Proctor and Gamble move to Product Placement

Procter & Gamble, which spent about $2.4 billion, or 80%, of its $3 billion ad budget last year on TV is looking at how more use of options, such as product placement and alternative media, might work.

• Consumers today encounter from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages per day, vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s, says J. Walker Smith, president of consumer and marketing watcher Yankelovich.
• “There are so many ads out there that consumers actively avoid commercials today to an extent never before realized,” says Dan Howard, professor of advertising and consumer behavior at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. “No matter how many more ads we put out there, it’s not going to work … because it’s not registering.”

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