In June, Nielsen Media Research reports, Sears scored the best "audience with recognition and positive feeling" results of any marketer for its product placement in "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Sears has had a long-time marketing and advertising relationship with the show.
Sears scored a 58.1% approval number, which is a new metric from Nielsen's Place*Views product-placement service. Previously, Place*Views only offered a calculation of the time and number of brand placements per TV show.
Second-best among broadcast network programs is the NBC game show, "Deal or No Deal," which earned a 48.8% number for its mention of the Miami Heat basketball team. Right behind the Heat was another NBA team, the Los Angeles Clippers, for a shout-out to CBS' "The New Adventures of the Old Christine." It earned 35.8%.
Several other good scores for the month had an association with cars--either makeover automobile shows or for a car race.
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"Rides" on TLC gave Chevrolet Camaro a 63% tally. MTV's "Pimp My Ride" took Honda to 58.2%. ABC's "Fast Cars & Superstars," a celebrity car race, had communication company Alltel with a 35.5% approval rate.
Nielsen says these new scores can be used in conjunction with its TV ratings to place a value and quality on the placement. But marketers don't think any product-placement metric will get to the same value level of current media measures any time soon.
"The currency is still cost per thousand," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director for Horizon Media. "With DVR penetration growing, you wonder is this is something marketers are going to look at more and more. Can they come up with an accurate gauge of viewers [for product placement]?"