This made me look back at a strategic plan I drafted for one of the world's top 50 media companies in 1996. It considered investment in, among other things, a Tivo-like company; technologies that could digitally alter or morph screen images, and, licensing intellectual property rights to future performances by dead actors. An agent's dream, an entirely new clientele: the deceased!
Reflecting upon these, I could not resist considering some Frankenstein-like possibilities. Given (1) Asia's traditional ability to "leap-frog" and adopt many technological advances, and (2) Coca-Cola and Nokia adopting in-programming co-sponsorship of a series of hour-long, commercial-less TV shows (working title 'Live From Tomorrow'), scheduled for broadcast this summer, a real problem could be presented to Western content providers and Asian programme buyers. Will this limit exportable content to only contemporary themes? After all, what products can be inserted into a period piece about Queen Victoria, Gandhi, or Ghengis Khan? A chilled Coke or a Nokia portable phone? I don't think so!
Let's assume, as the pundits do, that DVR adoption in the US will greatly accelerate from its somewhat sluggish rate to date due to the inclusion of the technology in set-top boxes and TV sets themselves. More and more programming will then have to have more and more products integrally embedded in the dialogue, the set, the cast's clothing, cars and beverages. Of course, if the sponsors are major global brands like Coke and Nokia there shouldn't be too much of a problem. But Coke and Nokia aren't going to sponsor all of the programmes. So other brands, many without global name recognition, will have to. A Darwinian survival game where the big name brands get prime-time shows and the lesser brands the fringe?
Other possible scenarios, while humorous, are potentially serious. Will the Asian markets have an appetite for programmes embedded by lesser known sponsors? Will a US sitcom series embedded with positive references to (and sponsored by), say Orhto's birth control pills, sell well in Indonesia?
Will pirates have to pirate software to digitally substitute local products in pirated content? Will 'Live From Tomorrow' be telecast in China with the stars drinking not a Coke, but a Tsingtao? Humour aside, how will sponsored in-programme ads be repacked for local markets?
Better yet, forget regional, national, racial or cultural appetites.
A technology exists which scans the radio channels being played in passing cars. It determines the dominant tastes of the drivers and then chooses from a selection of formats and products which ads are best to broadcast on roadside electronic billboards. It's real-time outdoor advertising demographic research and implementation - simultaneously!
It's going to be a brave new brand world! When? Who knows, but it is something to think about this year. As for me, I can't wait for a new DVD: 'Enter The Crouching Dragon'. It features a great aerial kung fu fight between Chow Yun Fat and a digitally revived Bruce Lee!
Michael F. Spiessbach is the chairman of Media Financial Services International.