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Recently some televised sports events have begun using a system that makes billboards in stadiums appear to have ads they don't really have. The process is something like a digital version of chrome key, but it's much more powerful. In the next few years this technology will become ev

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

en more powerful, and also considerably cheaper, opening up new opportunities for advertisers on the Internet, and raising a number of interesting issues in the process.

While broadcast media is subject to regulations requiring a clear separation between content and advertisement, no

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

such restrictions apply to Internet based media. In addition, only a handful of films, like Citizen Kane, have contractual protection from any kind of after the fact modification of content. As a result, advertisers on the Internet will be able to integrate their product into programm

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ing to a degree not possible since the golden age of radio.

It may be limited to billboards now, but in a few years new digital video technology will be able to seamlessly a replace any product being used by an actor in a movie or TV episode, including items held or worn, even if the

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

actor is moving. Given the revenue potential, it's only a matter of time before Hollywood starts making films that are designed to support digital post-production product placement, or virtual product placement. For instance, actors might simply drink soda from a solid color can, maki

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

g it a simple process to overdub the image of a Coke or Pepsi can later. Using this technology, it will be possible to sell product placement permanently, or just for a specified time or regional market. Actors might appear to be drinking Coke in a movie when it was seen in Florida, b

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ut might appear to be drinking Pepsi to people seeing the same movie in California.

Internet based media will offer even more opportunities for advertisers than the theater. Since movies distributed on the Internet will already be in digital format, it will be relatively easy to inse

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

t digital tags in them to tell where to insert advertiser's products. For instance, a scene at a party might show six people drinking six different cans of soft drinks. Using a process somewhat similar that used to colorize movies, the movie's owner or distributor could have each of t

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

e six different cans digitally tagged so any or all cans could be offered for product placement. This digital tag would be a few lines of text telling where to put the product image, its spatial orientation, and size, added to each frame a product was to appear in. Like a layer in Pho

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

toshop, the tag could easily be edited or deleted as needed. Advertisers will only need to supply a Webcaster with a 3D image file of their packaging, in this case, a 3D image of a can of soda. Software the Webcaster will be using will do the actual work of inserting the product image

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

into each scene as needed, on the fly.

The process of adding tags to enable product placement could be done either during the production of movies, or any time afterwards. Eventually, the vast library of Hollywood, from silents to current films, will be tagged and available for produ

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

t placement. Granted, certain period pieces like Gladiator, or Star Wars, will offer little, if any, opportunities for product placement, but the majority of movies will offer opportunities, and many of them excellent ones.

It is interesting to consider how many digital product place

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ments could tastefully be inserted into the movie classic Casablanca. Period ads for Coke, in the local language, hanging on walls might not seem out of place. Neither would modern brands of liquor behind the bar, or modern brands of cigarettes. Painting a TWA logo on the passenger ai

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

liner Ingrid Bergman departs on at the end of the movie might work, too (though a Pan American logo might have been even better.)

Less tasteful product insertions into Casablanca are also interesting to consider. In fact the extremes this technology could be taken to, in terms of fun

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

amentally changing a films mood, period authenticity, even color balance and composition, are enough to give directors, actors, and critics, nightmares. It's not sure if these groups will have much say in the practice of product placement, but they'll raise issues advertisers need to

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

be able to respond to.

Other issues will be raised by digital product placement, too. For instance, who gets to decide to insert digital product placements in movies being distributed on the Internet? Who gets the royalties? Since no law prohibits the digital replacement of products

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

lready in films, could Coke pay to have Pepsi cans magically replaced with Coke cans in movies distributed on the Internet? If Pepsi hadn't paid for the placement in the first place, would they have any legal recourse to being replaced? What if Pepsi had paid for the placement origina

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ly?

As with any revolutionary technology, opportunities appear long before customs and laws have evolved to resolve the inevitable conflicts the new technology creates. Virtual product placement is already available in a primitive form, and it won't be too long before it's a common p

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ractice for advertisers that would never consider it today. It's going to be a great new tool, but advertisers tempted to overuse it ought to consider that it's only a temporary advantage. Eventually, this technology will become commodity priced, and it will be just as easy for consum

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

rs to replace and filter out products they don't want to see. It's a virtual certainty.

From Advertising & Marketing Review August, 2000.

Copyright © 1994 - 2006 by Glen Emerson Morris

All Rights Reserved

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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