Reading that Paramount greenlighted the Frazier reboot with Kelsey Grammer for a second season reminded me of a product placement for the ages.
As part of our Sony consumer electronics assignment at the time, we supported Aibo, a robotic dog. While I love B2B tech, periodically landing in consumer space delivers a nice change of pace.
One of the team’s brainstorming sessions led them down the path of surfacing TV shows that included a dog. From there, they zeroed in on Frazier, where Eddie — right, the dog — had a prominent role. We had never pitched a product placement on TV or a movie, but that didn’t deter the team. They somehow, some way, navigated the gauntlet that resulted in Aibo showing up on the original Frazier.
Here’s the clip of Aibo on Frazier.
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It doesn’t exactly qualify for Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame,” but I’ll take our 32 seconds on prime-time TV.
It’s worth pointing out that this win came at a time when there was an “earned media” component to product placement. In today’s environment, the path for landing a product on a TV show or movie has become purely a paid exercise. To give you a feel for the cost, negotiations with network TV for a prime-time spot start at $500K.
Our relationship with Sony eventually came to an end with the line, “Lou, you know what your problem is.”