• by Wayne Friedman , April 5, 2010

Last week's episode of ABC's "Modern Family" -- which had an extensive storyline about Apple's new iPad -- yielded a market exposure value for the brand of more than $1 million. But its "effective" value was around 10 to 15 times that, per branded product-placement researcher, iTVX.

The company says the Apple-targeted episode on the ABC show, timed to the iPad launch this past Saturday, registered a market exposure value of $1.14 million through TV and Internet airings.

Frank Zazza, CEO of iTVX, says the deal -- a couple of days before initial sales of Apple's new iPad digital product -- was where "everything came together in a perfect product-placement scenario."

Some blogs were critical about the extensive nature of the iPad placement storyline in "Modern Family," but Zazza says there was "no decay" of brand association effectiveness. He says decay mostly reveals itself in static brand exposures, such as repeated images of Coca-Cola cups on "American Idol" or with billboard signage during sporting events.

An overt and heavily negative episode about a brand might elicit a negative response -- at least from sales -- says Zazza. But that wasn't the case for Apple. The first day of iPad sales pulled in a healthy 300,000 in unit sales, about double what analysts were predicting.

"This is where branded entertainment works for you," adds Zazza. He says branded entertainment for other shows, such as NBC "Celebrity Apprentice" as a part of overall campaign, still perform well.