Cooper was recently interviewed by Erik Renko, of Brand & Film, about “What Will 2013 Bring For Product Placements?” Here’s Cooper’s excerpt from the interview and you can read the entire interview here.

“As traditional “interruption” advertising – 30-second commercials, for example – become less effective because of DVRs and delayed viewing of TV shows, product placement is going to be more important in the coming years than ever before. Brands are going to more aggressively seek ways to organically integrate themselves into the storylines of shows to make themselves more relevant. At the same time, I predict that viewers are going to push back on any overt commercialization of their favorite shows. Ultimately, it’s going to be a dance between brands and networks to find the right balance of content and commerce.

My firm specializes in organic product placements for building products and home decor brands. We’ve enjoyed great success in getting the designers and producers of hundreds of DIY and home design shows to use our clients products, in exchange for on-screen logo shots, special thanks and web mentions. In fact, we had clients on every single episode of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” which is wrapping up its ninth season this week.

More important than those on-screen logo shots, the bragging rights of the implied endorsement of being involved with those shows present a tremendous opportunity to create value and ROI. The show is just the first step and shouldn’t be considered the final result. To use the opportunity to its fullest, we’re encouraging our clients to tout their involvement on their websites, in e-newsletters, industry press releases, on social media and the like. “As Seen On” is the phrase that pays.

Also, for one of our clients, our strategy is not only to take advantage of as many product placement opportunities as possible, but also to deprive their competitors of the opportunities for exposure. In other words, even when some opportunities don’t seem to be all that significant, we know that if we don’t provide the product, a competitor will. And they’re receiving TV coverage as a result. Part of our goal is to eliminate that opportunity for them if possible. In other words, the best defense is a good offense.”