Peter Hay, prweek.com, 27 October 2010, 9:42am

Product placement firm MirriAd appoints College Hill for comms drive.

Peter Hay, prweek.com, 27 October 2010, 9:42am

International product placement firm MirriAd has handed a brief to College Hill, as OfCom scales back the ban on product placement on UK television.

Before and after: MirriAd places products

The account is believed to be worth a six-figure sum. MirriAd was launched in 2007 and provides a service that digitally embeds products, logos and videos into
existing digital media content, including TV and film productions, to give the effect that they were always there.

College Hill has been awarded a retained account to raise awareness of the brand in the UK and internationally in light of these changes. Historically, product placement has been banned on UK television. However, industry regulatory body OfCom’s Broadcasting Code is to be changed to allow product placement in the UK market following changes in EU legislation this year and the UK Government subsequently giving the green light.

College Hill partner James Hogan said: ‘Once this change comes into effect, MirriAd will be uniquely positioned to tap into the huge EU market. ‘We are excited to be working with the company, as it looks to really take off in the next few months.’
Product placement is allowed in the US, with the sector seeing a growth of 25 per cent over the past year, according to media research firm PQMedia.

MirriAd has just added investment management firm Oxford Capital Partners and broadcasting company STV Group to its list of shareholders in the UK.