The future of virtual product placement

Inspired by my last post, I found an extremely interesting article about virtual product placement. Recently, billboards at certain sports events have been using virtual advertisements. They make advertisements appear on billboards, but the ads aren't really there. If you were watching the sports event on television, and Ford was trying to make a push for their product in your area, you would see a Ford ad up on the billboard. If you were in a different area and Toyota was trying to make a push for their product in that area, you would see a Toyota ad. This helps marketers reach their specific target groups effectively, and helps the sports event get a variety of promoters.

Another example of where virtual product placement can take place is in the movies. While filming, an actor can be drinking soda from a solid color can. Later during post production, they can place product names on to that solid color can. The distributor of the movie can sell advertising space by adding digital tags on to objects that marketers can put brand names. The technology is similar to Photoshop, where advertisers can change the tags.

Marketers are discussing the idea about adding virtual product placement in old movies. Although they could successfully add the brand names into old movies, they are worried that the ads might affect the movies in a negative way. Eventually, virtual product placement will be available for all advertisers to use and won't be expensive. Researchers are also talking about how viewers will probably be able to skip the ads placed in movies using similar technology.

This article blew my mind. Just when you think advertising has reached its peak, more and more opportunities develop.

Check it out: http://www.ad-mkt-review.com/public_html/air/ai200008.html

If you have opinions on the subject, let me know!