I was almost inconsolable to read that just six product placement deals have been signed since the advertising rules were relaxed 7 months ago.

My previous blog had predicted a world something akin to Total Recall where brands would tap into everyone’s psyche with incredibly clever positioning of their products at perfectly timed moments resulting in a new business avalanche for the brand owners.

Even my colleague Dan managed to write something about product placement in his recent blog – thus implying he must have at least some level of excitement about it – and we never usually get excited about the same type of things (from his blog you’ll see he said he likes chick flicks and rom-coms or something).

I so hate being wrong about the next big thing in marketing.

Then I got to thinking three things:

1. It’s early days yet. Maybe all the brands are waiting for someone else to make the first move, rather than be the guinea pig themselves.

2. Maybe there aren’t enough agencies with a product placement offer (would make sense, seeing as it wasn’t allowed on TV until recently) so brands aren’t really being encouraged into it.

3. Maybe there are enough agencies that offer it, but they aren’t doing enough to win new business.

So, to anyone in any position to influence the points above I would say this to you:

On point 1 – “he who dares Rodders, he who dares”

On point 2 – “oh look – here’s a relatively untapped sector to expand your offer into. I see a gap in the market”

And as for anyone who falls into point 3….

Well, don’t worry – we can help you out with that one.

Linking back to my blog posted on 30th September about the most frequent questions I get asked whilst speaking to agency owners about business development, let’s have a look at number 4:

Can I pass over lead and contacts for you to follow up on my behalf?

 The simple answer is yes, and the slightly longer one expands like so….

The most effective new business campaigns consist of a well researched and considered targeting strategy plus several tactical strands. These strands include Alchemis checking out all the trade press (both paper based and online) including NMA, Campaign, PR Week, The Drum, Event, Design Week and Marketing Week as well as the nationals (the FT, for example), the relevant vertical press (eg. The Grocer, Retail Week and Pharma Times) looking for current leads that are right for your service offer.

Our experience shows that once a lead is in the trade press, then it’s often too late; so our best sources for leads tend to be the financial and vertical press. As these leads are not necessarily part of the overall targeting strategy, we will then check with our clients to make sure that they’re not already talking to that lead and that they are happy for us to do so.

 Equally, if our clients see a lead and don’t have the time to follow it up, then we are more than happy to do so on their behalf. Similarly, if they’ve attended an event and come back with a load of business cards, send them our way – it’s why we’re there and it’s our day job!

After taking the trouble of going to court to sue Michael O’Leary for saying that he lied about easyJet’s punctuality rates, Stelios Haji-Ioannou has only gone and published a letter on the easyGroup website threatening to terminate easyJet’s brand license – unless they improve their punctuality rate within 90 days. Perhaps Michael O’Leary can go to the court of appeal with a view to downgrading his “unreserved apology” to maybe “just being a little bit sorry”.

In my last blog, I complained about suffering at the hands of easyJet (and Ryanair) on many occasions over the years. If they haven’t managed to improve punctuality (or customer service) over 10 years, doing it within 90 days could be a tall order.

Therefore I can see an opportunity for a few branding agencies to come up with something punchy and effective to reflect “the brand soon to be formerly known as easyJet’s” ethos.

My initial suggestion would be AreWeThereYetJet. (unfortunately not) but I’m sure that the talented copywriters who enter The Drum magazine’s Chip Shop Awards could come up with a few crackers.

Anyone else got any suggestions?