Hollywood Honchos Discuss Brand Integration

Richard Horgan writes a piece (CORRECTED URL) in Filstew.com about how Hollywood muscle works with advertisers to achieve brand integration through product placement and other methods. The piece centers on a panel discussion that occurred during Digital Hollywood, a three-day technology conference held in Los Angeles this week. The four panel members - Mitchell Kanner (IEG), Sandy Climan (Entertainment Media Ventures), Michael Nyman (Bragman, Nyman, Cafarelli), Devery Holmes (Norm Marshall Associates) and Irwin Gotlieb (Group M) - seem to understand what's happening in terms of the shift from traditional :30 advertising to a method that firmly embeds the creative message within the content of the medium.

It's heartening to see these discussions taking place yet disheartening to know that most ad agencies don't see where this is going. There is much talk surrounding the "death of the :30" which may be a bit overblown but it is not far from the truth. The means by which marketers communicate with consumers will change dramatically over the next ten years. If agencies do not quickly become part of that conversation, they may not be part of the marketing process much longer.