UK's First Product Placement Case Study
Background:
The Nescafe Dolce Gusto “pod” coffee machine was the 1st commercial product placement (PP) in the UK, appearing in the cookery section of This Morning on 28th Feb 2011.
Research on the effectivness of the (passive unbranded) placement was commissioned by ITV in partnership with Mindshare and Nestle. This research took place in June 2011 (after 3 months activity) to access the impact on a target consumer group of ABC1 coffee drinkers.
Findings for This Morning:
- Awareness of product placement within TV programmes was over 80%.
- This Morning viewers were twice as likely to claim they had seen PP.
- Product placement within the programme was noticed by 30% of all This Morning viewers.
- Over 8 in 10 This Morning viewers felt the coffee machine fitted within the programme.
- 90% thought it was an appropriate placement.
- 23% of This Morning viewers thought the placement was an improvement for the show.
Findings for Nestle:
- 30% of This Morning viewers were very likely to buy a coffee maker in the next year (twice as likely as non-viewers).
- 50% of these were likely to buy a pod coffee maker.
- 60% of all This Morning viewers mentioned “coffee” or a “coffee machine” when asked about product placement.
- 10% specifically mentioned the brand (Nescafe and/or Dolce-Gusto).
- Nearly 40% said their interest in buying a Nescafe Dolce-Gusto coffee machine increased due to the product placement with 20% considering buying one.