As a company; to sell its product, to gain a greater market share, to make revenue and to take the company to the next level; marketing is one the most important operations. Marketing includes a set of processes; researching, creating, advertising, promoting, delivering, communicating; that related to the product which show its value to the customer. All of these processes are a step for a company leading to selling it’s products and making revenue.
There are various ways that a company markets its product, traditional ways being print media, billboards, advertisements, sponsorships etc. The common principle behind marketing is making customers aware about the company and its products. But, because of the sheer number of products in the market companies must come up with innovative ideas for marketing. Advertising, print media and billboards do the work of making people aware of the brand but sometimes that is not enough. Companies are better off spending its resources towards its target market rather than blanket marketing. One way to do that is to associate the brand and its products with something that the target market cares about. Sponsorships in sports is a great way to achieve that but sometimes companies also use storytelling to associate its product and achieve a greater connection with its customers. Storytelling can be done through marketing films, special events and advertisements. However, what is a better way of storytelling and making people get connected with something than movies and TV shows themselves.
Movies and TV shows can be a way for someone to experience life differently, imagine what would it be like to live in a fantasy world, imagining themselves in the place of a fictional character, sometimes also sympathising with them and caring about them. Sometimes the characters also act as role models for some and people want to do things the way they do, things they carry and clothes they wear. There is a huge demand for all the things related to the movies in pop culture, whether it be clothes, accessories, shoes, cars and even haircuts.
So, associating with a movie or the character is a great way for companies to increase its brand awareness, create brand association, connect with customers, and eventually make revenue. There are various ways for companies to associate itself with movies, we have seen cars from a specific car manufacturer being used in movies, electronic gadgets, restaurant chains and even toys. Moreover, brand logos and products are strategically placed in the scenes to catch attention. Therefore, the practice of paying for products to be featured in movies or TV shows by manufacturers is known as product placement or embedded marketing. There are many prominent cases of product placement in movies and tv shows for example, Aston Martin in ‘Bond’ movies, FedEx in ‘Cast Away’, Coca-Cola in ‘Stranger Things’ and Starbucks in ‘Game of Thrones’ .However, product placement is an excellent tool for sporting goods companies as well.
One would think sporting products would be more noticeable in movies related to sport. And in some sense that is true. However, sporting goods companies sometimes have a greater value in other genres as well. As mentioned above product placement is not only placing actual products in movies and tv shows but also, placing the brand logo on the screen to create brand awareness and association. And since sporting goods companies such as Nike and Adidas are as big in the clothing industry as they are in the sporting equipment, it works very well for them.
May be one of the most exciting product placements in movies would be the Nike self-lacing shoes in ‘Back to the future’. The movie is littered with product placements from Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut and who can forget the DeLorean. However, inclusion of Nike shoes in that perfect moment created so much hype and a much greater brand awareness for Nike.
Similarly, ‘Stranger things’ is another great example of a TV show being littered with product placements. Stranger things has perfectly choreographed scenes for specific products, some even going over the top the but companies have benefited from the success of the show so its works well for both parties. The 80s era also plays an important role because of the nostalgia. Reebok, Adidas, and Nike all take advantage of the show to showcase their retro products. Same product placement principle can also be seen in the movie ‘Forest Gump’. But for Stranger things, given the popularity of the show, several brands have taken advantage to create a special collection or products in line partnering the show. In return giving the TV show more viewers and Netflix more subscribers.
Probably the best example of product placement for sporting goods in movies would be in the movie ‘Cast Away’. We see the main character after being stranded on an island, fashions a friend out of a Wilson volleyball giving Wilson sporting goods a screen time second only to the main character and importantly the movie being very well written it never gets annoying. Just a single volleyball created so much value for the company and even to this day ‘Cast Away Wilson Volleyball’ is still on sell on their website.
However, one may ask exactly how much value can be generated through product placement. According Michael L. Maynard and Megan Scala and their research, if the cost of appearance of the brand in the movie Cast Away was to be calculated in advertising dollars it would have been upto $11.5 million. The Nike self-lacing shoes from Back to the Future, 1500 replicas were created which raised $6mil for Nike which they donated for charity. If one wants to buy the same shoes today in the resale market that would cost them about $7k to $10k, not to mention the value generated for Nike from brand awareness.
If we look at some of the blockbusters in recent times, according to Concave Brand Tracking, Avengers- Endgame featured over 60 brands, generating over $75mil in advertisement value. Some of the biggest brands being Audi $6mil, Ford $4.7mil, google $1.7mil. Ford V Ferrari featured over 145 different brands receiving $56 mil in advertisement value, Ford being the biggest receiver in $12.1mil. The third season of Stranger things with just eight episodes, featured over 100 brands. Many of those brands have even created a special line of products in association with the show, which can be spotted in the show itself.
Following graphs show the extent of product placement in last years Oscars nominees.
The work of Concave Brand Tracking gives a great insight of product placement. There are also some companies like Branded Entertainment Network that specialise in getting deals done between the brands and the movie production. So, product placement for both parties, the production and the brand proves invaluable. The value generated from advertisement gives the company greater brand awareness and for production it allows to produce better content for the audience. But at some point it does get over the top and can feel more of an advertisement than an art of filming a movie or a show. Although some corporations admit taking money for the product placement, there are ways to gain revenue from product placement for production without showing it on the books.
To conclude, product placement gives a great opportunity for the production as well the brands. However, just like a good movie where acting, costume design, editing and cinematography is best when you least notice it and yet you appreciate it. Marketing done through movies should also be something, that is there, which increases brand awareness but at the same time being subtle and not annoying to the viewers.
Concave Brand Tracking - https://concavebt.com/
Picture credits - nike.com, Cast away, stranger things, Back to the future
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