Product Placements Left in Limbo Amid TV Cancellations

Whether it's wayward Junior Mints in an operating room in Seinfeld or Dominic Toretto throwing back Coronas with his Fast and Furious family, product placement has long been a staple of shows and movies. In addition to financial incentives for production, products have the power to tell stories in as little as one frame. However, it helps if viewers have a chance to see that frame. Over the past several months, streamers like HBO Max, Netflix and Starz have canceled—and in some cases, completely removed—high-profile and fan-favorite series from their respective platforms. Though some removed series, including HBO's Westworld and The Nevers, are heading to FAST channels, others such as the Gordita Chronicles and The Garcias remain in limbo. "This is a little bit of the Wild West that we're in. We've never seen this quantity of cancellations," said Erin Schmidt, chief product placement officer at BEN. The cancellations and removals are largely based on financial reasons such as tax write-offs or shipping shows to other platforms for licensing deals, she added. And with traditional in-show product placement potentially taking months to come to fruition and not even a $100 million-plus series like Westworld being safe from potential obscurity, it's easy to wonder where that leaves the brands: Namely, what happens if the series you're advertising in is suddenly removed from a platform? The 10 Most Unfortunate TV Cancelations of 2022 Mutually beneficial relationship For older shows, such as the surprisingly canceled Westworld, which saw a steady decline in viewers since its premiere season in 2016, the product placement deals have likely come and gone. "Westworld has been around for so long. You've seen much of that impact," Schmidt said. "Typically, we don't contract beyond that. That becomes more added value. You're not paying for those additional eyeballs." Schmidt explained BEN doesn't sell distribution output, but the company utilizes AI to predict future success. "We're predicting based on a script, a synopsis, who's behind the camera and who's in front of the camera. We're predicting how that show or film will perform without distribution," Schmidt continued. "No matter the distributor, this show will perform on an average of this. And that's helping brands navigate this space in the best way possible." And for brands worried about shows being taken off the air, contracts are often laden with protections, ensuring that a piece of content will see the light of day if it was shot for a contracted season. In fact, in an era of decentralization and streaming wars, where publishers are constantly in search of content and shows can move from one platform to another looking for an audience, brands are becoming even more integral. According to Schmidt, brand dollars have, especially recently, even led to distribution, helping take the production burden off publishers. "We're seeing this great momentum happening in which brand support is now driving distribution and pick up of those shows, which is really exciting," Schmidt said. A [brand] new TV landscape In addition to AI that can predict ROI, technology has also significantly lowered brand risk through digital product placement. With today's tech, brands can target integrations down to individual viewers. AI actively scans shows to identify potential spaces for insertions, and more productions are filming with the intent of digitally inserting products later (or, in some cases, digitally removing products). "Look at everything that happened lately with Yeezys. If you would have that digitally [in a show], then you could have replaced it with Adidas, Nike or whatever else," said Mar Duermeijer, chief content officer at digital product placement company Ryff. "Virtual product placement gives you the flexibility and the creativity to do a lot of different things." Duermeijer noted that digital product placement allows brands to jump on opportunities as well, pointing to The Queen's Gambit as an example of show that became an unexpected hit. "It's the same from the brand side. Sometimes things just become a huge hit and start to travel," Duermeijer said. "If you would do virtual product placement, you could retrospectively put brands in when you all of a sudden see that your show is picking up." Through technology, product placement continues to become more sophisticated. And though there are more cancellations than ever, there's also more opportunity to reach the right audiences. "What I'm excited about and why I don't get scared in these moments is that we are living in the era of decentralization," Schmidt said. "Content is still king, and there's more content desired than ever before."

Programming & Performance

In an Age of Mass TV Cancellations, Some Product Placements Are Left in Limbo

What happens for a brand when a series suddenly disappears?

Bill Bradley

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