a matter of time until the burgeoning poker world would see product placement as a means of attracting visibility… “
There’s enough fodder for us to chew on, now we have to decide if product placement is or will be invading the blogosphere.
Is it already here ? Do you get paid to mention a product on your blog ?
Will it hurt bloggers and blogging ? Has it already ?
Here’s my thought – No, it isn’t big as of now. Yes, it will be soon.
No, it won’t hurt bloggers or blogging. It’ll just make the most popular ( read as lots and lots of viewers ) blogs even more money.
Blogging’s just another form of visual media. Advertising has been and always will be a part of visual media.
You might as well get used to it and make the best of it.
Start now by tracking which products you often mention on your blog and find a way to convert that into dollars that can pay for bandwidth and/or hosting.
After that, do like I do, set up a revenue stream to pay for your monthly expenditures, smallest first and then next smallest and so on, until you have them all covered.
When you’ve covered all of your monthly expenditures, start saving for retirement and/or a lake house. Or a boat. Or new golf clubs. Or a BMW.
Somebody’s gonna take the money, it might as well be a blogger.
Your turn.
Is product placement good for blogging or the end of all that’s holy ?
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