Giants, Startups of Placement Valuation
Media Post News, Thursday, December 30th, 2004
iTVX/Deutsch: iTVX and Interpublic Group's Deutsch advertising agency have just launched a new
entertainment marketing company called Media Bridge Entertainment that will introduce an offering
called ROI or Results-Oriented-Integration. The service, which utilizes iTVX's valuation system,
guarantees advertisers that they will pay only for placements that actually appear on the screen,
not those that wind up on the cutting room floor. iTVX, started about three years ago by product
placement industry veteran Frank Zazza, factors in 52 placement parameters in valuing the quality
of each hundredth of a second of an integration, with level scores ranging from 1-10. The iTVX
system then translates those scores into a Product Placement/Commercial Cost Ratio that estimates
how many commercials or what percentage of a commercial in the same show the integration is worth.
For example, the integration of Crest toothpaste into "The Apprentice" this season was assigned a
PP/CC Ratio of 10.8, meaning that Procter & Gamble would have had to buy that many commercials
in the hit NBC reality series to achieve the same value the placement afforded. iTVX's clients
include Fox, Discovery Channel, Kraft, Verizon and Unilever. The company is planning to launch its
service in certain overseas markets next month and to expand into film in March.
