Research firm Nielsen tallying product placement ads

A small army of people are now employed by research firms and advertisers to track product placement, one of the fastest-growing segments of the advertising industry. Advertisers spent $2.9 billion in 2007 to place their products in TV shows and movies, up 33.7% from the year before. This year spending is projected to hit $3.6 billion, not including "barter" arrangements -- in which a company gives away products to be used in shows, rather than paying for them to be placed there. Firms for a long time have been measuring the frequency of traditional print and broadcast advertising. As a result, advertisers know who is spending what, and where. But product placement has traditionally been a back-door industry, arranged by prop masters on TV shows and movies rather than by professional agencies. This has made it much more difficult to monitor who is placing products, and how often and where they appear. Some, such as the Federal Communications Commission, are concerned that it is too difficult to discern when product placements occur. Last month, the FCC said it would consider new rules to better inform viewers when brands appear on shows in exchange for money. Such disclosures currently run during the credits, but the agency plans to examine whether product placement notices should be written in bigger print and displayed for a longer period. Advertisers, on the other hand, are eager to know whether their money to plug their products is being well spent. Did viewers notice that the car the villain was driving was an Audi? Did a character holding a box of Wheaties really make people want to buy it? Did it make a difference how many times cups of Coca-Cola appeared on "American Idol"? Several companies are now vying to become the place where advertisers look for those answers.