3. Product Placement
“An advertising technique used by companies to subtly promote their products
through a non-traditional advertising technique, usually through appearances in
film, television, or other media.”
• Product placements are often initiated through an agreement between a product
manufacturer and the media company in which the media company receives
economic benefit. A company will often pay a fee to have their product used,
displayed, or significantly featured in a movie or show.
For example:
• Coca-Cola could pay a given fee to have the title character drinking a Coke,
instead of a Pepsi beverage, or
• Toyota might pay to have one of the characters drive their newest automobile.
4. History
• Product placement began in the nineteenth century.
• By the time Jules Verne published the adventure novel Around the World in Eighty
Days (1873).
• His fame had led transport and shipping companies to lobby to be mentioned in
the story.
• Whether Verne was actually paid to do so, however, remains unknown.
• One of the earliest example of movie is The Garage, a Buster Keaton/"Fatty"
Arbuckle comedy which featured the logo of Red Crown gasoline in several
scenes (although there is no definitive proof that this product placement was paid
for).
5. Benefits of Product Placement
Only form of advertising that has a diminishing cost due to its longevity- theatres,
television, cable, videos and/or syndication. However, the total number of
audience impressions multiplies.
Average 30-second spot costs $50,000-$400,000+ production, whereas, product
placement costs a fraction of that (Hollywood)
• Awareness for new products/brands/services.
• Alternative uses/situations for a product/service.
• Captive audience because there is no channel surfing like during a commercial.
• gain exposure and promote products to the general public
• strengthen brand name recognition and serve as long-term reminder advertising
6. Advantages
• Exposure and frequency
• Support of other media
• Source association
• Recall
• Bypassing regulation
• Acceptance
• Targeting
7. Disadvantage
• High absolute cost
• Time of exposure
• Limited approach
• Lack of control
• Public reaction
• Negative placement
• Clutter
8. Product Placement as an Effective
Marketing Strategy
• In product placement a product is placed in a movie or television show in
exchange for payment of money or other promotional consideration by the
marketer (Gupta & Gould, 1997).
• One of the automobile companies which use product placement strategy heavily to
promote its cars is Aston Martin – a British manufacturer of luxury cars.
• three main areas
• 1. The nature and prevalence of product placement in movies.
• 2. The beliefs and attitudes regarding product placement.
• 3. The effects of product placement in movies and television.
9. James Bond: Spectre
• Making a killing! 17 different brands linger on screen in new Bond film Spectre
and 007 himself 'profits from each endorsement‘
• Daniel Craig makes his fourth appearance as James Bond in film, Spectre
• Movie is thought to have more product placement than any other Bond film
• At least 17 brands feature in Spectre, the 23rd installment of 007 franchise
• Ranging from Tom Ford suits and Heineken beer to Bollinger champagne and
Sony mobile phones, a wide assortment of companies are set to cash in on the
secret agent's enduring appeal.
• One of the more blatant scenes sees Bond handed an Omega watch by Q only for
the camera to zoom in on the item, clearly making sure viewers could see the
brand name.
10. A view to a sell
• Product placement in 007 films is nothing new, but it’s not always the big deals,
such as Heineken’s in Skyfall and now Belvedere vodka for Spectre, that pay the
biggest dividends.
• Skyfall had deals with Coca-Cola, Sony, Ford, Omega, Procter & Gamble and
Heineken.
• Heineken paid £28m for the Skyfall tie-in.
11. Product Placement in Aston Martin
• Aston Martin’s marketing strategy has been closely associated with James Bond
franchise films.
• It benefited the company’s worldwide image enormously and this relationship is
considered as one of the long-term successful business partnerships.
• Superband (2009) inform that it started with Aston Martin providing cars for Sean
Connery in 1964 “Goldfinger” James Bond film
• And still continues with Aston Martin DBS appearing in “Casino Royale” film in
2007 and “Spectre” film in 2015
13. Transformers 4 wins prize for movie with most
product placement
• Michael Bay blockbuster missed out on hoped-for Oscar nominations
• But did top list of movies pushing consumer products, featuring plugs for 55
brands
• Including Budweiser, Armani and Yili milk
14. Transformers: Mountain Dew
• Between advertisements for GM and Burger King, Transformers director Michael
Bay managed to pack an evil Mountain Dew vending machine into the film-
adaption of the beloved toys.
• The Decepticon Dispenser transforms into a Mountain Dew vending machine and
can kill people by shooting soda cans at them – an act that may give some viewers
pause next time they walk by that new, innocent seeming office vending machine.
15. The Evolution of Product Placement as a Marketing
Strategy
• According to Brennan et al. (1999) the whole idea of the product placement in
movies was originated due to producer’s effort to increase the reality of movies by
adding to them real brands and products.
• once products started appearing in movies it was followed by increase in sales for
that particular product and it caught marketers’ attention as a new promotional
channel.
• When the volume of ticket sales decreased and the amount of film budgets have
increased significantly, according to Magiera (1990, p.43), movie executives
became increasingly dependent on product placement as a source to support their
budgets.
• Nowadays product placement agencies review the scripts aiming to find product
placement opportunities in them for companies
16. The Benefits of Product Placement and How Does It
Work
• Product placement was the most effective in boosting the product recall
• Product recall was found to be high when product appeared jointly with a major
character or the main character in the film which Provided greater visibility for the
product
• Product placement influences the audience to develop familiarity and a sense of
being associated with the brand appeared in the movie
• It is a hybrid message contains both – advertising and publicity.
17. Relationship
Beckstead (1995, p.21) mentions about an extensive research by Coleman which
found out the relationship between different forms of product placement and
product recall by the viewers:
• 32% of viewers recall the product if the item is visually placed;
• 53% of viewers recall the product if the item is actually used;
• 60% of viewers recall the product if the item is verbally mentioned;
• 71% of viewers recall the product if the item is verbally endorsed;
• 81% of viewers recall the product if the item is mentioned and used;
18. Bollywood: Body Guard
• Bodyguard went in full Hollywood
mode.
• It featured Sony’s Vaio notebooks,
• Blackberry smart phones,
• Tupperware (yes, Tupperware),
• The Audi Q7 and
• Salman’s own bodyguard; Shera’s
security company name tag!
19. Mere Dad Ki Maruti
• Mere Dad Ki Maruti was a fresh and hilarious comedy film
• But more than that, it was an ingenious 2 hour advertisement for
Maruti’s Ertiga.
• Eagerly looking forward to the Maruti car that will be highlighted in the
sequel!
20. All is ‘Fair and Lovely’ when it comes to product
placement (JPNA)
• Hamza Ali Abbasi wear Levis.
• Sohai Ali Abro openly reveal her beauty as a result of skin bleaching Fair and
Lovely at her own mehndi party.
22. Benefits of product placement
• Product placement provides a continuity for the advertisement
• Being associated with celebrities, product placement can be perceived as being
endorsed by them.
• Product placement is a convenient advertising strategy to target specific audiences
• Lifespan of product placements are considerably longer compared to other
mediums of advertisement.
• Product placements provide opportunity of manipulating with commercial speech
due to a big amount of ambiguity in them.
• Generally audience’s attitudes towards product placements are positive.
• Product placements enjoy less critical responses from audiences compared to other
advertisement means.
23. The Practice of Product Placement
in Other Companies
• There are many examples of the product placement to be engaged in by other
companies as well.
• pointing to Reese’s candies which were used in the movie “ET: The Extra-
Terrestrial”
• BMW AG Z3 roadster featured in 1996 Bond installment “Golden Eye”.
• The appearance of BMWZ3 roadster in the James Bond installment Golden Eye
included also advertising in media.
• Ray-ban sunglasses’ placement in film Risky Business, as a result of which its
sales tripled.
• 15 product placements took place in the film “Minority Report”, and, therefore,
money generated from product placement covered was around 25 million dollars.
24. Cases of product placement
• Domino’s Pizza in Mutant Ninja Turtles;
• Nintendo Video Games and Mattel Inc.’s Power Glove in The
Wizard;
• Chevrolet, Hardees, Coca-Cola and Exxon in Days of Thunder;
• GAP, Nokia and 28 other brands in Minority Report;
• Burger King and Coors Beer in Gremlins;
• McDonald’s and Coca-Cola in Mac and Me;
• Toyota, Miller, Nike, AT&T, USA Today and Pizza Hut in Back
to the Future II;
• Ray-Bans and Seagrams Champagne in Top Gun;
• Sanyo, Wheaties and Nike in Rocky III;
• Miller Lite in Caddyshack II.
25. Controversies and Inefficiencies in Product
Placement
• Deciding on a product placement it have to analyze the wider context and forecast
the impressions the product is likely to install to viewers.
• An example of product placement producing unwanted effect is brought by
Johnson (1994), as Coca-Cola being shown in a bloody murder scene in the
contradictory film Natural Born Killers.
• Another example of inefficiently placed Coca-Cola brand is when in film Falling
Down when highly depressed man, played by Michael Douglas drinks Coca-Cola
in several occasions during the film.