Entries from January 2008 ↓

Today is the official launch of PlaceMyProduct.com.

What does Place MyProduct.com do? It is, simply, an auction marketplace to sell your ad inventory to the highest bidder. It could be an advertisement, a sponsorship, a product placement.

Create a profile. And your auctions take place on your profile page. All current and future auctions take place on the exact same page. You can even post a wideget (See the top-right of this blog) that will automatically link to your auctions as you post them.

Why sell ads by auction rather than use an online ad network? Simply put, you’ll make more money. For example, take an ad block that you have on your website or blog and see how much money you earned from it in the previous month. Then, figure out how much you need to start your auction at to make the same amount of money from an auctioned ad as you did via the ad network. Then, create an auction and start the auction at that amount. It’s free to post an auction so there’s nothing to lose. If you get just one bid, you will earn as much as you did in the previous month. If you get more than one bid, you will earn more.

Unlike an ad network, YOU decide what shape or form the ad takes. It doesn’t need to be a standard banner ad or text link ad. It could, but it doesn’t have to. This is where you can get creative. And, it can be for a time period that you choose. You can auction a 1-week ad, a 1-month ad, a 2-month ad, a permanent ad; it’s totally up to you.

Examples of Ads, sponsorships, or product placements that could be auctioned on PlaceMyProduct.com:

• Banner ads: The most traditional of online ads
• Text Link Ads: Another mature market
• Site Or Blog Sponsorships: Something that you could really get creative with
• Product Placement In Online Video Or Podcasts: This is great, especially if you’re a popular Youtube video producer. You may have heard that Paris Hilton received just $5,000 in ad-sharing revenue from Youtube for 25 million views in a three month period. With that type of audience you should earn way more. But how? Try product placement. Product placement could be anything from mentions to an actual physical product in the video, something like this Mahalo Daily trailer. Spot the Diet Coke in front of Jason Calacanis? This isn’t really a product placement since Diet Coke really didn’t pay for it. But it, just as well, could have been. And, it could have been auctioned on PlaceMyProduct.com. ** If you don’t want to watch the video, here’s a screenshot:
  
• Podcast Sponsorships: How do you make money on podcast sponsorships? Speaking of Calacanis, he had the right idea in this blog post, except that it’s much more efficient to auction it off to the highest bidder. And, you can still donate the proceeds to charity!

Those are just a few examples of making money online by selling ads by auction. Of course this applies to all ads, sponsorships, and product placements, even offline. Some examples: ads in a community newspaper, kids soccer team sponsorship, billboard ads, radio spots… This post has No Rating

My favorite product placement is when the product placement becomes part of the comedy. It’s happened in Wayne’s World, it’s happened in 30 Rock. Now, check out this one for Tab soda from The Sarah Silverman Program. This is my favorite one to date:

I doubt Tab paid for this one. I would think it’s Sarah Silverman just being funny, as she always is.

Nielsen Media tracks occurences of product placement in televison shows. For the first three quarters of 2007, the following are the top 10 TV shows on broadcast networks with the most occurences of product placement, according to data from Nielsen Media:

• American Idol: 4,349 occurences (No doubt, helped out by Coca-Cola cups sitting in front of the judges, like Paula Abdul)
• Fast Cars & Superstars: 3,231 occurences (The title of the series debut was “The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race.” When the title of the very first episode has product placement in it, you know there’ll be a lot of product placement coming)
• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: 2,082 occurences (Perfect show for home furnishings stores and manufacturers)
• America’s Next Top Model: 2,070 occurences (Great place for fashion designers to get their clothing and accessories placed)
• Pussycat Dolls: The Search For The Next Doll: 1,934 occurences (anybody care for some Caress’ Exotic Oil Infusion body wash???)
• The Amazing Race: All Stars: 1,893 occurences (Travelocity was one of the main sponsors of the show)
• Deal or No Deal: 1,827 occurences (You know when the banker calls Howie on the phone? In the Canadian edition of Deal Or No Deal, that phone was the “Rogers’ Line”)
• Hell’s Kitchen: 1,755 occcurences (Great place to get your stuff placed if you are a food manufacturer)
• Beauty and the Geek: 1,496 occurences
• So You Think You Can Dance: 1,409 occurences (Had new songs by pop artists featured on the show)

I really can’t believe The Apprentice didn’t make the list. I thought it’d be a shoe in.

Side note: Coca-Cola appeared 3,157 times in TV programming during the first 9 months of 2007 and Dell computers appeared 773 times.