Hello from the hills of Maine

[tvbuzz]

Hello to everyone from the colllllllddddddddddd hills of Maine. Well .. actually not that cold this weekend .. high today 20 -- so we've got a long winter ahead and lots of sites to build.

First name is Jeff and looking forward to getting this thing up and running!

http://www.saugus.net/Photos/images/moose.jpg
(that's a Moose .. in case ur wonderin ..)

[anthonycea]

Jeff, how old are you, what is your skill set and background?

Welcome to the forum.

[tvbuzz]

i saw some younger folks on the board .. so i am little older ... 38.

skill set is html .. play around a bit with php .. but leave that to the guys that know what they are doing.

[anthonycea]

I am 46 in May, it sure as hell is hard for me to compete with a guy like Josh that is 13 and has forgot more about coding than I will ever know :confused:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=6839

Man I am a dealmaker, not a coder, my mind just ain't got that ability.

What is your website and business plan for the internet?

[tvbuzz]

been on the net since 96 -- use it mainly as a tool for marketing/advertising -- got several thousand sites ... my blog is here .. http://www.productplacement.biz ..

that site is kind of a different direction from this 'ad network' .. but I need to keep involved in anything new that is going on.

FYI -- I posted a help thread over here:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=72362#post72362

[tvbuzz]

hope you can cut and post those links .. just found out .. no live links until i get to 10 posts!!

[anthonycea]

Yeah you can post links, they just will not be live till 10 posts.

Is that you on the site Jeff Greenfield?

Good looking site, what are you doing freezing in ME, but putting up sites about Hollywood?

[tvbuzz]

hehehe -- great question!

used to be in LA for many years .. great town ... if you are single! Now that I am married with a family .. it's nice to be away from the traffic, smog and craziness there. I can do all my biz with a phone and PC - thank god for the Internet.

[anthonycea]

So your main business is product placement on TV shows, movies?

I know that product placement in movies is a hot trend, can you tell us a bit about why?

I know that they are paying movie producers (helping finance production of films) to get their products shown in the films.

Can you tell us more about why it is so hot?

[tvbuzz]

it's been around for many years . .but especially hot due to all of the press attention.

One of the biggest factors for the coverage ... the 10% in viewership for the 18-34 demographic last september .. that gave many a network executive a coronary!

In addition, we've got research out that shows less than 10% of all viewers watch primetime ads ... now add in TiVo, Video on Demand and you've got viewer folks watching your ads. When you are spending in excess of $200,000 for a 30 second ad on Joey and are expecting 12 million viewers and only end up with 1.2 million .. you're bound to get a little upset.

When American Idol came out 2 years ago .. the placement was so 'in your face', it got the press chatting about it -- which was great. In the past, it was hush .. now it's out in the open.

For brands -- getting on a TV show or in Movie means they are there. They are going to be seen by 100% of viewers. Not only that .. but they will be seen in syndication nationally and internationally and in a DVD release.

It's important to note ... When a movie is ready to go into production .. sometimes they've only got 8 weeks until they start on it. During that time, they've got to round up all of the props and get everything organized. 90% of the products you see in film are there for FREE -- in fact, most of the time, the production company had to purchase or rent them for the film. It's only a small percentage that are actually there for 'paid placement'.

[anthonycea]

Yes, but don't you think that is the next logical step for your business is companies like FEDEX (as they did in the Tom Henks movie) paying to star in films like they did in that one?

[tvbuzz]

Absolutely.

Important to note .. FEDEX did not pay for their 'role' in Castaway. They simply provided supplies and let them shoot @ their Hub in Memphis. (A sidebar .. if you ever stay in Memphis .. DO NOT get a Hotel close the airport. At around 3 AM .. the FEDEX jets start flying in and will keep you up all night)

The key is finding the right role for the right client. Unfortunately .. a lot of these 'parts' come up rather quickly and the corporate clients are extremely slow to move -- they like to take their time making a decision .. which often leads to missed opportunities. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a perfect example .. a great tv show .. but most clients wanted nothing to do with it .. and during the 1st couple of shows .. placement was FREE. Another example is ET .. M&M's passed it up .. can you blame them .. Spielberg was a 2nd time director whose first film was Jaws. Client heard this film had a 'creature' in it and freaked out that kids would be scared of the candy -- probably never took the time to read the script.

[anthonycea]

Yes, but the time is right, RIGHT NOW, for such a broker like yourself to put these parties together, sounds like the situation you just described needs someone like you to put the deals together.

It sounds like a giant opportunity to me, if you can get 10% of a few 20 million dollar deals a year you could do well :confused:

I know that Cadillac is using Led Zeppelin to sell cars now, I would bet that Led Zeppelin got about 100 million in that transaction. :D

[tvbuzz]

Yes .. this is a great biz to be in the middle of!!

As for the Zeppelin .. that's more of a cross-promotion type deal. Cadillac had to pay a 'synch' license for the music to the writers and producers of the song -- but could negotiate based on the value of the media they are running. Meaning .. how many more albums would they sell by having their song played on TV and promoted to their exact demo?

For example .. we are doing a deal for a large summer movie. The client wants a license for merchandising and cross promotion -- meaning that they will tie their products to this extremely valuable movie in tv, radio, print, etc. Typically, the producers/owners would want several million for such a deal .. but the client is going to spend so much on their media that the cost of the license is brought down to virtual pennies, cause they know the media will drive more viewers to see the film.

[anthonycea]

Yeah, but Zeppelin always made unconventional and very secretive deals, this really was a first for them in such a long running campaign, so I would venture to say that they got quite a bit of cash or stock in GM for this one.

Those guys have always made better deals and were smarter than just about everyone. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are no man's fools.

One ad I did love was the one with the good looking Black Model dancing to Aerosmith's "Dream on" in that Buick commercial.

Damn was that sweet.

I just seen one today where NBC was merging the promotion of their Show Las Vegas with the Arena football league, that was a spectacular spot.

I love that Nikki Cox, damn she is good looking. I always wondered why it took the producers of the show so long to get her up front, they have got wise of late and pushed the other girls to the back now that they realize she is the star of the show.

What dummies they were for a while :confused: :p

[tvbuzz]

I agree with you about Nikki. It's taken a long time for pornstars to make in Hollywood and TV .. but porn is so mainstream now ... in fact .. porn does more biz then Hollywood does!

[anthonycea]

That is a great role for her, they had been casting her in dumb sexpot roles like the shows she did prior to this one, but this role seems to fit her well and she is also with much better actors than she was with before.

Plus the show has better writers and a lot more money behind it, so that is good for her and the show.

No doubt one of the biggest hits in years. I love the show, well I love it mostly because she is on it, I can not tell a lie :D ;) :)

[tvbuzz]

Here's a great shot of Niikki to end off the evening ...

http://www.poster.net/cox-nikki/cox-nikki-photo-nikki-cox-6203296.jpg

[anthonycea]

She looks good from about every angle, hard to take a bad photo of her and that is why she is so good on film.

I like her personality and the way she talks also, something special about that woman :)

PS: forgot that burning smile ;) :D

[zez]

Welcome to DP forums....

[mopacfan]

Welcome to the forums Jeff. Where abouts in Maine do you reside? Just curious, cuz I was stationed at Loring for about three years. I really miss the area and if I could make a living up there, I'd move back in an instant.

[tvbuzz]

hey mopacfan -

I'm in the southern region -- spend most of my time in Portsmouth, NH -- right over the border.

[amberstar702]

Hi Jeff:

Welcome from Las Vegas! :) It's in the low 50's here today, the sun isn't shining and I feel deprived. It should be sunny here every day. :eek:

Cordially,

[mopacfan]

yep, that's south alright. I remember it took three hours to get to the mall down in Bangor. That was a looooooooong way to go just to get back to civilization again. Don't get me wrong, if I could figure out how to make a living up in northern Maine, I'd move back without hesitating. Otherwise I'd want to be somewhere near Conway, NH.

[tvbuzz]

this morning i woke up to deer tracks in the backyard and about 5 inches of snow. It's a nice day .. cool breeze .. about 22 degrees.

[mopacfan]

Don't rub it in :(

I'd rather be snowmobiling!

[barrow]

Welcome from Boston, it's miserable here right now. Atleast in Maine it looks nice. Here it snows and the next day the city is covered with the filthiest snow you will ever see. My car will be covered in salt for the next month.