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In this e-seminar, Professor Oren Fuerst of Columbia Business School will provide an overview of the main methods of valuation and then demonstrate some of the adjustments that are typically necessary for early-stage technology companies or projects. The e-seminar includes video, audio with slides, case-study examples of valuation, and an interactive final exercise.

About Dartmouth College OnlineDartmouth College online is proud to announce their Tuck Business Bridge program is making its way onto the internet. Dartmouth College is a university that is riding the technology wave and wants to allow students to continue to further expand their education in the shortest period of time possible. You do not need to have a Dartmouth College degree to enroll in this program, but it is open to current junior and senior year students as well as anyone who has already completed a liberal arts degree. The program is designed for people with very little experience in the business world. The entire Dartmouth Online program is rather fast, and very intense, but covers all the basics of business in 4 very short weeks.

Masters Degrees

1. Applied Mathematics
2. Biomedical Engineering
3. Chemical Engineering
4. Civil Engineering - General
5. Civil Engineering - Construction Engineering and Management
6. Computer Science (choose from 7 different fields of study)
7. Earth and Environmental Engineering
8. Electrical Engineering (choose from 8 different fields of study)
9. Methods in Finance
10. Engineering and Management Systems (2 choices)
11. Operations Research
12. Materials Science and Engineering
13. Mechanical Engineering

there are dozens of Harvard University online courses available to students. Although they are yet to offer a complete online degree program, they do offer two graduate-level online certificate programs that may be completed entirely online: Applied Sciences and Environmental Management. Alternately, you can simply take a few classes in a subject that interests you such as accounting or linguistics to spice up your resume.

Please note, if you are interested in earning a degree through the Harvard Extension School, you may do so, but you will have to combine online courses with some classroom attendance. If you are unable to meet this requirement and would like to earn a complete degree or certificate online from a high caliber institution, check out one of these top-ranked schools: Cornell, University of Notre Dame, Boston University, and Tulane University.

Harvard University Online Tuition

Tuition is charged per course and varies depending on whether the course is being taken for noncredit, undergraduate, or graduate credit. Tuition varies, but figure on spending between $800 and $1975 per course (reduced tuition is available for certain courses if you take the course on a non-credit basis).

All lectures were recorded in the Yale College classroom and are available in video, audio, and text transcript format. Registration is not required and no course credit is available.

We hope you find Notre Dame OCW valuable, whether you’re a student looking for some extra help, a faculty member trying to prepare a new course, or just interested in learning more about a topic that interests you.Notre Dame OCW does not grant credits or degrees, and does not provide access to faculty. What Notre Dame OCW does give you is open access to the materials used in a variety of courses.

Although you may not be able to physically commute to an Ivy League campus, that shouldn’t keep you from “attending” classes at an Ivy League university.By far, Columbia, Harvard, and Cornell have the most extensive online programs. I give Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale an honorable mention.

MIT now offers over 1,800 free online classes

Brain Trust: 100 Ivy League Business & Entrepreneurship Courses You Can Take for Free

Event creation

One Way to Valhalla

Kate Walsh

Ipoki lets you share your current location with others in real-time. Also, you can see where your friends are and track them on Google Maps and Google Earth. Ipoki lets you keep track of your routes and use it to geolocate photos in flickr automatically. Invite your friends to see where you are and find and follow them across the world. Feel free to sign up. It’s free.

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Dokumentären är producerad av skådespelaren Edward Norton, och har följt Obamas kampanj och karriär inom politiken sedan 2006.

Regissörerna Amy Rice och Alicia Sams tilläts att filma exklusivt innan Obama 2007 tillkännagjorde att han skulle ställa upp som presidentkandidat, och har fortsatt att filma fram till segern denna vecka.

– Obamas historiska race till Vita huset har gett vår film en perfekt mall för att utforska pulsen i vårt land under denna viktiga händelse i historien, säger Edward Norton till Reuters.

Finanskrisen lyfter Pantbanken på Östermalm till rekordvinst i år, största ökningen i företagets hundrafyrtiotvååriga historia. Inte ens Kreugerkraschen 1932 gav maken till kundanstormning.

Det var i onsdags polisen anlände minuterna efter skottlossningen i St Johns, ett samhälle med 4.000 invånare 25 mil nordöst om Phoenix. Där hittade de en man skjuten utanför dörren och den andre död en trappa upp.

Pojken hade tagit sig till grannarnas hus och berättat att han trodde att hans far var död.

Melnick sade att polisen fått ett erkännande från pojken, men pojkens försvarsadvokat Benjamin Brewer sade att polisen förhört honom utan att han fick ha förälder eller advokat med sig och att han inte upplystes om sina rättigheter.

- De anklagade honom väldigt tidigt i förhöret, sade Brewer. Två poliser med vapen vid sin sida, det är mycket skrämmande för ett åttaårigt barn.

Våldtäkten skedde sedan hon följt med en man hem från ett restaurangbesök strax efter midnatt, natten mot söndagen. I lägenheten fanns även en annan man, och det var han som enligt kvinnan förgrep sig på henne.- Kvinnan lyckades skrika så hon fick hjälp av killen som hon gick hem med, säger Marie-Louise Nilsson, stationsbefäl på Västerortspolisen, till DN.se.

Bråket grundar sig i ett avsnitt av komikern Russell Brands radioprogram på public service-kanalen BBC Radio 2. Tillsammans med BBC:s högst betalda profil, Jonathan Ross, spelade Brand in flera meddelanden på skådespelaren Andrew Sachs telefonsvarare. Bland annat sade komikerparet att Brand haft sex med Sachs barnbarn Georgina Baillie, 23, och att skådespelaren troligtvis skulle hänga sig när han nu fick höra det.

Skämtet väckte en enorm folkstorm i Storbritannien och på bara en vecka hade närmare 30.000 protester kommit in till BBC. Samtidigt återupptogs debatten kring public service-utbudet där värvningen av den extremt högt betalde komikern Jonathan Ross stundvis kritiserats kraftigt.

Russell Brand sade själv upp sig efter kritiken och Jonathan Ross har stängts av från BBC, där han sänder såväl tv som radio, under tre månader. Kort efter beskedet om Brands uppsägning avgick även BBC-chefen Lesley Douglas.

ICM will provide TiVo subscribers with TV show and film recommendations personally selected by some of the most well-known Hollywood actors and directors.

Sale said ICM could work with other talent agencies representing brands, media and ad agencies, product placement and branded entertainment firms or directly with advertisers in developing branded entertainment opportunities for its clients. She said her new group could facilitate a brand working with ICM talent across various entertainment platforms, such as film, music, TV and publishing. “I look at this as a grocery store full of talent, and a brand can come in the door and walk out with a cart full of stuff. If you offered a brand the opportunity to get involved in all these different areas at one time, you’d be able to create a tremendous amount of impact.”

“ICM will not represent brands,” Sale said. “That space is being handled very nicely already. The strategy for ICM is to facilitate entertainment and content opportunities for ICM talent and to foster dialogue between brands and ICM talent across all divisions of ICM.”

The global branded entertainment division, which has 10 employees in L.A. and New York, is designed to sell clients to brands, as opposed to some agencies that represent brands with the goal of connecting products to celebrities.

Product integration is as old as Hollywood itself.

It wasn’t just television comedy that NBC’s “Seinfeld” managed to shake up during its eight seasons on the air. The groundbreaking show about nothing is credited with finally breaking down the decades-old resistance by the major broadcast networks to product placement in primetime.

It was Jerry’s butter fingers with an infamous box of Junior Mints candy in the beloved 1993 episode “The Junior Mint” that showed marketers the way of the future. They didn’t need to settle for mere placement on a shelf in a kitchen scene. With a little creativity, a product could find its way into the script, becoming an integral part of a storyline and assuring that audiences would remember it the next day.

“Seinfeld broke the barrier on brand-name products in television,” says Brad Brown, who co-founded one of the first major product placement agencies, Davie-Brown, in 1985. “The brand became a plot point, and it was so successful that they (NBC) looked the other way.”



The pioneering Lumiere Brothers, who created the first motion picture projector in 1895, recognized immediately the potential their invention had to influence the masses. Their 1896 short film, “Washing Day in Switzerland,” was one of the first motion pictures ever projected on a screen — and it featured strategically-placed cases of Sunlight Soap. Much like the way deals come together in today’s business, the placement was engineered by the film’s producer, Henri Lavanchy-Clarke, who also worked as a publicist for the soap’s manufacturer, Lever Brothers, according to Jay Newell, assistant professor at the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University.

“Product placement is much older than Hollywood,” Newell says. “And this first placement was no accident.”

Branded entertainment
Branded Integration

10+ Cases in this article

In Portugal, the global home improvement retailer Leroy Merlin has been working since 2005 with Briskman Entertainment, the producers of SIC Mulher’s popular TV make-over show “Querido, mudei a casa!” to integrate their wide range of product in the renovation projects. In just 2 years, sales of Leroy Merlin, rose by 72%, and the brand boosted across Portugal becoming leader in its segment.

Office products retailer Staples and its entertainment marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment worked with the producers of NBC’s popular show “The Office” to integrate the MailMate shredder into the theme of the November 16, 2006, episode. Amid impending layoffs, one of the show’s key characters showcases his value to the company through his role as a “master shredder,” using his newest tool: The MailMate shredder from Staples.

David Goetzel, a media and marketing writer for Media Daily News, described the integration as follows:

In the Nov. 16 episode, the character Kevin, a low-key but mischievous accountant at paper company Dunder-Mifflin, somewhat morosely says how little responsibility he has on the job. But, he adds: “They do let me shred the company documents, and that is really all I need, by the way Deskey is lame.” He then ferociously begins using the MailMate – Staples says it offers “ferocious shredding power for identity theft protection” – while speaking to the audience at the same time (”The Office” is done in faux documentary fashion, where the characters often speak to the camera as if they’re being interviewed by a journalist.) Barely able to restrain himself, Kevin (played by Brian Baumgartner) says: “This thing is so awesome! It will shred anything!” On the show, the whole scene is funny and effective–and it fits in organically. After Kevin has shown the machine’s practical benefits, in keeping with the wonderfully twisted humor of “The Office,” he drops salad leaves into the MailMate. Then, he pulls out the bottom refuse bin which has a full salad ready to eat. After pouring on dressing, a coworker enters and asks, “Where’d you get that salad?” “Staples,” he says.

The most common way to integrate brands into programming is by using product placement. Instead of simply using a product as a prop or background filler, the product will be woven into the plot or dialogue of the program. For this reason, the term brand integration is more commonly used. The objective is to create a link in the viewer between the program and their product. This is also a guaranteed way for their advertising to be seen, no matter what method the viewer chooses to watch the program in.

Hottest Mom in America

Hottest Mom in America, a reality television series that auditions American women vying for the title of “Hottest Mom”, is one of the first entries by a pharmaceutical company into Branded Entertainment. The show from Buzznation studios is backed by a single sponsor Medicis Pharmaceutical, the makers of the Restylane cosmetic injection treatment.

A example of true branded entertainment is “City Hunters”, an animated TV series for AXE Body Spray. The series premiered throughout Latin America on October 2006 on the FOX network. It was co-produced by Unilever for the AXE brand. It is a male-targeted series that integrates the AXE brand into the storyline. The animated series follows the antics of an aging Casanova, Dr. Lynch, and Axel (a reference to AXE), the young man Doctor is training in the art of seducing women. The series was created by Catmandu Branded Entertainment, a branded entertainment firm in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The characters were developed by Italian illustrator Milo Manara. The series, also has an on-line component: http://www.cityhunters.tv/ar.

The difference between basic product placement and branded entertainment are the people behind the projects. If done incorrectly, “branded entertainment” becomes annoying, blatant product placement. But, if executed correctly, branded entertainment can be the most powerful tool in advertising.

There are many people who say they are experts in branded content and while the Americas in particular are highly developed in this the UK and Europe lag behind - companies in the UK are often able top provide part of the solution but not all - in order to create effective Branded Entertainment a company must offer all the attributes of marketing agency and programme maker - there are very few companies that offer this.

Branded Entertainment is not simply product advertising or product placement - branded entertainment is a piece of entertainment that perfectly aligns with the brand attributes, and is a reflection of the advertiser’s brand personality. A piece of branded entertainment for Jack Daniels, for example, doesn’t need to feature a bottle of Jack Daniels it merely has to fit within the entertainment preferences of its audience

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - With a new five-part travel series premiering Saturday on the Oxygen Network, Kahlua has accomplished what many advertisers are talking about but have yet to achieve in the branded entertainment space.

The coffee liqueur has created, produced and maintained full ownership of its own TV show, allowing it to control how its product and brand messages are portrayed.

Jeff Greenfield, an executive vice president with 1st Approach, a Boston advertising agency, specializes in product placement in movies, television and the Internet. With media growing more diverse, Greenfield said, the advertising industry is rapidly shifting to adapt.

“Non-traditional is the way to go these days,” Greenfield. “If you go back to the days when there were only a couple of channels, it was very easy to reach the majority of the country. Now, with hundreds of channels, the Internet and video games, it’s very difficult to reach everyone.”

With the media world evolving every day, companies are forced to think creatively to get their brand in the public’s eye, he said. Greenfield described Williams’ strategy as more of a novelty, or lighthearted entertainment, than an actual trend in advertising. Still, he said, creativity is key.

Representatives for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NBC’s “Today” and CBS’ “The Early Show,” all produced through their respective networks’ news divisions, say they allow no product integration of any kind. But they do feature the brand names and logos of the sponsors of their concert series on the stages where their musical acts perform. They also run billboards announcing the sponsors of their various news segments.

Looking Ahead
“Obviously, more and more content is being made available via mobile devices,” said Jaenicke. “Once we start watching movies on a phone, where is revenue going to come from? Not traditional 30-second spots, as it would be unacceptable for a consumer to have to pay bandwidth charges to watch a commercial.”

An offering that can combine free or low-cost advertising based television with mobile devices would be attractive and a good use of virtual product placement, Jaenicke believes.

“You can target the viewer demographically; for example, you can have three different versions of the same film or program to download and stream the most appropriate one to the viewer, based on knowledge obtained when they purchased their telephone,” he said.

Still, it may be too early to nail with certainty the strength and speed in which virtual product placement will travel in the mobile-device marketplace. “Mobile entertainment is only in its infancy stage,” said PQ Media’s Kivijarv, “and advertisers have to be convinced that it is a viable alternative to other media. The small screen makes the seamless integration of a product into a scene extremely difficult.”

Working together
Jeff Bell, the Chrysler group’s vice president of product strategy, says his company saw the script for Firewall in its early stages. Chrysler officials and the movie’s producers worked together on integrating the 300C and Pacifica in both the film and related ads.

“We suggested where we thought there would be opportunities to naturally and appropriately” include the vehicles, Bell told Automotive News.

“They already had (the) vehicles in the film. We said we can use this footage for promotional purposes. They made sure that when they were shooting it, they would do it in such a way that the vehicle looked great and the stars were present.”

Even a virtual soldier gets hungry sometimes. That’s why one new firm is helping Subway, the sandwich chain, embed advertisements for its $2.49 daily specials in the video game Counter Strike. The real ads - still in test mode - appear on signs an alert gamer encounters while patrolling a virtual city.

And they appear to deliver. The company, Engage In-Game Advertising, surveyed online players recently after they had encountered the ads and recorded 94 percent recall. That’s a “phenomenal” result compared with other media, says David Smith, vice president of business development for Engage in San Francisco. Subway’s sales numbers also spiked in the test market.

Product placement meant to foster brand affinity has been commonplace in video games for several years. The practice is widely embraced by gamers, who prize realism - a FedEx delivery truck as opposed to a generic one, for example, in a street-racing game.

But “this is more,” says Mr. Smith. “This is actually immersing traditional advertising, like billboards, into the games.” The ads are local-market specific, and can be updated by means of an Internet “patch.”

The move is the latest step in marketers’ ongoing bid to capitalize on the rising number of PC- and console-based games that include, if not require, an online component. It has some watchdogs worried that more ads will pitch to younger-than-intended gamers.

Though many games are targeted to older teens, members of the age 12-to-17 set are most likely to play, according to one 2004 study.

“In-game advertising is here to stay, and will increase as more games and platforms hook up to the Internet,” says Jeff Greenfield, executive vice president of 1st Approach, a marketing firm in Dover, N.H. “Gamers love the reality, and brands are excited about reaching their core demographic.” It’s a willing audience.

“This new generation of consumers does not consider its experiences ‘authentic’ unless advertising is involved,” says Mario Almonte, a vice president at Herman Associates, a public relations firm in New York.

In other words: “My placements aren’t clutter, but everyone else’s are.”

large branded companies making complete shows around their branded products. Product placement has been banned in most European countries … until now.

the growing influence of brands on the breaking of and continued success for new and established artists.

Martin Morales, head of Disney’s recorded music assets for Europe

whether brands would increasingly be looking to take an equity stake in the artists that they break/support

 – as we’ve seen this year with

P&G’s Tag Records
JV with Def Jam
Bacardi’s “signing” of top British dance act Groove Armada.

 any number of previously un-thought-of arrangements between brands and artists would arrive over the coming year.

Brands are increasingly looking to own some of the intellectual property that they help create, said Richard Kirstein, CEO of Leap Music: “It’s no longer taboo from either the artists or brands perspective to want to be in some sort of partnership together; each can help the other out.”

Anyhow, the SFS rock n’ roll tour hits Los Angeles next week for NARIP’s (National Association of Recording Industry Professionals) “Bands Brands & Beyond Expo,”

a keynote titled “Evolving Deals In Licensing & Branding: A Behind-the-Scenes Look”

Umut Özaydinli, global music marketing manager

Jared Rosenbergand, Janet Jackson’s co-manager,

brand-music space

DMI Music Branding

WE’RE ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC…

	We Have The Music - in our master catalog, record label, and the world’s largest independent music library.
	We’ll Get The Music - our music industry connections aligns you with top artists and exclusive music.
	Or We’ll Create The Music - our award-winning composers and musicians work in our state-of-the-art recording facilities to create the perfect sound for your brand.

Effektive was approached to re-brand and relaunch composer Graham Ness as a Musician who writes music for Award winning, Bafta nominated TV programmes and films.

French advertising group Havas has bought UK branded entertainment agency Cake for an undisclosed sum.The agency, founded in 1999, uses entertainment to engage brands with audiences, will work with clients alongside Havas advertising agency Euro RSCG.

Under Moses, Alliance created over 200 television programs, strategic partnerships, concert tours, endorsement deals, product placements, celebrity partnerships, television brand integration and licensing deals, and merchandising programs, with deals exceeding a total value of $1.5 billion.

“One of the most exciting areas of marketing today is branded entertainment. Entertainment, technology and advertising are merging and creating a new audience landscape and a new business model for all stakeholders. BECKER BRANDED MEDIA will specialise in the production of the more complex brand integration projects like those already well advanced in the U.S. such as branded documentaries, branded dramas and comedies, short films and targeted interstitials.”

http://www.beckers.com.au/pdf/Becker_Branded_Media_Press_Release.pdf

The reality is that music is often held hostage to budgets and other parties’ agendas, not to a set of music criteria attributable to the brand. If we can affirm that music is an integral part of a brand’s DNA then we can affirm to construct a strategy to support it.

The “sound of a brand” is more than 8 octaves or some catchy melodic identity.

But according to 1st Approach’s Greenfield, with so many high-profile integrations being given away for free, brands that spend $3 million-$5 million on a single-episode integration are “massive suckers.”

Starbucks, another brand possessing sought-after buzz, not only has won key roles in “Shrek 2,” “Miss Congeniality” and “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” but also recently was cast in a starring role for a new film in development at Universal Pictures titled “How Starbucks Saved My Life.”

Starbucks said that while cash does not change hands for its integrations, the company does give away free coffee and products for set dressing and also frequently constructs Starbucks outlets for productions.

Other luxury and iconic brands known to get placed for free include Tag Heuer and Rolex watches, Rolls Royce, Ralph Lauren, Jack Daniel’s and the American Express Centurion Black Credit Card. “Those brands will never need to pay,” Igielko-Herrlich said.

Less prominent brands, or those with a bit less cachet, that recently have appeared in film and TV for free are Stoli in “Rent,” Equifax in “Firewall,” Black & Decker AutoTape on Fox’s “Stacked” and Kodak digital cameras on Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

Many of the Apple placements, as tracked by Nielsen’s Place Views, have handed the computer company key roles in story lines: Stewie did his own rendition of the iPod black silhouette commercial in “Family Guy”; Pamela Anderson and her co-stars tried to figure out who left an iPod behind in the “Stacked” bookstore; and co-workers on “The Office” attempted to trade in their office holiday party gifts for an iPod in a yankee swap. Apple also is featured regularly on “Las Vegas,” with an iLounge populated by iPods and iMacs as a permanent part of the set.

“IPod has never paid for placement because Apple is cool,” said Ruben Igielko-Herrlich, founding partner and CEO of Propaganda Global Entertainment Marketing. “If you’re a cool brand or an affluent, prestigious brand, it’s not going to cost you what it’s going to cost fast-moving consumer products like soft drinks or detergents. When you have that kind of image and aura, you don’t pay for it.”

jfr: Ferrari

the future of integrated marketing will involve brands producing their own programs.

 ”What I tell my clients is, if you create good content, the distribution will be there….

 Greenfield is working with two companies to develop two new programs, but they will be reality shows, not scripted.

Enter Lovespring International, an improvised comedy on the Lifetime channel that catalogues the tribulations of a sputtering dating service in the digital age.

The service’s nemesis is the real-life website Perfectmatch.com, which paid for the tie-in that makes the show possible.

 It might seem that the talents behind a program in the tradition of Curb Your Enthusiasm and This Is Spinal Tap—which pillory the hypocrisy and self-seriousness of show business—would reject any kind of product integration. But the opposite is true, and not just because it provides work for actors and writers.

“When I was told about the idea, I thought it was terrific,” says Jack Plotnick, an actor on Lovespring and one of its developers, “because we needed that idea anyway”—another dating service to serve as a foil. “It’s a fun tie-in. I don’t see it as a slippery-slope kind of thing.”

Having a real-life competitor lends the show a legitimacy it wouldn’t get with a fictitious company. In general, such verisimilitude can be a creative upside to product placement.

Sam Pancake, another actor on the show, said he’d rather see a character eat Wheaties than a contrived, generic brand such as “Crunchy Flakes.” “Seeing an actor hold a can that says ‘Cola’ takes me out of a show as much as excessive product placement,” he says. Of the Perfectmatch.com tie-in, he adds, “It makes sense to me, and it doesn’t bother me. I’ve never felt that it went against me creatively.” The actors say, they are not even required to mention Perfectmatch.com in every episode.

Guy Shalem, the show’s creator, says he was pitched several ideas for product placement by Lifetime, including one for a computer company. “Not only did [the company] want to be mentioned, but also [wanted] some sort of story line,” he says. “It was asking way too much of us. We wanted flawless integration, and in Lovespring, [Perfectmatch.com] was the only company.”

Achieving a flawless integration of programming and product would appear to satisfy all parties: marketers who need to work around DVRs and consumers’ general dislike of ads; studio executives who are under pressure to boost revenue each year; writers, actors, and other artists who don’t want to blatantly promote a company’s wares within the context of a show.

the Writers Guild of America held a press conference to reiterate its objections to product placement—the practice of positioning name-brand items in a scene and weaving them into dialogue. This was the latest instance in a steady stream of disapproval by the artists’ unions, whose leadership over the past year has pushed for a say in the process and, possibly, a financial stake.

Though money is most often the bottom line, both the WGA and the Screen Actors Guild say they are most concerned about their members being contorted into—in their view—nakedly shilling for companies. Nevertheless, marketers still need to sell their products and studio executives still have to generate ad revenue, without which free television would not exist and many movies wouldn’t get made. In an ever-shifting media landscape—with new technologies competing for viewers’ attention, sometimes enabling them to avoid commercials altogether—this has become more challenging. Thus there is product placement, which has been on the rise in television and film for the past decade. Its net worth, according to the research firm PQ Media, was $3.46 billion in 2004, a 30% increase over 2003. The company also found that product placement grew at an annual rate of 16.3% from 1999 to 2004.

ICM’s concert division

the branded entertainment agencies claim, the networks have finally wrestled control of product placement from agencies and producers, then Jaffe’s prediction may have been premature.

covert celebrity marketing in action.

The Polaroid Beach House

, on a stretch of Malibu coastline known as Billionaire’s Beach, has been the site of some of the hottest celebrity parties of the summer.

So where does the marketing come in?

Hollywood’s hottest lounged on furniture from Restoration Hardware, protected their skin with sunscreen from Dermalogica and, after a quick dip in the Pacific, showered and shampooed with Alterna products. (The company’s top stylist was even on hand to give celebrity tresses a quick touchup.) They dried off with fluffy towels provided by Amazon.com and kicked back in comfy sweats from Victoria’s Secret Pink.

The party house is all about product placement.

EXPERIENCING THE BRAND

For the guests, Saturday was just a pampering day at the beach. There were no brand-touting signs in sight, no posed publicity photos, no giant bags of swag. If they liked what they saw, sat on or swam in, more info was provided. If not, no worries.

Unlike the “gifting houses” that surround film festivals and awards shows — where stars pose for promotional pictures to collect their freebies — the Polaroid Beach House offers guests a low-key way to “experience” the brands

 Jay Marose of CityPublicity, one of two PR firms behind the party house.

Jeff Greenfield, executive Vice President of 1st Approach, a Boston-based agency that specializes in getting brands into films and television.

  A team of interior designers outfitted the five-bedroom house in magazine-worthy style, with high-end beachy furniture and high-tech electronic accessories.

Then Michaels and Marose and partner Fingerprint Communications invited celebrities to use the space as a personal party locale. Stars don’t pay a dime for the access — or anything.

PERKS EQUAL BUSINESS

Even the paparazzi are part of the equation.

They lurk on the beach hoping to snap celebrity photos, so Marose provides them with a list of the house’s guests and sponsors.

If celebrities are photographed with a product, that can be worth millions to a brand,

creating buzz means knowing which buttons to push. “Screw convention,” he writes, “it’s all about attention.

buzznation

“I’m sure (Fox) could have selected any partner they wanted, so it’s interesting they didn’t pick the people with the biggest pocketbooks. It tells me they value the integrity of the film and they realize the value of nontraditional marketing and word-of-mouth.”

buzznation

Medicis isn’t fazed by her claims, calling them “unfounded” and “false,” and sees this aging demographic as too good to pass up. Consequently, trademark applications have been submitted. Testy lawyer letters have been exchanged. High-profile litigation firms have been retained. And an awkward chapter in feminist history unfolds.The fight erupted last summer around “Hottest Mom in America,” a pilot paid for entirely by the pharmaceutical company. The show’s producers auditioned thousands of moms in six cities and say they will award the “hottest” one $50,000 in scholarship and prize money, a year’s supply of Restylane and an interview with a modeling agency.

buzznation

For a guarantee, companies are now sponsoring entire episodes of a show or an entire season, [or] “branded entertainment.” On “American Idol,” we can see that Coca-Cola is integrated into the show, as the judges are seen drinking Coke on each episode. In that instance, Coke was required to purchase a large ad package, which included the product placement and a large chunk of traditional ad slots.Several studies show that not only is word-of-mouth 10 times more powerful than traditional ads, but that 54 percent of sales are attributable to the buzz generated from word-of-mouth.

buzznation

When video gamers lube their cars in Electronic Arts’ “Need For Speed Most Wanted,” they don’t use just any oil. They use Castrol Syntec. And along the 337 miles of “drivable” roads in Midway’s “L.A. Rush,” billboards hawk everything from MTV to Piloti driving shoes.

buzz nation

Prince’s attorneys withdrew from the case and he was not represented during the trial.

Eighties pop act Rick Astley was the unlikely winner of the best act ever, following a viral Internet campaign that raised his profile in the past year.

music festival packaging

ICM is one of the world’s largest talent and literary agencies, with offices in Los Angeles, New York and London. The agency, formed in 1975, represents creative and technical talent in the fields of motion pictures, television, publishing, music, live performance, branded entertainment and new media. In 2006, ICM acquired literary agency Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann. ICM is backed by private and institutional capital from Rizvi Traverse and Merrill Lynch’s Global Asset Based Finance Group respectively.

develop a wish list of potential situations and map out how it would be integrated into the music video.

Beyond Product Placement

New Age Media Concepts can work with those innovative advertisers that are looking to maximize their branding efforts through the use of entertainment.

We work closely with advertisers to pinpoint their goals and connect them with the right entertainment situations.

Shut up, you won’t be getting any money: Hollywood, quit your bitchin.’ Trade organizations such as the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild have been making a ton of noise about the process of embedding marketers into TV shows. Writers and talent want a voice in the process and, naturally, a cut of what the brands pay to get into the shows.

The demands make sense, business-wise. But the guilds need to understand that no one’s getting rich off of the deals. If anything, the marketers’ involvement in the shows are keeping the shows on the air, helping to pay for the productions and elements in the series, such as music. So far, the complaints are falling on deaf ears. Meetings between both sides aren’t taking place.

Enough with the documentaries: Mountain Dew and Burton Snowboards spent millions to produce feature-length documentaries about snowboarding. Ford Motor Co., Audi, Southern Comfort and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., among other marketers, have created documentary films or series for their dot-coms or for distribution on TV. Granted, some are actually good. But enough already. We get it: You’re a real brand that cares about real people (individuals you hope will give your brand a face). But some of these documentaries are downers. And remember, customers also like being entertained. If they’re happy, they spend more money. Sure, coming up with a scripted concept can be difficult, but isn’t that what Hollywood’s stable of writers are for? Isn’t that one of the advantages of turning to Hollywood in the first place?

Branded entertainment can make a star out of pretty much anything: Your product doesn’t have to be the newest car or the flashiest phone. Hollywood made big-screen stars out of Wonder Bread and Timex in Sony’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Stranger than Fiction,” respectively, by putting the brands front and center, working them into the plots and jointly creating smart promotional campaigns around the films. As a result, Wonder Bread sales went up, and Timex is closer to being a company that actually makes cool-looking watches.

Nothing is off-limits anymore: Animated films aimed at young audiences once were brand-free, but Universal Pictures’ “Curious George” featured a Volkswagen and Dole fruit. Last year, product placement in comic books also took off, with automakers such as Mazda, Pontiac, Dodge and Nike landing prime placements in superhero sagas. That means brands are everywhere — movies, TV shows, books and video games, web series, social-networking sites, mobile-phone series, music, and live events. Ironically, they’re all trying to rise above the clutter of traditional advertising, but they’re not realizing they’re creating even more clutter as they adopt entertainment as a nontraditional marketing tool.

If you’re attached to a hit property, don’t let go: The promotional partners around Fox’s “American Idol” know a good thing when they see it. After five seasons, Coca-Cola Co., Ford Motor Co. and Cingular Wireless are all back for another outing, making sure that rivals can’t buy their way into the show that trounces its competition each week. The $30 million to $50 million the brands pay is worth it to them. The start of the new season, Jan. 16, kicked off with a massive 37.3 million viewers, besting its premiere a year ago by 5%. Similarly, Toyota is sticking with ratings reliable “24,” 24 Hour Fitness took a gamble and won with “The Biggest Loser” and isn’t showing signs of quitting anytime soon, and Grey Goose vodka is now into its third season of the Sundance Channel’s “Iconoclasts,” a show the brand co-produces.

Actually, put your branded entertainment everywhere: If you’re spending a considerable amount of money to produce branded entertainment, make sure that it gets seen by everyone. Marketers are making the mistake of simply posting their productions on their corporate websites and hoping that word-of-mouth will attract viewers. That may have worked if you were BMW Films, but that strategy is wishful thinking these days. Post your entertainment on your website, on iTunes, YouTube, MySpace, on Xbox Live; syndicate it to Yahoo, Google, MSN or AOL.com; play it on screens in your stores or restaurants, on TV, on cellphones, in theaters before movies, on the in-flight entertainment systems on airlines. Just make sure people can see what you thought was cool enough for them to want to watch.If you’re not in a video game, you should be. Study after study says that gamers don’t mind seeing a brand in the games they’re playing and that it actually adds to the realism of the gameplay. Examples: Cars should be real cars. Characters should be wearing real clothes with logos. Stadiums should have real billboards. And the game version of TV shows should have the same brands that appear in the series. If they don’t, gamers will notice. It’s also a bad move on the part of the marketer, considering that video-game sales rose to $6.5 billion in 2006, according to industry tracker NPD Group.

Put your branded entertainment on iTunes: Starbucks last year launched Starbucks Entertainment on Apple’s iTunes service as a way to sell its music to consumers. Nike has also launched branded song selections on the service. And why not? The major TV networks have put their shows on iTunes and are generating millions of dollars in revenue as a result. To date, iTunes has sold more than 2 billion songs (roughly 5 million songs a day), 50 million TV shows and 1.3 million movies. But brands have remained largely absent from the site, representing a major missed opportunity to recoup some of the marketing dollars they’re spending to produce branded-entertainment projects such as short films or web series.

Turn your website into your own TV network: There’s no reason a brand shouldn’t get into the content-creation game anymore — especially if the content is only for its website. The audience is certainly there now, looking for compelling video to watch. Just look at the millions of people checking out random YouTube videos of cats pounding away on Apple laptops. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, more than 100 million people, as of November 2006, connect to the web via broadband from their homes — that figure represents 78% of the country. And 90% of workplaces have broadband connections. That usage, and the appeal of the content itself, helped make Amazon.com’s weekly web talk show “Fish Bowl,” hosted by Bill Maher, a hit with consumers last year.

Want to tie-in with a hit reality show? Go to Bravo: With “Queer Eye,” “Project Ruway,” “Blow Out,” “Work Out” and “Top Chef” under its belt, Bravo has proved it knows what it’s doing when it comes to developing reality concepts that can attract a sizable audience and become franchises while lending themselves well to branded integrations. Marketers either sponsor the entire season or back individual tasks. But the difference between the shows and reality fare on other networks is that the integrations actually make sense. “Top Design,” in which interior designers go head to head, and hair-style-themed “Shear Genius” are up next, and they each have a stable of brands on board.

Ever since wireless carriers began selling full-track song downloads about two years ago, record labels have been waiting for the mythical “hockey stick”—the surge in sales that would turn growth from flat to vertical.

Brandweek

brand marketing

 no one put it into clearer perspective than Chris Lighty, CEO of Violator Management and Brand Asset Group,

He referred to “mass” and “cool” as “the elusive combination” that is necessary for successful band/brand partnerships.

Violator’s artist roster includes Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott and 50 Cent.

For each artist, Lighty provided examples of brand partnerships.

The big news was 50 Cent’s new, separate partnerships with Pontiac, Absolut Black and GNC.
50 Cent’s “360-degree brand immersion” with Pontiac focuses on “gorilla strategic marketing,”
 The business deal encompasses “cooler” product placement in music videos, print and viral ad campaigns and hybrid tour sponsorship/marketing platforms.
The latter debuts at the Pontiac Garage Concert in Miami and coincides with the VMAs.
The rapper is also helping to design Pontiac’s new G6 street edition.

Though 50 Cent doesn’t drink alcohol, the new Absolut Black will appear in an upcoming music video.
 It is one part of a larger arrangement between 50 Cent, the vodka company and Vitaminwater’s new Vitamin Energy drink.
A new print ad campaign, Absolut Energy, is scheduled to debut in the coming weeks.

With his Formula 50 Vitaminwater a success, the artist is now branching out into vitamin supplements
with an as yet unknown manufacturer/distributor.
If all goes according to plan, the line of 50-branded protein powders and amino fat burners will be sold exclusively at GNC stores.

Fans of LL Cool J

 will be pleased to learn that the artist is taking his Todd Smith high-end clothing line into big boxes in the coming months. A lower-priced Todd Smith collection is currently being tested at Sam’s Club locations nationwide. A full launch arrives at Wal-Mart in time for the holiday season.

“Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer today,”
 ”And no one from hip-hop is speaking to this consumer.


the multi-tasking 18-35 male demo

 ”You just need to be fishing where the fish are,”

VP of media, sports and Internet entertainment at Pepsi-Cola North America

Madison Avenue 2.0 discussion

the
marriage of branded entertainment with sponsors

Branded Entertainment

Hosted by The Nielsen Company and Dow Jones, Media and Money brings together the very best, most important and forward-thinking leaders in media, entertainment and finance. Media and Money provides an honest, executive-level examination of the evolving media and entertainment landscape, its challenges and its opportunities.

AEG is one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world

AEG LIVE views itself as an extension of the artist’s career team including the manager, agent, and label. Our goal is to join forces with the artist and to work with them to develop a strategy to achieve career elevation and stability while maximizing box office revenue. Rather than simply being a promoter and a bank, we become a strategic investor in an artist’s career by providing marketing services and, when required, production infrastructure that enhances the value of the “live” aspect of an artist’s performance.

AEG LIVE provides comprehensive and customizable services that maximize ticket sales and drive revenue-generating opportunities.

prudent fiscal management

commitment to quality

AEG LIVE has promoted tours by music’s most popular artists.

     
    In 2005 over $700 million event tickets were sold making AEG the 2nd –largest live entertainment company in the world.

    AEG LIVE promotes tours

    AEG LIVE produces, markets, and services individual concerts in local markets, and owns, operates and programs venues on a local level.

    AEG LIVE creates, conceptualizes, and produces internationally acclaimed music/lifestyle festivals such as the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

AEG Worldwide

Welcome to AEG Worldwide

Jang Geun-seok’s hair-product music video, and So Ji-sub’s cable-TV commercial), Korea’s got a way with branded entertainment. Western entertainment may produce engaging commercials, but they’re still always commercials first and foremost. Product placement is rampant and increasing everywhere (a friend who works on a U.S. television show tells me the writers routinely get notes from the studio about writing storylines around whichever cell phone they’ve got contracts with), but this kind of elaborate branding is something Korea’s integrated much more thoroughly (dare I say insidiously?).

Summer Days, for instance, is touted as ad campaign, short film, drama and music video all rolled into one, to unfold in seven episodes (each approx 4 minutes long; total running time is 30 minutes). They’ve brought on CF director Jo Won-seok and hired music director Yoo Hee-yeol, aka the singer-songwriter also recording under the name Toy. On top of that, we have three name actors, Hyun Bin, Shin Mina, and Ryu Seung-beom, acting out this adver-story about “love, friendship and conflict.”

After a month in operation, Poptub has more than 100 content segments produced, with several released each day. The programming mix ranges from cheeky interviews with YouTube-bred sensations such as Obama Girl and What the Buck host Michael Buckley to more conventional red-carpet coverage of Hollywood releases including Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. There’s also a weekly ratings report that ticks down the top draws on YouTube.

Will music take on greater importance as a brand platform, since it’s a reasonable assumption that consumers may be more likely to share music than other forms of content?

Video: Denny’s Gets Into Music With Feed-a-Band Marketing Strategy

Nov 7, 2008, 06:40 PM ETNASHVILLE — There is credence to ongoing speculation that Michael Jackson might be booked for a long engagement at the O2 Arena in London, though no deal has been reached nor performances contracted.

The Hollywood Reporter - Charts - Music News - Music Industry

A good indication of how much growth there’s been on the branded content front is the fact that there’s now an awards show to honor creativity in the field.

 One Show awards have honored excellence in advertising for over 30 years, but this is the first time they’ve been held outside New York and the first time they’ve focused exclusively on the new arena of branded entertainment.

Among the finalists whose branded activities are up for consideration are such companies as MTV, Adidas, Coca-Cola, HBO, Nike and Freixenet. (Peter & Mats?)

The winning entries in addition to being awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Pencils will be added to The Paley Center’s collection of over 140,000 television and radio programs, ads and new media content.

For some insights into where branded entertainment is going and what it means to Hollywood,

Mary Warlick, producer of the awards show and chief executive officer of the New York-based The One Club

the shift in power from those who make and distribute entertainment products to those who consume them

 ”Essentially, it’s a ‘pull generation’ that we’re looking to reach. The task at hand has been to reach an audience that has essentially tuned out or that has been empowered to tune out and may or may not be receptive to the message your brand has.”

Once you’ve managed to reach them your job is to entertain them long enough so they will listen to a message about your product or brand

 ’pull generation,’

Our entertainment system is set up now so you can really tune out if you want to.

“It used to be that if you wanted to watch the 6:30 news you had to be home on the couch at 6:30 in front of your TV.
But now you have a wide array of options. You have the web news bytes (and) headlines on your Blackberry or your iPhone. You can record the evening news and (watch) it any time you want to or you can simply tune in to a 24-hour cable (news) network.”

“Rather than messaging by intruding into the house, your branded message has to be invited in. We can call branded entertainment ‘invitation only.’   (som TV-reklamen)

Timeshifting
The person the advertiser is trying to reach (is in many cases) multi-tasking. They have the television on. They’re surfing the web. And at the same time she is probably text messaging her friends about what she’s about to buy. This is a whole new model. Reaching this new consumer — this sort of elusive consumer — is what branded entertainment is about.”

There also are ways in which brands can work with movies

“The Key to Reserva,” directed by and starring Martin Scorsese, which was made for the sparkling Spanish wine Freixenet.

The film, which runs about five minutes, has its roots in classic Hitchcock suspense thrillers like “North by Northwest” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”
— age for short stories —

“For movies, the original trendsetter was BMW Films online

You had to go to the website and download BMWFilms.com to see these films. And they were engaging and exciting enough that people did it. It wasn’t about product placement. It wasn’t about James Bond driving the M Series (from BMW).”
(??)

example of branded entertainment involving mainstream movies

Asked about product placement, in which companies pay money to get their products shown in scenes in movies and television shows

One Show Entertainment is specifically drawing the distinction between

There are successful product placements, but branded entertainment is about entertainment that the brand essentially serves as a vehicle for (itself).”

How does the brand benefit? ”

Hasbro certainly (introduced) the toys and gave them a tremendous creative spotlight.

Branded entertainment is successful for the brand. (Another example is) the TV series ‘The Gamekillers,’ which is produced by Unilever for AXE deodorant for young men. That gave (the brand) a long exposure in a very witty reality show that is a sexy show (on MTV) for the target audience. You know, 25 to 30 year old men are not always in front of their television sets.”

Branded entertainment is weaving a brand into the content

It’s not interrupting the programming. It is the programming. And when it’s done well, it’s done very, very well.

Some of the most creative people in the advertising industry and in the entertainment industry are joining forces (to create branded entertainment) and the teamwork and the partnering is turning out a really terrific strong product.

“I think it’s a way to, perhaps, lessen some of the production costs if they share this with a (branded entertainment) client. And I think it’s an opportunity to come with original storylines, as well, that they haven’t thought of yet. Every movie is its own unique product. Clients can bring more to the table than simply screenplays. It would work in the way that ‘Transformers’ worked or in the way that the mini-movie for Freixenet worked. There’s also ‘installations’ and there’s also gaming. Branded entertainment exists across several different media.”

“Installations would be like what HBO did in New York (when it) set up a projection on a wall where you could be a voyeur and see different scenes going on in people’s living rooms and then you go to a website and follow the story.

put on by Nike

‘Welcome Snoop’)

Freixenet’s

Navistar documentary
(International LoneStar’s ‘Drive and Deliver’)

 online branded entertainment

There’s also an awards category for online gaming to honor websites or banners that incorporate a brand as an integral component of a videogame.

Another awards category celebrates the integration of a brand in a music environment intended for commercial release with such nominees as Apple, Coca-Cola and McDonalds.

  we recognize creative excellence in advertising and we recognize creative excellence in design and interactive and we’re excited to be recognizing creative excellence in branded entertainment.

 It’s important that we understand there is a distinction between branded entertainment and product placement. And it’s important to understand that this field is just in the beginning  — and it’s going to grow

First awards set for branded entertainment