The line between advertisers and entertainment producers is rapidly blurring in China, as many brands go online with their own films and Web series, taking advantage of the shortage of popular shows on China’s state-controlled TV.

Increasingly, advertisers are moving from being mere sponsors of online entertainment to building plots around their products. Among the latest to jump on the bandwagon is French liquor company Pernod Ricard SA. In late April, Pernod launched an interactive online movie to promote one of its cognac brands, Martell Noblige.

Called “Style, Experience,” the film plays like a watered-down homage to James Bond and “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” The plot centers around a crucial day in the life of Ken, a dashing Shanghai native who tools around in a BMW, lives in a gunmetal-gray bachelor pad and has plenty of rich-boy toys.

Viewers determine the plot and length of the movie, which can last from eight to 18 minutes, as they “help” the hero make choices that could ultimately result in him getting promoted and winning the girl, or ending up dateless and jobless. (The movie airs on Martell’s local Web site http://www.martellnoblige.com.cn.)

Product placement, while hardly subtle, isn’t intrusive, with cognac bottles lurking in the background as Ken—played by talk-show host Bai Xuxu—dates and otherwise disports himself, backed by a sophisticated soundtrack.

The movie marks the culmination of a yearlong digital-ad campaign by Pernod, in which the company, among other things, sent bloggers to various Chinese cities to review trends.

Pernod won’t disclose the cost of the campaign, which is intended to help establish Martell Noblige in China’s $37 billion-a-year spirits market. China is the world’s second-largest cognac market in terms of volumes consumed, behind the U.S., according to researcher Euromonitor International.

Pernod has established a strong foothold in the Chinese market, overtaking Rémy Cointreau Group for second place, with 26% market share, compared with Rémy’s 20%, as of 2007, the latest data available from Euromonitor. Both companies still lag behind leader LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which holds a 44% market share.

Pernod’s Martell Noblige is relatively new to China’s cognac consumers, who are more familiar with Martell VSOP and XO. Noblige is typically served in mixed drinks, and is intended for a much younger audience, says Yann Lombard-Platet, managing director at ad agency Nurun, which created the campaign. “The way to engage this audience is to provide entertainment and content,” he says.

It’s something Chinese audiences don’t seem to mind. “People in China have fewer options for entertainment. They think, ‘So long as you give me something interesting, I don’t mind if your brand somehow shows up,’ which is something that viewers in the U.S. or Europe would be less receptive to,” said Chris Reitermann, president of OgilvyOne China, a unit of ad holding company WPP.

Last year, Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods maker Unilever launched a Chinese version of ABC-TV’s comedy “Ugly Betty,” called “Ugly Wudi,” with plotlines that plug Dove soap. Earlier this year, Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures Television International kicked off “Sufei’s Diary,” a Chinese twist on “Sofia’s Diary,” a Web series that originated in Portugal; the Chinese version touts Sony and Clinique products in three-minute daily episodes.

The Martell ad campaign attempts to engage this online audience longer. “A movie of 15 minutes allows an audience to sit and think what it is they are doing, rather than passively looking. In a two-minute miniseries, there’s hardly any time,” says Mr. Lombard-Platet.

The difficulty is assessing the effectiveness of these new digital initiatives. So far, the Martell Noblige Web site has received 1.2 million visitors, as measured by Google Analytics, a modest number by China standards.

However, a quarter of the audience spent more than 25 minutes on the site, and 40% of those viewers returned to watch the movie again, which suggests a relatively strong level of engagement.

Nurun, a division of Canada’s Quebecor Media Group, said Web chatter about Martell Noblige has increased threefold since the campaign started. But Nurun is still assessing the quality of the buzz to determine how much of the chatter is positive, and if the campaign has made viewers more predisposed to buy the product.

Coca-Cola Co.’s Nestea brand is the sole sponsor of a series being released this summer that, on the face of it, seems routine.

The series has experienced actors and an award-winning director. It’s set in an office environment, a familiar backdrop for primetime shows.

But don’t look for this show, titled “CTRL,” on TV. And don’t look for Nestea commercial breaks before or during the program. “CTRL” is part of a new slate of Webisodes delivered exclusively through digital outlets — Internet sites, video on demand and gaming consoles. And Nestea isn’t part of the credits; it’s part of the story.

The Webisode fits well with Nestea’s goal of winning over millennials, 18- to 34-year-olds, said Annis Lyles, vice president of media and interactive for Coca-Cola North America. That generation of consumers is increasingly getting their media in bits and pieces through the Internet, she said.

“It was the right place at the right time for the brand,” Lyles said. “We felt like it would differentiate us from other brands and allow us to really form a new relationship with a very important target [audience].”

The “CTRL” Webisode, due out in mid-July, is written and directed by Canadian film-maker Rob Kirbyson. It’s based on his short film, “CTRL Z,” which won an award at last year’s Sundance film festival. Tony Hale, previously in Fox’s “Arrested Development,” is the lead character.

This form of “branded entertainment,” or product appearances, has been growing for years on TV and likely will grow on the Internet, said Dean DeBiase, chief executive officer of TNS Media, a New York firm that tracks ad spending.

“It’s another way in a very crowded advertising space to elegantly place products in programming,” DeBiase said.

Webisodes create new opportunities for advertisers because they can have interactive features, such as links to online games, that further drive home the company’s message, DeBiase said.

“The difference between branded entertainment on TV and branded entertainment on the Web is that it can be much more dynamic,” he said.

They also have one major attraction for media companies. “This is another way to solve the question: How do you make money on the Internet?” DeBiase said.

NBC Universal Digital Studio launched its first online series last year, “Gemini Division.” It pitched earlier this year a slate of Webisode programming, about five shows.

“CTRL” is the first series of that slate announced with a sponsor, Nestea. It will be distributed through such outlets as NBC.com, USANetwork.com and Hulu.com.

The challenge is to weave Nestea credibly into the plot while making sure the writer and director maintain creative control, said Cameron Death, vice president of NBC Universal Digital Studio. The show’s producers worked closely with Coca-Cola on the Nestea product placement, he said.

“But we really want to let Rob, in this case, do what he does best, which is tell great stories and work out how and where the brand comes to play in a unique and creative way,” Death said.

In one scene in “CTRL,” Nestea is spilled on the main character’s keyboard, unlocking special powers.

“It’s all about being organic to the experience,” said Lyles, who is Coca-Cola North America’s vice president of media and interactive marketing. “It should be part of the experience as they watch the Webisode.”

“CTRL” also had to fit into a broader Nestea marketing campaign, tagged “Liquid Awesomeness,” she said. Billboards, print ads and in-store displays also are part of the campaign, but Nestea has no plans for traditional TV.

Imagine heading to Boston’s Gillette Convention Center, or the Coca-Cola Exhibition Center. Under a state Senate proposal, local parks and pools could be named after neighborhood hardware stores or pharmacies.

“Why not?” said Senate minority leader Richard Tisei, a Republican from Wakefield.

“If it gets the parks open and gets the pools open and brings some money into the state, why not? It’s not a bad idea.”

Although such attempts have failed several times, the Senate’s Republican Caucus has resurrected the naming-rights proposal as a way to help the state balance its finances in the worst budget process in recent history.

An amendment to the Senate’s supplemental budget that would allow for naming rights passed 36 to 3. If the measure is included in a House and Senate compromise budget, the proposal could be sent to Governor Deval Patrick for approval.

Under the plan, the state secretary of administration and finance would solicit bids for naming rights on state facilities in which it would be “appropriate” or “not otherwise prohibited by law.” Tisei said the law is not meant to solicit bids to name the State House, but perhaps buildings with a lesser profile, such as the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

He noted a 2007 Globe story in which one analyst estimated that the naming rights to the center could yield more than $500,000 a year. A representative of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which operates the state-subsidized Convention and Exhibition Center, could not be reached for comment yesterday but an official has said in past interviews that no market exists for naming rights to convention centers. The official said worthwhile naming rights are reserved for sporting centers.

Health groups have called on the Federal Government to ban the junk-food industry’s free toy and competition offers often used to promote fast-food meal deals and sugary cereals to children.

The Obesity Policy Coalition, which includes VicHealth, Cancer Council Victoria and Diabetes Australia, believes the persuasive marketing tactics should only be used to advertise healthy food and drink to reduce the nation’s rising childhood obesity rate.

Under a ban, food ranging from cereal and chocolate to soft drinks and meal deals could not use free toy, competition or celebrity-endorsed promotions if the food did not meet government-approved nutrition standards.

“We need to produce a level playing field where all those who produce junk food are not allowed to market to kids in this way,” said Jane Martin, the Obesity Coalition’s senior policy adviser. “It is all very well to talk about trying to increase physical activity in schools, but we really have to look at other ways that are creating demand for foods for children which are not healthy to be eating.

“It’s all about sales and we need to decrease sales of unhealthy foods and ensure that there are more sales of healthy foods using these very techniques.”

The call comes as a survey, commissioned by the Obesity Policy Coalition and conducted by Cancer Council Victoria, revealed that more than 90 per cent of Australians think the Government needs to regulate the use of giveaways to promote unhealthy food and drink. The survey showed 55 per cent believe those practices should be stopped.

The survey of 800 consumers also showed that 88 per cent of respondents were in favour of a ban on the advertising of unhealthy food during the peak hours when children watch television. About 65 per cent wanted a complete ban on television junk-food advertising.

The study also revealed that 91 per cent of people believe the use of popular movie and cartoon characters in promoting unhealthy foods should be regulated and 90 per cent also wanted regulation of marketing strategies that used competitions to help sell unhealthy food.

Ms Martin said the promotions were an important part of “the junk-food industries’ promotional arsenal” and created “pester power” - where children pester their parents for particular items. “I think that people believe that the Government should regulate and that children should be protected from this type of very pervasive and powerful marketing technique,” she said.

Under the proposed ban, the standards that would determine whether food and drink could use the techniques could be based on British profiling.

“There is quite a good tool to determine whether food is unhealthy or not and could be adopted for use here in Australia,” Ms Martin said.

The research comes less than a week after a parliamentary report into obesity moved away from recommending an end to the food industry regulating its own advertising, opting to give the self-regulation system more time to prove itself.

Family entertainment giant Disney took a stand, several years back, by not renewing a decade-long marketing deal with McDonald’s and flushing fast food and high-calorie snacks out of its promotional system as the childhood obesity debate raged.

But now, even as there appears to be stepped-up interest from the federal government over marketing to children, no one has followed Disney’s lead.  In fact, with categories like autos out of the picture, Hollywood seems more dependent than ever on fast feeders’ deep pockets.

Though the Federal Trade Commission looked at marketing food to kids and recommended self-regulation, a new, more proactive administration could address the issue anew, said Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids and associate director of the Media Center of Judge Baker Children’s Center. “We are closer to regulations on junk-food marketing to children than we ever have been,” she said. “We’ve seen that self-regulation doesn’t work, and we have an administration now that believes in government.”

Robert Weissman, managing director of watchdog group Commercial Alert, however, said he thinks movie tie-ins with food companies may be tougher to get a handle on, even though the FTC is keeping an eye on them. Entertainment and food marriages have become “so sophisticated, multileveled, robust and intertwined,” that they’re nearly impossible to regulate, Weissman said. “We’d need new statutory frameworks, a more acute sense of outrage from consumers and/or a cultural shift within the marketing industry on what’s acceptable,” he said.

That could be an uphill battle. As the summer movie season gets under way there are a number of fast-food tie-ins, including:

•Paramount Pictures made a three-in-a-row deal with Burger King for its summer tentpoles Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

•Sony and BK will partner for the book-based Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a fall release.

•20th Century Fox just inked a five-picture global deal with McDonald’s for family-friendly flicks including A Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, all with movie-centric Happy Meals.

•McDonald’s has a continuing deal to promote DreamWorks Animation flicks like Monsters vs. Aliens.

•Pizza Hut is working with the Warner Bros./Sony action thriller Terminator Salvation, and Papa John’s is linked to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

But meanwhile in Washington, lawmakers are continuing to look into food and beverage marketing aimed at kids. Sen. Tom Harkin has introduced legislation that would empower the FTC to crack down on such marketing, and the Food and Drug Administration has forced changes in recent cereal ads from General Mills and Kellogg that touted what the agency insisted were misleading nutritional claims.

In the current recession, Hollywood’s major studios, grappling with slowing DVD sales and other market forces, have been trimming their release schedules and nipping their marketing budgets. But it’s not the economy, it’s the need for ubiquity that drives these deals, said Jeffrey Godsick, Fox’s evp marketing.

“We want to hit all the lifestyle points for consumers,” Godsick said. “Partners get us into places that are nonpurchasable (as media buys). McDonald’s has access to tens of millions of people on a daily basis—that helps us penetrate the culture.”

Doing so these days means taking note of public sentiment over the children’s obesity issue. McDonald’s, whose execs declined to comment, has diversified its menu in recent years to include healthier options, Godsick said, making it a good partner for films he called “all audience,” like Night at the Museum.

BK just announced new healthier kids meals—with apple fries, fat free milk, reduced sodium chicken tenders—and a pledge to focus on such offerings in its advertising to kids under 12. The chain plans to keep up a steady pace of entertainment links, regardless of criticism from advocate groups, said Cindy Syracuse, senior director, sponsorships and promotions.

“We pick properties based on their fit for our brand,” Syracuse said. “As a business, it’s very important to stay focused on what consumers want, and they tell us with their pocketbooks what they want and how they want to be entertained.”

Even so, Hollywood and its partners aren’t ignoring the debate.

“There’s more sensitivity about who we’re targeting with what message,” said Devery Holmes, president and CMO of Norm Marshall & Assoc., whose clients include IHOP, which partnered on Fox’s Horton Hears a Who. “Attitudes have changed.”

Bravo is cooking up a high-end special based on its “Top Chef” franchise. On June 10 the network will premiere “Top Chef Masters,” a 10-episode spinoff in which established chefs will compete for charity. The cream-of-the-crop approach has translated to the show’s sponsors as well.

Longtime sponsor Toyota Motor Co. has upgraded its involvement to focus on Lexus, which will provide the winners of each of the nine qualifying rounds with $10,000 for the charities of their choice, totaling $90,000 in donations. New this year is Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Stella Artois, which will sponsor weekly on-air tune-in spots and billboards. Online, Stacy’s Pita Chips will host an online viewing party in Bravo’s BHive, providing fans with party kits, game ideas and other branded features.

The individual challenges on “Top Chef Masters” will also be put through Bravo’s rigorous “brand filter” for integrations and product placements. In recent seasons they’ve included everyone from Diet Dr Pepper to Butterball to Quaker Oats, amid occasional fan backlash.

Read the full article here.

The Green Bay Packers are hoping to take advantage of a new NFL rule allowing teams to attach a small patch with a corporate logo to the jerseys players wear in practice.

Packers senior vice president of marketing and sales Laura Sankey called the possibility of selling advertising space on practice jerseys a “very meaningful” way for a sponsor to link itself with the team.

“It’s always exciting when the league opens new categories for sponsorship, particularly one that is so closely linked to our players and our jerseys,” Sankey said. “A practice jersey patch is a very unique and visible way for a sponsor to be involved with training camp, the team and our fans.”

The Houston Texans also have indicated an interest in taking advantage of the rule, which applies only to jerseys worn in practice.

Sponsor logos already are widespread during U.S. auto racing and golf events, and the Phoenix Mercury announced this week that they will become the first WNBA team to put a sponsor’s name, Lifelock, on their jerseys.

Such deals are considered commonplace in Europe, where soccer giant Manchester United announced Wednesday that it had reached a four-year sponsorship agreement with Chicago-based insurance broker Aon Corp.

The club did not announce financial terms but British newspapers reported that the deal, which begins in the 2010-11 season, was worth $131.2 million over the four years.

Metro light rail is considering whether to sell naming rights for its stations, trains and even the entire 20-mile system.

A committee on Wednesday unanimously recommended to Metro’s board pursuing the idea of “system naming rights,” similar to what sports franchises do with stadiums.

Metro Marketing Director John Farry reported that a Cleveland bus system sold station names to two hospitals for $1.1 million a year. Las Vegas has approved “Nextel Station” on its monorail, and other systems in Florida and Virginia are exploring naming rights, Farry said.

Reaction among city officials on the panel was mixed, but most said the agency needs to look for every penny of revenue it can in the economic downturn.

“I’m enthusiastically in support of pursuing this,” said Phoenix City Manager Frank Fairbanks, the committee’s chairman. “It’s a potentially significant source of revenue for a system we are desperate to find funding for.”

The same committee on Wednesday recommended a $34 million operating budget that calls for fewer trains on Sundays and shorter trains in the summer.

Metro had a no-advertising policy on trains when the system opened in December. Now, it is three weeks from accepting bids from advertising agencies to sell ads on and in trains and at stations.

Everyone on the panel agreed the naming-rights challenge is finding appropriate sponsors.

“I guess we would not want an Ex-Lax Station,” Fairbanks quipped.

Savvy TV watchers know that 24’s Jack Bauer uses Sprint phones, the Gossip Girls have Verizon handsets and much of the cast of The Hills goes for AT&T. The characters broadcast their preferences via the logos emblazoned on their cellphones, often without saying a word.

Like everything else in TV land, their choices are far from coincidental. Cellphone companies ranging from manufacturers to wireless operators are increasingly getting their products into celebrities’ hands for exposure that money can’t buy. These “product integration” deals weave cellphones into the story lines of TV shows, movies and even music videos, exchanging air time for cash.

While these partnerships aren’t new, they’re becoming more common. A few years ago, music videos with integrated products were the exception (see “Usher’s Favorite Phone"). These days, even chart-topping singers like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Katy Perry are striking placement deals. All three, in fact, incorporated Nokia phones into recent videos.

In Spears’ “Womanizer” video, a man wields Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic handset--one of the company’s newest touchscreen phones--to check his calendar and record videos of Spears. Aguilera sports the same phone in her “Keeps Gettin’ Better” video.

Perry, of “I Kissed a Girl” fame, has created two videos with two different Nokia devices. In “Hot N Cold” she plays a jilted bride whose singing image pops up on her would-be groom’s Nokia N96. In her most recent video, “Waking up in Vegas,” she flashes the 5800 at a poker table and in a convertible.

There are plenty of “Spot that phone!” moments in films, too. Daniel Craig, aka James Bond, toted Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot C902 in Quantum of Solace. (Sony Pictures distributed the film.) Jim Carrey spent much of Yes Man brandishing his Nokia 6300 phone. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow sported LG Electronics cellphones in last year’s Iron Man.

LG struck a similar marketing deal with Paramount Pictures for the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opens June 24. Several characters--LG declined to specify them--will use LG phones in the film. LG also created a limited edition of its Versa phone, customized with video clips and a Decepticon logo, to promote Transformers. The company has an affinity for movies that place technology “center stage,” says Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president of product strategy and marketing in the U.S.

While plentiful everywhere, product placement is perhaps most effective on TV, where collaborations can run multiple seasons. Verizon has paired with Gossip Girl for several years running. So has Sprint with 24.

During any one season, AT&T is likely to be juggling multiple integration deals. Besides its regular presence on American Idol, the company recently worked with Dancing With the Stars, Fox’s Fringe, the CW Network’s Privileged, TBS’ Dinner and a Movie and the Guy’s Choice Awards.

AT&T also has close ties to the MTV series The Hills, having featured some of its young stars in commercials last year. This past season, the company provided phones to Hills actress Lauren Conrad during the show’s premiere and finale parties. Conrad ended up using a red LG Shine to show a photo of co-star Lauren “Lo” Bosworth during an interview and a Samsung Eternity to answer a live video question from fans.

Sometimes it’s not clear whether a product plug is paid. In the show 30 Rock, Tina Fey plays a character (Liz Lemon) who frequently calls attention to her iPhone. Show representatives have said that its product endorsements are not paid.

Justin Long’s iPhone usage in the film Zack and Miri Make a Porno has also sparked questions. In the comedy, Long’s character frequently plays videos on his iPhone. Since Long also portrays the “Mac” in Apple’s popular “Get a Mac” commercials, some have wondered whether the iPhone appearances were Long’s personal choice, paid for by Apple, or coincidence.

It’s difficult to pinpoint how much these integrations boost sales or subscriber numbers, because most companies are promoting multiple phones across TV, film and video at any given time. They also continue to run more traditional ads in places like newspapers. But AT&T says placements are a popular and effective marketing tool.

Adam Kluger is a busy man. He’s in Miami to oversee a music-video shoot for Atlantic Records’ (WMG) artist Flo Rida, but he isn’t an artist rep, label head, or even part of the video-production company. He is, however, the founder and head of brand partnerships at the Kluger Agency, and he’s creating relationships that have both performers and their music labels reaping big rewards.

“Brands are tripling their revenue because of a mention in a Jay-Z song. So we go after the companies and partner them with the demographic,” says Kluger. “If you hear an artist talking about his new Fila sneakers, you’re going to think about it when you go shopping.”

This week in Miami, the product in question is a dating site; the Flo Rida video will be built entirely around it.

“We worked with the director and wrote the entire video around the product. So the video has Flo going online, looking for a love interest in the video,” says Kluger. “This song was not going to be a radio single, but it’s so perfect for a video that we were able to get the brand to pay enough that we could make the song into a single.”

Artists have been referencing their favorite products for decades, from Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” to the Beach Boys’ “T-Bird” (courtesy of Ford (F)). But the first truly shameless marriage of an artist and a brand came in 2003, with the release of Busta Rhymes’ hit song “Pass the Courvoisier,” which caused a major spike in US sales of the cognac company, which later signed a promotional deal with the rapper.

Since then, brands ranging from Nokia (NOK) to Nike (NKE) have been prominently placed in both music videos and lyrics.

With music videos now streaming through the Internet, television, and DVDs, product placement has become key. The 2003 Madonna/Britney Spears video “Me Against the Music” begins with Spears exiting a Mazda RX-8 sports car before the song even begins. The car’s 14-second appearance in a major music video was seen as a watershed moment, eventually leading to Chrysler’s 3-year, $14 million partnership with singer Celine Dion. After one year, Chrysler backed away from the alliance, but Chevrolet’s (GRM) launch of a similar campaign last year, with singer Mary J. Blige, proves that such branding persists despite extremely tough times.

Admittedly, artists from all musical backgrounds have featured products in their videos. But the musical supergroup/Benetton ad known as the Black Eyed Peas may have become product placement’s poster children. The HP (HPQ) TouchSmart computer at the center of their latest video continues a trend started by their 2007 video for “Let’s Get it Started” (which featured a close-up of a Motorola (MOT) phone), and “My Humps” (which featured shots of couture apparel).

Other formal agreements have placed products by Apple (AAPL) and Mattel (MAT) alongside rappers The Game and Ludacris, respectively. In a music industry in dire need of a new revenue model, this isn’t payola - it’s a potential life-vest.

With a greater variety of artists engaging in this kind of branding, and fears over artistic integrity subsiding, labels couldn’t be happier. A recording industry in decline for almost a decade is now using branding to offset production costs for albums, videos, and tours.

“It will get to the point where the brand is paying for the entire production of an album. The labels and artists will not have to put up any money,” says Kluger. “So everything is profit. That’s 2 years away, not 10.”