14/09/2009 - Product Placement to hit UK Television - 'We're Ready' says Margaux Matrix chief    Cheryl gets Tango’d Margaux Matrix have reacted positively to the news that product placement is to be allowed on British TV shows. In a move due to be announced next week, Independent broadcasters will be allowed to take payments for displaying commercial products during shows. There are currently strict rules against product placement, but Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw is expected to announce a three-month consultation on the changes in a speech to the Royal Television Society next week. Margaux Matrix believes it has the processes in place to help broadcasters and advertisers measure the effectiveness of this new opportunity. "We have extensive experience of measuring the value of product placement from our work on shows from around the world, notably from countries where it has long been part of the broadcasting landscape", said Margaux Matrix's Sales Director, James Gibson. Industry experts believe the new opportunities could be worth up to £100 million in revenues to UK broadcasters. However, the savvy British viewer is likely to recoil against overly overt placements, and regulators will seek to avoid this. "We believe independent measurement of product placement is vital to ensure the integrity of broadcasts - and our system and processes are the ideal way to provide this", Gibson continues. The Margaux Matrix process not only measures the duration of exposure but also the quality of the brand's appearance - how large it is and whether other brands are also on screen. "We have also reported instances where the context in which a brand is seen can vary. For example, a product placement is more successful if the product is central to the scene in question, than merely a prop in the background". "The key to this is a consistent measurement method - then you can compare different strategies and see which is the most effective. To do this you need to create a series of criteria against which any campaign can be measured. Our techniques allow exactly that." "We are already working with industry partners to develop a measurement system, so that different instances of product placement can be compared. Such a set of criteria could also be used to create an index to ascertain whether placements give undue prominence to the brands in question, ensuring the quality of the broadcast is not adversely impacted."

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