MAM
Nielsen to study the efficacy of product placement in the US
MUMBAI: One advertising method that is growing in the US is that of product placement in both film and television. How effective is it?
That is the question Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen Entertainment in the US will seek to answer. They will conduct a study which will, for the first time, provide an assessment of the factors impacting product placement effectiveness.
At a time when there has been an intense focus on ROI for advertising generally, the spotlight on brand
integration has spawned several tracking and evaluation services. No one else however, has attempted to provide insight on the contributing factors of behavioural response on empirical findings.
The study’s initial participants include CBS/UPN, Discovery, Magna Global, Mediacom, OMD, PHD, Sprint, The Weather Channel, and Zenith Optimedia. Nielsen has been tracking the physical characteristics of product placement since the beginning of the 2003-2004 broadcast season. The objective of this extensive study is to look beyond the on-screen appearances
and determine how the context of a placement’s execution can impact consumer response. The relationship viewers have with a specific programme, as well as their familiarity with the brand and product category featured, as related to the effectiveness of placements, will be analysed in this research.
VNU media measurement and information group Senior VP strategy and alliances Dave Harkness says, “Product placement has gained significant attention and investment in recent years. This research study continues with Nielsen’s commitment to provide our clients with quality information to make more effective business and marketing decisions.” Nielsen Entertainment has also been testing the effectiveness of product placement in television, and beginning in 2006 in film as well.
Nielsen Entertainment president and CEO Andy Wing said, “We expect that the existing services from Nielsen combined with the results of our study to deliver findings that can lead to more actionable information which can be used to make brand integration a more measurable and effective selling tool.”
Magna Global director of Audience Analysis Steve Sternberg said, “Numerous advertisers are increasing their commitments in the product integration arena, while there continues to be precious little industry research to guide executives with crucial business decisions. This study is an essential first step towards more advanced and customised research analyses in predicting the relative impact of differing levels and types of product integration. As a charter subscriber, we are excited to be involved from the onset of the research and provide valuable input into this important research.”
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
