Bebo's "Kate Modern": Using online product placement to monetise social networking websites

Tapping the commercial potential of online social networks remains elusive. Bebo, the 40m-member website, has embraced online product placement, signing up Procter & Gamble, Microsoft and movie studios as advertisers in its online drama, “Kate Modern” .

Bebo's "Kate Modern": Using online product placement to monetise social networking websites

Meg Carter

Social networking websites were initially viewed by advertisers mainly as places to seed TV commercials or create profile Web Pages for brands. But as leading online networks such as Bebo and MySpace embraced original content production, the potential to offer another marketing technique came into focus - namely, product placement.Global paid product placement across all media is forecast by PQ Media, the specialist researchers, to be worth $7.55bn in 2010 - an almost 20 per cent compound annual growth rate between 2005 and 2010....

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