• by September 3, 2004

THE 15 PERCENT SOLUTION -- Here's a fascinating media stat, and one that you've likely never seen before. The six broadcast networks aired 56,375 "brand mentions" during the nine months between September 2003 and May 2004.

That's according to Nielsen's new Place*Views database, a product placement measurement service that tracks all types of brand mentions, including branded entertainment, product placements and plugs. That stat provides the first real dimension of a marketplace that has become so critically important in the eyes of many on Madison Avenue, as well as Broadcast Row. In fact, it is a stat that Dave Harkness, the VNU exec in charge of the new Nielsen service, says that up until now, even the broadcast networks themselves, did not know the full magnitude of.

In fact, nobody knew this. Not the networks, not marketers, not agencies, not even the produce placement specialty shops that work with producers and the networks to get many of these plugs placed in the first place. Now Nielsen knows. And yesterday, ZenithOptimedia Group, their first ad agency client knew. And now you know, courtesy of the Riff.

But what does that number really mean? With out some form of relevant comparison, it's meaningless; it lacks context from a media marketplace point-of-view. So let's put some context behind it. During the same nine-month period, the six broadcast networks aired a total of 369,396 TV commercials. Sure, that's a lot of spots, but it's also a basis of comparison for so-called brand mentions, and if we've done our arithmetic right, it means that brand mentions currently represent about 15 percent of the total number of brand references - both commercial and integrated ones - that air on the TV networks. Maybe it's just us, but that sure seems like a more significant number than we might have guessed, especially since the practice of branded entertainment is just now gathering steam.

But the stat also raises another important question: If branded content already represents 15 percent of the networks' brand mentions marketplace, how much upside can there really be? Heck, most people, including some on Madison Avenue, complain that the airwaves are already crowded enough. Of course, it's possible that the rise in branded content will come at the expense of regular commercial inventory, but in the decades that we've been watching TV, we've yet to see the networks rein in their commercial inventory, even when they were expanding other sources of non-programming time, like promos, Ids and, yes, product mentions.

So what's the right percentage of branded mentions? If you think it's the level that we're at now, then it's a 15 percent solution. If you think it's something more, then we're talking about more non-programming dilution.