In last season's American Idol, Nielsen counted 4,349 product placement occurrences.  So far in 2008, the number of placements is surging—the program racked up 3,291 occurrences the first three months of 2008 alone.

During season 6 (Jan. 16 – May 23, 2007), American Idol featured 4,349 product placement occurrences.  As of March 31, 2008, the number of placements featured during season 7 was surging—American Idol had already racked up 3,291 occurrences.

Coca-Cola and AT&T Wireless were the top two featured brands on American Idol during the first quarter of 2008.  In season 6, Cingular Wireless rounded out the top three—but in early 2008, Ford claimed the third slot.  Coca-Cola, which has an ongoing advertising association with American Idol, far outpaced all other brands’ product placements on the program—beating second-place AT&T Wireless by more than 2,000 occurrences during both season 6 and the first quarter of 2008 (season 7).  (See the chart below for more details.) 

During both seasons 6 and the portion of season 7 included in this analysis (Jan. 15 – March 31, 2008), product placements on American Idol appeared most often in foreground shots.  In season 6, there were 3,030 foreground placements on the program; in the first three months of 2008, there were 2,154 foreground occurrences.  In season 6, background placements (372 occurrences) and prop placements (234 occurrences) rounded out the top three, while in the first quarter of 2008, call to action placements (310 occurrences) and wardrobe placements (206 occurrences) claimed second and third place, respectively.

The Nielsen Company has reported data trends about American Idol and its contestants.  Other important data include:

• TV Ratings -- People age 35-49 watched American Idol Season 7 the most, making up almost 29% of the total audience.  The most watched episode this season was the premiere episode on Tuesday, 1/15/08 averaging 33 million viewers.
  
  
• Mobile -- The average American Idol participant voted via text message 38 times in April 2008.
  
  

• Music -- Kelly Clarkson is the best selling American Idol contestant with album and digital download sales of 18.9 million.  Carrie Underwood is second with album and digital download sales of 15.7 million.
  
  

• Online -- Male contestants David Cook, David Archuleta and Jason Castro dominate the show’s consumer discussion online with 14.3% and 12.5% and 10.5% buzz volume, respectively.  The most popular American Idol contestant from opinions and feedback from Hey! Nielsen’s online panel is Carrie Underwood.  Web traffic to American Idol websites saw the most unique visitors in March 2007.