Everybody (well almost!) has heard of product placement in content along with its pros & cons. Today's digital content creators can "embed" computer generated images of products within the content - giving rise to a new form of product placement. This is likely to spawn a new generation of digital content with images of virtual products which may be 'placed' in the back or fore ground. And shifted or removed. Or even replaced with ease.

The Virtual World
U.S. trade industry magazine Television Week reports that Warner Bros. Television has a plan to insert computer-created images of branded products into TV programs - with initial test marketing most likely to be repeat shows & comedies.

This means that a re-run of a program may display a branded cola which was not present in the original screening. Or a branded shampoo may suddenly become visible on a washroom countertop. And perhaps at a later date, computer generated images of virtual actors may even replace the real ones!

Seriously, with Warner Bros. reportedly having signed deals with two product marketers, it seems a matter of before we see virtual product placement in action. And if they do their job well enough, we should find it hard to distinguish between real & virtual product placement.

The Digital World
Of course, these developments are natural by-products of "digitalization". Digitalization by its very nature gives rise to easy replication & addressability. Take the telecom industry - which till a few years ago was mosly analog. Today, most networks being digital, it is possible to trace callers with ease (something not easily possible in analog networks). Tele-conversations are stored by default & can be played back with relative ease (called 'telephone tapping' in analog networks). And digital copies of tele-conversations can also be forwarded.

What is true for telecom is now becoming true for audio-visual content. Till recently, content creators & TV broadcasters did not embrace digitalization simply because digital content is easy to replicate and share, making it easy to pirate. But today, the television industry is well on its way to becoming digital, as is the movie business. (Presumably they are banking on Digital Rights Management software to help prevent or at least minimalize piracy.) With digital content being the default, we can expect more such innovations which utilize the basic properties of digital products.

The Gaming World
To get an idea of what television content may end up looking like, it may be a good idea to take a look at the gaming industry. Many of today's new RPGs (role playing games) are exceptional quality video content based on real-looking virtual characters set in an equally real-looking virtual world.

Banners and billboards clearly display different branded products as we race down crowded streets. What's more, today it is easily possible to place product banners dynamically in each run of a game with the help of the Internet.

End Game
As advertising & marketing gets more "subtle & subliminal", we can expect more branded products to pop up in movies & sitcoms but with a difference - sometimes products will disappear after a period (based on contracts with marketers) or even replaced with competitors. And some "adult" products may appear only in late night re-runs.

Relax, all you can do is lay back & watch!