Product placement within the entertainment industry has become widely accepted as commonplace. You only have to watch "Casino Royale" — the most recent movie in the James Bond series — to see that in-film advertising is big business. From cars and laptop computers to entire airlines, if it can be flaunted on screen for even a split second it provides consumers with an incentive to invest in a company's wares.
The importance of on-screen product placement is accentuated by the success of SeenON!, a Web site that provides consumers with the ability to search for a product they've seen in a film, television program or music video and be directed to a site where they can purchase that item. For example, while watching a Pussycat Dolls music video you may notice a fancy new mobile phone that you just have to buy. Searching for the Pussycat Dolls on SeenON! brings up a list of products that have been used in their videos; click on the flashy new phone and within seconds you're at the checkout ready to confirm the purchase.
There's no doubt that this is a service for the mega-consumer, those at the forefront of style who just have to have the latest fashion, but for one company even the quick and easy system introduced by SeenON! is too laborious to truly benefit the target demographic. GET Interactive is a media-based advertising service that boasts a new "Ad-Venture" technology that allows consumers to purchase products while they watch. Rick Harrison, CEO and founder of GET Interactive, suggests that this method of on-the-spot purchase is the way forward for advertisers in the age of mobile media to make "all video content shop-able, any time, any place."
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