• by Wayne Friedman , May 5, 2008

Product placement continues to climb on television--rising 6% overall in the first quarter, according to The Nielsen Company's Nielsen Product Placement Service.

But the bulk of this recent gain comes from soaring broadcast TV activity--a whopping hike of 39% over the first quarter of a year before. Total placements for the top 10 shows were 15,404 occurrences.

Analysts say the rise in product placement on the networks resulted from a side effect of the writers' strike, as more TV networks ran reality shows--programs that typically carry much more product placement activity than scripted shows.

"There were reality shows running to fill the time gaps," says Annie Touliatos, director of product development and marketing for Nielsen Product Placement Service.

The biggest change in the first quarter comes from NBC's "The Biggest Loser," which grabbed the top spot over perennial leader, Fox's "American Idol." "Loser" pulled in 3,977 occurrences; "Idol" saw 3,291. Those two shows alone accounted for virtually half of all product-placement activity in the first quarter among the top 10 shows.

NBC had three of the top five shows--"The Apprentice" came in third with 1,646, and "Deal or No Deal" came in fourth with 1,603. CW had the most shows--four--of any network in the top 10 with "CW Now," "Pussycat Dolls Present," "America's Next Top Model," and "One Tree Hill", taking places seventh through tenth. "Hill" was the only scripted show to make the top 10.

The biggest brand was once again Coca-Cola--thanks to "Idol"--with 2,380 occurrences. The next biggest was health club chain 24HourFitness--thanks to "Loser"--with 1,545. Others brands on the top 10: Pussycat Dolls Lounge Nightclubs, Freemotion Fitness Exercise Equipment, Precor Exercise Equipment, AT&T, New Balance, NFL, Apple, and Nike Apparel.

Cable networks that were measured--A&E, Bravo, HGTV, MTV, TLC--came in essentially flat, down 1% to 59,308 occurrences for the top 10 biggest shows. The biggest vote-getter was TLC's "American Chopper" at 16,164. Bravo's "Project Runway" was next at 9,816. MTV was the biggest network in the top 10 of cable shows with "Real World Road Rules Challenge," "Making The Band 4," "Rob & Big," "America's Best Dance Crew" and "Life Of Ryan."

"Cable is pretty flat," says Touliatos, "but it tends to have four to five times the activity of broadcast shows."

Cable's biggest brands included Under Armour Apparel, Elle Magazine, Orange County Choppers Apparel, Orange County Choppers Motorcycles, New York Yankees, Big Black Apparel, Parsons School Of Design, Metzeler Motorcycle Parts-Access Tires, New Era Cap Hats, Airgas Industrial Supplier and Monster Energy Drinks.

All told, there were 117,976 brand occurrences on cable and broadcast networks in the first three months of the year, according to Nielsen Product Placement Service.

Nielsen's Touliatos notes there are, on average, around five to 10 product placements for many reality shows--depending on the length of each episode.

In terms of influence, she notes that Target Stores scored well on ABC's "Oprah's Big Give" and Home Depot did the same for HGTV's "Color Splash" in terms of brand recognition and positive feeling.