BEN Group and 605 measure impact of product placements on viewer behavior across linear TV
Branded Entertainment Network, BEN Group, the entertainment AI company that integrates brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content, and 605, a television measurement and analytics company, have announced findings from their partnership.
The partnership, which formed in July 2020, allows BEN to leverage 605’s viewership data for programming across linear TV, enabling brands to better understand the impact and ROI of product placement spend.
605 PLATF0RM®, a web-based application, matches deterministic data from its viewership panel of over 22 million households with household-level data from third-party providers to measure lifts in sales across retail channels, in-store foot traffic, or visits to a website that stem directly from product placements, providing insights for BEN to enact on behalf of its clients.
The BEN and 605 partnership has proven to be effective for a portfolio of General Mills brands:
Old El Paso, a well-known brand of TexMex-style food products, integrated its products into the Lifetime holiday film, “Rediscovering Christmas” and one of Food Network’s top cooking shows, “Rachael Ray.” BEN and 605 measured sales lift for both integrations, focusing on the brand’s target audiences. The results showed that:
There was a double-digit sales lift across all exposed audiences
Old El Paso saw a double digit lift in sales among audiences aged 18-34 that were exposed to the Rediscovering Christmas integration
Old El Paso saw an incredible double digit lift in sales among audiences in $50k+ households with 1+ child(ren) that were exposed to the Rachael Ray integration
General Mills’ iconic cereal brand, Honey Nut Cheerios, integrated its products in the CBS show, “Mom.” BEN and 605 sought to understand how the integration impacted viewers in their target demographic. The study found that:
Across all exposed viewers, there was a double-digit increase in sales when compared to unexposed audiences
Sales increased double digits for exposed viewers aged 18-34, and across exposed households with an income of $50k+ and 1+ child(ren) aged 0-18
Kristin Dolan, Founder and CEO, 605: “Our partnership with BEN has allowed us to unearth a new layer of insight into the efficacy of product placement. It’s a significant achievement — we’re able to provide granular measurement across a number of KPIs, including changes in sales, web traffic, and even visits to a retail location. We look forward to continuing to work with BEN to showcase the value and impact of product placements across TV.”
Through its partnership with 605, BEN has been able to provide its clients with full funnel measurement solutions — a first for the product placement industry. In addition to its work on attribution reporting with 605, BEN offers its clients the ability to secure data for integration into media mix models and has conducted dozens of brand lift studies that help its clients measure the impact of their product placements on brand awareness, consideration or purchase intent.
Erin Schmidt, Chief Product Placement Officer, BEN: “Measuring the impact of product placement has always been more challenging and nuanced than reporting ROI for a traditional 30-second ad spot. Our goal for our partnership with 605 has been to prove that getting inside content through product placement isn’t just a creative way to reach audiences who are tuning out during ad-breaks or skipping ads altogether — it’s the most effective way. The results we’ve seen to date have been an incredible testament to the power of brand integrations.”
Looking ahead, BEN and 605 will continue to expand their partnership with new clients and measurement capabilities.
