Product Placements Can Be Fragile

TV Networks, Advertisers
Find Many Campaigns
Need Frequent Retooling

In the past two seasons, Ford cars and trucks featured on the Fox television drama "24" helped the show's lead character save the world from a nuclear bomb and germ warfare. Both marked peak performances in the young and ever-accelerating history of product placement.

But now, Ford Motor has moved on and will take a lower profile when the drama begins its new season in January. Instead, Ford is switching its focus to similar campaigns with other shows, including "American Dreams" on General Electric's NBC.

Ford's decision highlights one of the emerging lessons of the product-placement boom: the deals are extremely fragile. While it's great marketing at a time when fewer consumers pay attention to traditional TV ads, the efforts need to evolve much more quickly than ordinary ad campaigns. In the traditional world of buying 30-second TV commercials, successful partnerships can go on indefinitely: GE has advertised on "Meet the Press" for years. But TV networks and advertisers are finding that elaborate product-placement campaigns need to be constantly reinvented.

Ford's solution is to look elsewhere. The auto maker's vehicles will be seen on other programs in coming months, including "Alias" on Walt Disney's ABC. But Ford's most noticeable move was scheduled to take place last night on "American Dreams." As part of its sponsorship, Ford's famous Mustang was scheduled to appear in 1960s-era print and TV car ads featured in the episode. The emotional episode dealt with the return of a character who had been off fighting in the Vietnam War.

"You've got to keep coming up with new ideas," says Tom Cordner, co-president and executive creative director at WPP Group's J. Walter Thompson Detroit, which helped Ford set up the "24" collaboration.

Ford's partnership with "24" broke new ground in product placement. When it started in the 2002-03 season, the show's second, the auto maker's vehicles were featured in the program and Ford also sponsored a commercial-free broadcast of the season premiere. Instead of running ads during the premiere, Fox ran longer-than-usual Ford ads at the start and finish of the broadcast. For the 2003-04 season, Ford again sponsored a commercial-free premiere, but this time commercials before and after the show were written to imitate the plot lines of the program. The main character in the ad, named "Mr. Bauer" after the lead character in the show, drives a Ford F-150 truck, which is what Ford wanted to promote last season.

Ford's Mustang appeared along with star Kiefer Sutherland (near right) in a scene last season on'24.

Still, the campaign hit certain obstacles. Fox found the commercial-free sponsorships difficult to maintain. The network had to give its affiliates ad time elsewhere on its schedule to make up for time they lost in the commercial-free broadcast, says Jon Nesvig, president of sales at News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting. While Ford will advertise on the coming fourth season of "24" and will keep its vehicles in the show, it won't do another commercial-free sponsorship for the two-hour premiere Jan. 9

The two sides also found themselves at odds over certain creative decisions. Ford wanted lead actor Kiefer Sutherland to drive its F-150 truck last season, but the people behind "24" decided a truck wasn't realistic for a government agent, says Tim Iacofano, one of the program's producers. Instead, Mr. Sutherland's Jack Bauer often was seen in a Ford Expedition sport-utility vehicle. But the producers did find ways to show Bauer's partner, Chase Edmunds, driving an F-150 in certain episodes.

"We tended to push their comfort levels in terms of the things people will do or say relative to a vehicle," acknowledges Rich Stoddart, who oversees advertising and consumer-marketing strategies for the auto maker's Ford division brand vehicles.

Ford doesn't seem as involved in how its vehicles are used this coming season, Mr. Iacofano says. "If anything, it seems to me there is a little less emphasis on the product placement," he says. Last season, Ford's desire to showcase its F-150 was part of the discussions, he says. Now, "this year, it's just like, 'Here's the stuff, and go to it.' I haven't gotten a lot of input or recommendation on how we should do it."