Virtual product placement in animated video

Described as the world's first virtual product placements in a music video, Ambrosia, a niche branded entertainment agency, uses the music video to draw attention to Nokia's new line of Purity by Monster headphones.

"In a live action music video, product placements are recognised quite easily, but the risk you run with an animated product placement is people assuming objects in the stylised virtual world are not real." explains Ambrosia's MD, Ulrico Grech-Cumbo.

"Associate logos with real-world products"

"However, in our focus group research, we discovered that people's minds seemed to subconsciously want to recognise logos in music videos and associate logos with real-world products. We used this finding in the final cut of "La Vida" and every one of our 125 sample group respondents recognised that it was a real product."

Because of the importance of measurement in modern marketing, the agency helps quantify the PR Rand value and ROI of music video product placements, with a developed real-time reporting system. This has helped qualify its stance that strategic product placement for certain brands can yield far more value than a traditional (and often ignored) 30-second spot.

Product placements hold other benefits such as perceived endorsements by popular artists and creating content for brands such as Nokia to leverage through their integrated channels.