NEW DELHI -- Entertainment marketing in India and China is the focus of an alliance inked Friday between L.A.-based Pier 3 Entertainment and Mumbai-based Starcom MediaVest Group Asia, a part of the Publicis Group, the world's fourth-largest communications group.

Pier 3 is known for placing AOL in "You've Got Mail" and Google in "The Holiday," while Starcom is known for placing WorldSpace Satellite Radio in the Indian comedy hit "Keep Going Munnabhai" and the Singapore Tourism Board in the superhero caper "Krrish."

Under the alliance, SMG entertainment marketing unit Starcom Entertainment will work with Pier 3 to place clients' brands in films, television and other media across various platforms in all of Asia.

"Many of our clients in the U.S. are now looking for entertainment marketing opportunities in India and China," Pier 3 president Thomas Loversky said. "We are looking forward to cross-leveraging Pier 3 Entertainment's decade-plus experience in Hollywood and Starcom Entertainment's Asian experience and relationships."

For three years, SMG has built a practice by embedding marketing in entertainment in India and the Philippines, a business that "is rapidly emerging as one of the surest ways of connecting with today's time-starved and attention-challenged consumers," said Ravi Kiran, the company's CEO for specialist solutions, Asia.

"As we prepare to roll out the solution across Asia, particularly the large and attractive Chinese market, it is good to partner with an experienced company such as Pier 3," Kiran said.

Financial terms of the alliance were not revealed.

In November 2006, Propaganda GEM (Global Entertainment Marketing), co-headquartered in Geneva and Los Angeles, also announced plans to establish an India office via an association with Mumbai-based investment bank YES Bank (HR 11/13).

Internationally, Propaganda GEM has worked on product placements in films such as "The Thomas Crown Affair" (Bulgari), "Tomb Raider 2" (Panasonic) and "Mission: Impossible III" (Lamborghini).

But in an interview Friday, Feyo Kolff, Propaganda GEM senior accounts manager said: "The plans to launch the India activities have been put on hold for now. The opportunity is definitely there and it's now mainly a question of first letting our existing European clients expand their business a bit more in India."

The deal: Google teams up with product placement firm Pier 3 Entertainment to promote its maps services.

The result: Placements in high-profile shows have increased exposure for the new products and helped develop a potential moneymaker for the search giant.

LOS ANGELES -- Google wants you to use its tools to navigate the world but first it has to show you how.

That's the marketing challenge the online search giant faced last year when it launched the Google Maps system enabling users to zoom in and view photographic close-ups of an address taken from a satellite for free.

An appearance in the plotline of CBS’ drama “NCIS” kicked off the product placement campaign. Since “NCIS,” Google Maps and Earth have also appeared in “CSI,” another CBS show.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In a move that underscores how seriously marketers are now studying and reacting to the nuances of product placement, Cold Stone Creamery is redesigning its product packaging in order to to make it stand out better on screen.

The ice cream retailer plans an April rollout for the complete makeover of its take-home containers -- a move driven largely by the fact that the company, which does not buy traditional advertising, relies heavily on entertainment marketing to reach consumers.

The new packaging replaces the sterile white plastic tubs that the company previously used with four-color paper containers that come in three sizes. The vibrant red color on the containers and use of graphics is supposed to reflect the atmosphere of the company’s stores -- one in which an overly energetic crew of staffers serenade customers while mixing up customized creations. Cold Stone’s logo remains virtually untouched.

When the brand appeared in a scene on CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” late last year, a character is shown eating from one of the company’s gallon-sized buckets. Despite the size of the container. The product almost seemed generic.

The appearance on the hit sitcom represented 36 seconds that Cold Stone considered a coup, but it also was a wakeup call. It may have landed a prime spot on a hit show, but it was starting to lose out on other high-profile opportunities -- all because of its packaging.

Producers and prop masters just didn’t consider the containers attractive enough, and the plastic often presented a problem, appearing washed out or creating a glare from the studio lights on set. As a result, the product was either removed, or worse, replaced at the last minute with a rival’s ice cream.

“We have missed out on opportunities, but we won’t lose out on those opportunities any longer,” Mr. Donnellan said.

Cold Stone had already been planning on revamping its look, but said that its increased reliance on product placement as a marketing tool forced executives to speed up the process.

Pier 3 Entertainment, which also reps Google and Bosch among others, oversees Cold Stone’s product placement efforts from its headquarters in Redondo Beach, Calif. It has already begun introducing the new containers to productions around Hollywood. The company most recently landed Cold Stone on the ABC sitcom “Crumbs” in February. In it, two of the lead characters eat ice cream from the old Cold Stone containers.

In an unusual attempt to maximize tele-vision product placement, German appliance firm Bosch this week trumpets its program exposure on the TV listings page of USA Today.

Bosch has bought space on the page for the next three months, and will run ads that alternate between humorous headlines referring to TV shows like "Everybody Loves Ranges" and "Delighted Housewives," and call-to-action ads telling consumers to look for Bosch appliances in a given show, then go online to name them for a chance to win one.

The effort, via Hamon & Associates, Santa Monica, Calif., aims at promoting TV shows Bosch appliances are placed in as much as the appliances themselves.

Bosch, which began a product-placement program via Pier 3 Entertainment, Redondo Beach, Calif., last year, has Bosch Nexxt washers and dryers, a Bosch dishwasher and sibling brand Thermador's Pro range, among others, on ABC's Desperate Housewives. The first sweepstakes program will involve Dude Room, a home-makeover show on cable's Home Improvement, on which Bosch has placed its Porsche Design line of countertop appliances.

Ads ask viewers to visit www.bosch.com to name which appliances ap-peared in the show.

Danyel Tiefenbacher, associate brand manager, said the company is in negotiations with network and cable execs for fall season deals, which might go beyond just placement for more integrated efforts.

"We would like, potentially, to use [the TV shows'] logo for our point-of-purchase materials, events and possibly trade shows," said Tiefenbacher. "It's in negotiation, and involves monetary exchange, but nothing is finalized."