Indian entrepreneur backs video venture One of India's richest entrepreneurs has invested in technology that allows brands to be digitally inserted into films and television shows in a move designed to capitalise on growing global appetite for product placement. Subhash Chandra, the media pioneer behind the Zee TV channel, has made a £3m investment in MirriAd, a London-based company that is able to overlay different brands onto video content even after filming has taken place. Historically, product placement has been realised at the point of production. The technology will allow advertisers to insert different brands into the same content, enabling product placement initiatives to be tailored by market. So, depending on the broadcast region, different locally relevant brands could appear in the same TV show. Advertisers use a number of specialist agencies to help them place products into films and TV programmes. MirriAd is seeking to differentiate itself by using digital technology to enable companies to insert their brands into content through retrospective editing. The move comes amid continued relaxation in the rules surrounding product placement. "In many parts of the world product placement has been deregulated for some time," said Mark Popkiewicz, chief executive of MirriAd. Today we place brands into a wide range of content from dramas to soaps to sitcoms and reality TV shows. Sean Jefferson, head of content and sponsorship at Mindshare Worldwide, a media buying agency, said the global product placement market is growing amid this relaxation. "The regulations are changing and allowing more, in the UK and western Europe in particular," he said. But you are able to do more the further east you go. It's so accepted across Asia but the rules are loosening here too. According to the latest data from research group PQ Media, the global product placement market increased 9.8 per cent to $7.4bn in 2011 and is estimated to have grown even faster last year. The US remains the world's largest market with a value of $4.3bn, but China is the fastest growing, according to the research group, with the product placement market up 26.6 per cent there in 2011. Despite this growth, the global product placement market is still relatively small, accounting for less than 1 per cent of total TV ad spending, according to Mr Jefferson. But brands are increasingly turning to product placement as rising penetration of digital video recorders allows viewers to skip ad breaks. The vast majority of paid placements take place in TV and film, according to PQ Media. And while many western markets are still subject to tougher regulation, it has been a long-established marketing tool in the US. In the early 1980s, by placing the Pontiac Trans Am in the TV show Knight Rider starring David Hasselhoff, General Motors ensured its car became one of the most desirable of the period. Today internet, mobile, video games and even music are growing fast as product placement markets. In Lady Gaga's "Telephone" music video, Diet Coke cans were used as hair rollers.