Marketers taking a direct hand in developing TV programming is nothing new. In fact marketer-developed programming like The Hallmark Hall of Fame, General Electric Theater and a long list of soap operas were major forces in the earliest development of the television medium. But the recent announcement by Wal-Mart and P & G to develop family oriented programming for NBC is a very interesting development – one that seems to grow from the convergence of some recent market trends. (Bloomberg reported)
Trend #1: Vendors are, more today than ever, looking for innovative ways to partner with retailers. At
the same time vendors and retailers are competing with each other as private label and store brands compete head to head with the national brands of their vendors.
Trend #2: As reported in a recent Brandweek article, viewership of traditional commercial pods is declining as DVR usage is increasing.
So what's the solution? It might just be strategic product placement within marketer-owned programming through an innovative vendor/retailer/media partnership. P & G will feature its Duracell 
batteries and Iams pet food and Wal-Mart will feature its store brand Great Value breakfast cereal. Brilliant!
This type of creative partnering is the type of vendor/retailer collaboration that we have championed in this blog for several years. And the fact that a national vendor is supporting the private label efforts of a 
retailer is of special note. We expect to see more of this in the years ahead. But there are a couple of special factors in this particular partnership that make it unique and perhaps difficult for others to imitate.
Most importantly Wal-Mart and P & G are THE powerhouses in their respective businesses so the risks of “channel conflict” in this partnership are minimal. P & G’s other retailers may not like this close arrangement but, practically, what can they do? Dropping P & G brands is not a realistic solution. P & G’s brands are just too strong. Wal-mart’s other vendors probably aren’t very happy either – but their hands are tied as Wal-Mart holds all the cards. Could any other vendor/retailer combination have pulled this off? It is also interesting to note that the private label product category (cereal) that Wal-Mart is featuring is not competitive to any P & G categories.
It will be interesting to watch how this partnership and strategy evolve and to see if this classic old strategy of marketer created content will be recycled in today’s new media world.
