Founded by Greg Logan and Miriam Stein, the company will focus on producing long-form TV formats across numerous genres and platforms.

“Everyone’s talking about branded content, but we believe there is definitely room for improvement, a better way to work together that leverages and lengthens the life of the entertainment format,” said Logan. “Production companies and brands speak two different languages, Hatch will bridge the gap.”

According to Stein, the company will deliver creative solutions that will make content more marketable. “We’re taking TV into tomorrow, starting from consumer trends and insights in the creation formats that are first and foremost great entertainment,” explained Stein.

The most surprising thing is: Apple doesn’t pay for any of these product placements.

According to sources, Apple product placements grew by almost 50% from 2009 to 2011.

One of its most prominent product integrations appeared in “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.” The brand received almost eight minutes of screen time for various products, including the iPhone, iPad, and iMac.

All these brand appearances compel audiences to buy Apple products. And they get the exposure for free!

The show is the country’s first national acapella group talent show. As the primary sponsor, Doublemint will be introducing a new brand message through the show: “Sing together, amazingly better.” It aims to encourage show contestants to enhance their singing chemistry with team synchronicity.

Based on a concept from the United States, The Sing-Off is considered by many as a very challenging talent show. During its three seasons, it has amassed a large following and has also succeeded in Holland and France.

Unlike most singing competitions, contestants perform using their voices as background music. This format has led to the creation of new and fresh interpretations of classic songs in the show.

Doublemint’s branded entertainment show will represent the show’s debut in Asia.

Headlining the summit is keynote speaker Seamus Blackley, Xbox co-creator and founder of digital game maker Innovative Leisure. Highlights include a panel featuring YouTube personalities SeaNanners, Tobuscus and Olga Kay, and a series of insightful interviews with content experts including “V” television series producer Jace Hall and Shadedbox co-founder Joey Jones.

The [a]list daily, an entertainment marketing news site published by Ayzenberg, will cover the event live at www.alistdaily.com.

Now in their fourth year, [a]list summits are aimed at senior level executives interested in the latest trends in entertainment marketing. This year, Ayzenberg organized three summits under the banner “The Consumer Courtship.” The series started in February with “Getting Acquainted” in San Francisco, a summit focused on social media marketing. Following Los Angeles is the final event slated for fall in Seattle, with details yet to be announced.

Full agenda and session descriptions for [a]list summit 2012 Los Angeles is available at www.thealistsummit.com. The agenda in brief follows:

Green-Lighting Content

When to consider branded entertainment and what are proven strategies, tactics and approaches to allocating budget.

Panelists: Ryan Crosby, Activision-Blizzard, Brad Hisey, Nexon, and Mitch Powers, THQ. Moderated by Ayzenberg’s Steve Fowler.

Building Desire with Earned and Owned Media

How successful campaigns approached distributing content, seeding it with social media and measuring performance.

Panelists: Ed Lin, Warner Bros., Rebecca Markarian, Ayzenberg Group, Laura Naviaux, Sony Online Entertainment, and Ryan Schneider, Insomniac Games. Moderated by Ayzenberg’s Steve Bastien.

Bringing Brands to YouTube

YouTube hosts whose channels serve an audience of more than 4 million viewers discuss ways marketers can work with established YouTube personalities on branded entertainment.

Panelists: Tobuscus, SeaNanners and Olga Kay. Moderated by Ayzenberg’s Seth Hendrix.

The Content Creators

Interviews with Joey Jones, Shadedbox, Jace Hall, executive producer of “V” television series, Chris Cowan, Thousand Pounds Action Company, and commercial director Michael Chaves.

Closing Keynote

Seamus Blackley, Xbox co-creator and founder of Innovative Leisure.

About Ayzenberg Group

One of the ten largest privately held creative agencies on the West Coast, Ayzenberg has created campaigns focused on successfully reaching and motivating tweens, teens and the 18-34 year old demographic since 1993. Client experience includes: Activision-Blizzard, Atari Games, Atlus, AT&T, Bethesda Softworks, Capcom, Disney, EA Games, Konami, Lucas Arts, Microsoft, Mattel, Namco Bandai, NCSoft, Nexon America, Nokia, Sonos, Sony, THQ, and Warner Bros. For more information, please visit www.ayzenberg.com.

The series is about a group of friends, who start a tech company. Its second season starts this June, and its trailer is currently available on leapyear.hiscoxusa.com

Leap Year was also nominated in other categories from different organizations, including the Interactive Rockies Awards. The web series even received a Digital Luminary Award from NAPTE for its outstanding digital programming.

“Hiscox is extremely excited to have been recognized for the hard work and thought that went into Leap Year,” commented Kevin Kerridge, an insurance expert from Hiscox. “We are proud to have developed a unique and innovative marketing program that resonates with the small business owners we serve.”

With the movie’s gigantic production cost, it’s only logical that the studios get additional funds from brands, including the renowned automaker Acura.

SHIELD agents drove in Acura vehicles, and even the stars of the movie were driven by Acura cars to the red-carpet premiere. The brand also designed an all-new sports car for the movie.

According to sources, the product placement was part of Acura’s multi-picture deal with Marvel Entertainment. Based on reports, the arrangement will guarantee Acura product placements in Marvel’s future comic-to-film productions.

Off-screen, The Avengers also worked with other brands, including Target, Farmers Insurance, and Hershey’s. All these brands will get a chance to work with The Avengers again as its sequel has already been slated for 2014.

Product placements are spread throughout the video. It opens with a series of phone product placements from BlackBerry, which all three artists use in the video.

As the music starts, the trio goes on a frenetic dance scene on the streets—hopping over cars, jumping from building to building, and running on rooftops. The scene has plenty of product placements, including a Pepsi advertisement and a Degree deodorant banner.

While many critics wouldn’t like stuffing all these product placements together, the video is actually fun. And fans will more or likely respond well to its energy.

Similar to most of the network’s online shows, the series has product placements from its sponsors—Chevrolet and Verizon. While the series is mainly in English, the dialog has Spanish inserts from time to time.

The web novella follows the story of Mia (played by Jacqueline Marquez), an editor for an online magazine. The cast also includes: Jose Guillermo Cortines, Sofia Lama, and Jenni Pulos.

The series is set to run for the next thirteen weeks. Its four-minute episodes featured prominent car and mobile phone product placements.

The new series confirms an ongoing trend for the past years: product placements in telenovelas. It is an integration that’s becoming profitable and beneficial for producers and marketers.

Initially, the popular drawing game did not include ads. In fact, users don’t have to worry about pop-ups while they’re enjoying creating illustrations. However, Zynga—the game’s creator—has recently initiated efforts to monetize the app by inserting brand names. Now—in some instances, the game will ask you to draw a bag of Doritos.

While some consumers are quick to frown upon seeing such blatant product placement installations, executives from OMGPOP believe otherwise.

“People loved to draw the Colonel and bags of Doritos,” said Dan Porter, CEO of OMGPOP.

Apart from Doritos, other sponsors have also scored additions to the app. The National Hockey League, for example, has paid for the addition of a hockey and puck in Draw Something’s in-game list.

In preparation for its upcoming special live episode, 30 Rock reached out to Kraft, the famous food manufacturer. Producers of the show say that they need a sponsor for a comedy sketch, and they want a brand that’s been around the sitcom medium since its inception. And it seems that the producers were successful in pitching for a Kraft product integration.

An episode of the show has a Kraft product placement, including a branded fictional comedy hour dedicated to the brand. In one of its mentions, Kraft was referred to as “the cheese that won World War II.” The food conglomerate also gets TVC space. Apart from Kraft, the show also plugged Warner Brothers’ Rock of Ages.

Experts say that the occurrence is very rare. Usually, producers sit down with brand representatives to create content integrations. Money exchanges hands and integration is set. In this case, however, the show went on initiative to call the attention of the brand.

As of press time, NBC executives have not released statements about the deal.

While content creators will cringe at the idea of pitching for a product placement through a show, it will definitely reassert the strength of product placement in the industry.