NBC combines product placement and e-commerce
Published:
25 April 2001 y., Wednesday
At the end of Thursday’s episode of “Will & Grace,” NBC tried to sell the shirt off of Debra Messing’s back — a $52 Polo T-Shirt.
IN WHAT APPEARS to be the first attempt to cross promote a prime-time show product placement with an e-commerce site, NBC ran a 10-second promo at the end of the last commercial break on the highly rated sitcom. It said: “If you’d like to buy a Ralph Lauren pink pony T-shirt like the one Grace (Messing) is wearing in tonight’s episode and help the fight against cancer, log onto Polo.com.”
Polo.com is the e-commerce Web site for designer Polo Ralph Lauren’s clothing line and is 50 percent owned by NBC. Once at the site, a box with a picture of a model wearing the cotton T-shirt “seen on Will & Grace,” pops up and links users to the section that sells the item. Fifteen dollars of the $52 price goes to “support programs dedicated to raising cancer awareness.”
Networks have long talked about doing actual selling of items seen on shows as a way to generate revenues outside of conventional advertising, but there have been few serious attempts at making a real business out of it. NBC insisted the Polo.com promo was not a way to test the waters for future e-commerce tie-ins, and emphasized the charitable aspect of the offer. After the show aired, traffic on the site doubled from its previous high — NBC didn’t disclose an exact number — and 3,000 pink pony T-shirts
had been ordered by midday Friday. It’s likely that some of those online users purchased other items as well.
Šaltinis:
msnbc.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
As the 108th Congress scrambles in its final days to address homeland security issues, U.S. Reps. Mac Thornberry and Zoe Lofgren are focusing on the state of U.S. cybersecurity
more »
Security firms are warning of a new series of Sdbot worms that install a "sniffer" component to steal passwords from unsuspecting users
more »
Microsoft's undeclared patent claims on Sender ID technology is holding up adoption of the e-mail authentication specification
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Microsoft has been granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on a process known as tabbing through a Web page in order to find links
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
UzJilSberBank (Uzbek housing construction bank) completed a project of introduction of plastic cards at Almalyk Mining and Smelting Combine
more »
Recent decisions suggest that U.S. courts are more likely to protect an online database if the work involved was tilted towards the compilation of data itself as opposed to the technology used to gather it
more »
Touch-screen machines brought in to replace the punch-card ballots at the center of the 2000 presidential fiasco appeared to work smoothly in primary voting Tuesday
more »
Shruggle virus could be 'a taste of things to come', warn experts
more »