• Hollywood Reporter, Monday, November 5, 2007 12:02 PM

A prolonged writers' strike could be a mixed blessing for advertisers with product integration deals on TV shows. On the one hand, it could bring many new opportunities in reality shows that are apt to replace scripted series. On the other, marketers will lose the opportunity to connect via integrations in top-rated series, while makegoods may come at times unsuited for brands' marketing goals and initiatives.

Furthermore, the advertisers that have built whole programs around in-show integrations are likely to pull the plug entirely--and thus won't get any makegoods at all. "I think that clients will potentially suffer the loss of integrations and undoubtedly suffer some loss in the quality of the programs they purchased," says Fred Dubin, managing partner at Mediaedge:cia. "And the implications are potentially greater than the loss of an integration. Many clients build activation programs around integrations, and those will be lost."

But for Robert Riesenberg, president and CEO of Omnicom's Full Circle Entertainment, the impact of a long-term strike means more reality programming--a format that is more conducive to product integration. "We'll see more branded entertainment," he says. "Reality is primarily where the opportunities are, but at the same time all those brands chose specific scripted shows for a reason, and if it's a long strike, they might not get the benefit in the weeks and months that they wanted."

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