Coke- American Idol Product Placement

Product Placement- American Idol & Coca-Cola

Product placement is a promotional technique used by marketers in which a commercial product is used in fictional or non-fictional media, and the company of the product is an end result of an economic trade. Product placement takes place with the addition of a brand's logo, or a positive mention or appearance of a product. American Idol placed three different products throughout the show. Coca-cola, Ford Motors, and T-Mobile.

American Idol, officially known as American Idol: The Search for a Superstar, is an American television series. It is part of the Idol series, originated as the UK show Pop Idol, a singing talent contest to establish the finest "undiscovered" youthful singer in the country. In recent years it has become one of the most highly publicized music competitions in the world. This type of show is viewed and highly enjoyed by every age demographic.

American Idol is broadcasted on the Fox Network in the United States which is a component of News Corporation and on CTV in Canada. It is created by Simon Fuller and developed by Simon Jones of Thames Television. The directors are Bruce Gowers, Nigel Lythgoe, Simon Fuller, and Ken Warwick

American Idol is created by Fremantle North America which is owned by German Bertelsmann. American Idol is managed by 19 Entertainment which is owned by the international joint venture CKX, Inc. Telephone and text message voting are managaged by Telescope, the leader in mobile and interactive television solutions with the largest phone voting system in the world. Though American Idol is one of Telescope's many clients, Telescope is not affiliated with Fremantle, Sony BMG, 19, or Fox.

American Idol won a 2005 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for favorite television show. In the same year the show won the #1 spot on Nielsen Ratings for two years in a row, favored over the NBA Playoffs, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Grammy Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, and the Olympics. The show's success inspired other nations to produce their own variations of the Idol series.

(Wikipedia)Coca-Cola is a very popular carbonated cola soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which is also often referred to as simply Coca-Cola or Coke. It is one of the world's most recognizable and widely sold commercial brands. Coke's major rival is Pepsi.[km1]

American Idol has three judges that critique each contestant after they perform solo or in groups. These three judges always have a glass that has the coca-cola brand on it. At any given time during the show, if the shoot is on the judges, viewers will automaticlly see the cup with the coca-cola logo. It did not matter if the judges were actually consuming a coca-cola products, as long as the logo was seen there is brand recognition. During the commercial break Coca-cola comercials were shown. According to (Goetzl 2006) Nielsen's Product Placement tracking service, Coca-Cola ranked the highest for overall product placements during prime time in the first quarter, MediaPost reports. Coke acquired 2,551 "product occurrences" in the first quarter of 2006 with 98 percent of them on the Fox hit American Idol. [km4]

American Idol placing Coca-cola products does not have a negative effect towards Coca-cola or American Idol. Coca-cola is a brand that is internationally recognized and has status where a viewer would most likely be familiar with the product. The viewer may see the brand and think nothing of it. The viewer may see the brand and spontaneously desire the