December 29th, 2007
Tyson benefits in Makeover giveaway
By David Irvin
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
An impoverished family in Camden, N. J., wasn’t the only winner when Tyson Foods Inc. pledged a year’s supply of meat on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Consumer opinion of the Springdale meat producer improved greatly from the realityshow appearance in November, officials at New York-based IAG Research said this week.
An analysis firm that tracks the success of television commercials through nationwide surveys, IAG found that Tyson’s televised meat giveaway was the most effective brand integration of the year, eclipsing integration campaigns by Soft Scrub, Kraft, Nexxus and Visa.
Brand integration is a marketing strategy whereby an advertiser pays a network to place products or brand images into a show’s content.
In recent years, ABC became aware of Tyson’s hunger relief campaigns and offered opportunities for Tyson to give away food on Home Edition, a show based on helping families that have endured great poverty, tragedy or disability.
In the Nov. 11 episode, Tyson delivered $ 60, 000 worth of meat to a church and food bank in Camden. The company gave $ 13, 500 of meat and coupons to Victor Marrero, a single father of five with a severe heart condition.
“If well done [brand integration ] can be very, very effective on impacting consumer’s attitudes about a brand,” Carolyn Rehbock, Tyson’s vice president of insights and innovation, said Friday. “We are very encouraged about this particular study.” Since U. S. consumers are inundated with marketing messages, many tune out — either psychologically or with the volume control — when TV commercials come on, said David Kaplan, senior vice president of research and product development at IAG.
Product-integration campaigns have become increasingly important as advertisers try to get their messages heard in this noisy media environment, he said. Tyson paid a “modest” fee to appear on Home Edition in November, Rehbock confirmed.
“What we’ve seen a lot is when advertisers align themselves with these feel-good programs, they seem to benefit in terms of an improved brand opinion,” Kaplan said.
However, with the rise of product-integration campaigns, some advocacy groups are calling for full disclosure. Robert Weissman, managing director for Commercial Alert, a Washington-based anti-commercialism group, said networks are deceiving consumers by placing products and brands into programming.
“The general issue we’ve raised is that companies are engaging in these product placements and viewers are unaware they are essentially viewing an advertisement, rather than a product just organically appear- ing,” Weissman said.
“The basic principle is you can’t advertise to people without them knowing that they are being advertised to,” Weissman said.
In response, Commercial Alert launched a campaign demanding that networks disclose when a featured brand has been placed for a fee. He encourages concerned consumers to send an e-mail to the Federal Communications Commission from the Commercial Alert Web site.
Another example of this marketing strategy is the conspicuous placement of Coca-Cola on the judges’ table on Fox’s American Idol. It’s no coincidence that producer Simon Cowell takes a swig of the classic drink after firing barbs at the amateur singers, Weissman said.
It was also no accident when the deluded character Dwight on NBC’s hit show The Office created an avatar in the online game called Second Life. That product placement ranked No. 8 on IAG’s list for 2007. Food product placements on Donald Trump’s NBC program, The Apprentice, and Bravo’s Top Chef also scored in IAG’s top 10 for the year.
The Tyson appearance generated a score of 394 on IAG’s brand opinion index, nearly four times the average.
Though Tyson isn’t currently working on any other integration deals, the placements on Home Edition have worked well, Rehbock said. A study by Tyson’s media agency found that brand placements are 50 percent more cost effective than just buying a regular commercial, she said. But giving that meat away wasn’t just about marketing, she said. “As we got into discussions with ABC this year, the cast and crew spoke so fondly about that [previous ] product integration, and how Tyson’s hunger relief fit in with the spirit of the work that they are doing with the show,” Rehbock said. Since 2000, Tyson has given away 50 million pounds of poultry, pork and beef as part of its hunger relief efforts, which equals about 200 million meals, Tyson spokesman Libby Lawson said.