Information about Product Placement

Marketing

Key concepts

Product / Price / Promotion Placement / Service / Retail Marketing research Marketing strategy Marketing management

Promotional content

Advertising / Branding Direct marketing / Personal Sales Product placement / Public relations Publicity / Sales promotion Underwriting

Promotional media

Printing / Publication / Broadcasting Out-of-home / Internet marketing Point of sale / Novelty items Digital marketing / In-game Word of mouth

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Product placement advertisements are promotional ads placed by marketers using real commercial products and services in media, where the presence of a particular brand is the result of an economic exchange. When featuring a product is not part of an economic exchange, it is called a product plug. Product placement appears in plays, film, television series, music videos, video games and books. It became more common starting in the 1980s, but can be traced back to at least 1949. Product placement occurs with the inclusion of a brand's logo in shot, or a favorable mention or appearance of a product in shot. This is done without disclosure, and under the premise that it is a natural part of the work. Most major movie releases today contain product placements.^[1] The most common form is movie and television placements and more recently computer and video games. Recently, websites have experimented with in-site product placement as a revenue model.

Early examples

One of the best-known instances of product placement appeared in 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which increased sales of Reese's Pieces 80 percent.^[2]

A very early example of product placement in film occurs in the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra where a young boy with aspirations to be an explorer displays a prominent copy of National Geographic. Another is in the 1949 film Love Happy, in which Harpo Marx cavorts on a rooftop among various billboards and at one point escapes from the villains on the old Mobil logo, the "Flying Red Horse".

Another very early example potentially occurs in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days in which transport and shipping companies lobbied to be mentioned as it was initially published in serial form.

Still another example is the conspicuous display of Studebaker motor vehicles in the television show Mr. Ed, which was sponsored by the Studebaker Corporation from 1961 to 1963.

The earliest example of product placement in a computer or video game occurs in the 1984 game Action Biker for KP's Skips crisps.

The earliest example of product placement in a cartoon occurs in the Comedy Central show: Shorties Watchin' Shorties.[1]

Modern Strategies and Examples

As of 2007, product placement in online-video is becoming more and more common. Online agencies are specializing in connecting online-video producers, which are usually individuals, with brands and advertisers. The year 2008 should show an increase in this practice.

Sometimes, product usage is negotiated rather than paid for. Some placements provide productions with below-the-line savings, with products such as props, clothes and cars being loaned for the production's use, thereby saving them purchase or rental fees. Barter systems (the director/actor/producer wants one for himself) and service deals (cellular phones provided for crew use, for instance) are also common practices. Producers may also seek out companies for product placements as another savings or revenue stream for the movie, with, for example, products used in exchange for help funding advertisements tied-in with a film's release, a show's new season or other event.

The most common products to be promoted in this way are automobiles. Frequently, all the important vehicles in a movie or television serial will be supplied by one manufacturer. For example, The X-Files used Fords, as do leading characters on 24. The James Bond films pioneered such placement.^[3] The 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun featured extensive use of AMC cars, even in scenes in Thailand, where AMC cars were not sold, and had the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle for the country's roads. Other times, vehicles or other products take on such key roles in the film it is as if they are another character. Examples of this practice include Bad Boys 2, in which almost every car was made by General Motors (besides the Ferrari driven during the chase scene). In Desperate Housewives three of the characters drive Nissans, and the camera view often focuses on the Nissan symbol on someone's car. Also the character Gabrielle Solis can also be seen driving an Aston Martin DB9 Volante prominently. In The Matrix Reloaded, a key chase scene is conducted between a brand new Cadillac CTS and a Cadillac Escalade EXT. The chase scene also features a Ducati motorcycle in the getaway.

More recently, Apple frequently places its products in films and on television, where they therefore seem much more common than in most real-world offices and homes. Apple has stated that it does not pay for product placement, though executives will not say how their products get into movies and onto TV. The most plausible argument may be that Apple computers appear to be more visually appealing than ordinary PCs. (Notably, recognizable Apple products have appeared in newspaper comic strips, including Opus, Baby Blues, Non Sequitur, and FoxTrot, even though paid placement in comics is all but unknown.) In a twist on traditional product placement, Hewlett-Packard computers now appear exclusively as part of photo layouts in the IKEA catalog in addition to placing plastic models of its computers in IKEA stores, having taken over Apple's position in the Swedish furniture retailer's promotional materials several years ago. Hewlett-Packard also put their computers in the US production of The Office, though it is likely that this was a purposeful choice, since offices rarely have Macintosh computers.

A variant of product placement is advertisement placement. In this case an advertisement for the product (rather than the product itself) is seen in the movie or television series. Examples include a Lucky Strike cigarette advertisement on a billboard or a truck with a milk advertisement on its trailer.

Product placement is also used in books (particularly novels) and video games, such as Crazy Taxi, which featured numerous real retail stores as game destinations. However, sometimes the economics are reversed, and video game makers pay for the rights to use real sports teams and players.

Quantification methods track brand integrations, with both basic quantitative and more demonstrative qualitative systems used to determine the cost and effective media value of a placement. Rating systems measure the type of placement and on-screen exposure is gauged by audience recall rates. Products might be featured but hardly identifiable, clearly identifiable, long or recurrent in exposure, associated with a main character, verbally mentioned and/or they may play a key role in the storyline. Media values are also weighed over time, depending on a specific product's degree of presence in the market.

Product placement can be seen as a modern version of the exhibit displays seen at world's fairs, concerts, sporting events, or anywhere that large numbers of potential customers gathered.

Virtual product placement uses computer graphics to insert the product into the program after the program is complete.[2][3]

The pilot episode of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock prominently featured General Electric's Trivection oven, which many people believed was an example of product placement.[4] However, Tina Fey, the show's creator, stated in an interview that the oven was included purely as a joke,[5] although this didn't stop GE from running ads for the oven during the commercial break. Allison Eckelkamp, a spokesperson for GE, said that GE chose to do this to make sure viewers knew it was a real product.[6]

The series ER also frequently has product placement. Some product placement tactics include: A bag of chips sitting in the desk counter, a soft drink from the machine in the hospital waiting room, a credit card logo seen at the register of Doc Magoo's, and so forth.

The film Superstar, starting Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon, shows every resident in their town driving VW New Beetles. However, it is possible that this was done to add to the comic effect of the film, and could therefore be discounted as an entirely blatant example of product placement.

The film Minority Report, loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name, makes heavy use of product placement, including Coca-Cola, Gap, and Lexus. Director Steven Spielberg also uses one scene to criticize advertising: the main character (Tom Cruise) is harassed by personalised advertisements calling out his own name. The film Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, bit the hand that fed it by depicting acts of violence against most of the products that paid to be placed in the film. Examples include the scene where the Apple Store is broken into, and the scene in which Brad Pitt and Edward Norton smash the headlights of a new Volkswagen Beetle. The comedy film Kung Pow! Enter the Fist also attempted to spoof its product placements, clearly pointing out the anachronistic inclusion of a Taco Bell in the film. In a similar vein, in the main characters stumble across a Wal-Mart while stranded in the middle of Death Valley and get all necessary supplies for their endorsement of the company.

2004's Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was one of the first films to be completely centered around a product or product retail store. The White Castle fast food chain, though very regional, enjoyed a high rise in exposure when the film was released.

The film I, Robot, loosely based on the story collection by Isaac Asimov, makes heavy use of product placements for sports shoes, automobile, and hi-fi companies among others. One particularly infamous scene borderlines into actual advertisement territory in which a character compliments Will Smith's character's shoes to which he replies "Converse. Vintage 2004" (the year of the movie's release). The film was subject to negative criticism[7] and as a result is being ranked as the worst film for product placement on one site.[8]

The film The Island, directed by Michael Bay, features at least 21 individual products or brands, including cars, bottled water, shoes, credit cards, beer, ice cream, and even a search engine.^[4] The film was highly criticized for this.^[5] In movie's DVD Commentary track, Michael Bay claims he added the advertisements for realism purposes. ^[6]

The film , directed by Adam McKay, also contained a high amount of product placement. Characters repeatedly mention brands under the disguise of NASCAR sponsorship. The movie contains possibly the first instance of an actual television commercial in a movie.^[7]

The 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats featured a large amount of blatant product placement for brands such as Puma, Target, McDonalds and TJ Maxx. This appears to be done ironically, as the plot of the film revolves around advertising in subliminal messages. The film's general message can also be construed as an anti-consumerist one.

The 1998 film The Truman Show utilized the concept of product placement, although in a manner different than other films. The film's focus, a 24-hour television broadcast called "The Truman Show" that focuses on the life of Truman Burbank uses product placement. His wife places products in front of the hidden cameras, even naming certain products in dialogue with her husband, all of which increases Truman's suspicion as he comes to realize his surroundings are intentionally fabricated.

Controversy

The James Bond film Licence to Kill featured use of the Lark brand of cigarette, and the producers accepted payment for that product placement. The studio's executives apparently believed that the placement triggered the American warning notice requirement for cigarette advertisements and thus the picture carried the Surgeon General's Warning at the end credits of the film. This brought forth calls for banning such cigarette advertisements in future films.

Some consumer groups such as Commercial Alert object to product placement as "an affront to basic honesty",[9] which they claim is too common in today's society. Commercial Alert asks for full disclosure of all product placement arrangements, arguing that most product placements are deceptive and not clearly disclosed. They advocate notification before and during television programs with embedded advertisements. One justification for this is to allow greater parental control for children, whom they claim are easily influenced by product placement.

Size of product placement market

According to PQMedia, a consulting firm that tracks the product placement market, 2006 product placement was estimated at $3.07B rising to $5.6B in 2010. However, these figures are somewhat misleading in PQMedia's view in that today, many product placement and brand integration deals are a combination of advertising and product placement. In these deals, the product placement is often contingent upon the purchase of advertising revenues. When the product placement that is bundled with advertising is allocated to part of the spending, PDMedia estimates that product placement is closer to $7B in value, rising to $10B by 2010.

A major driver of growth for the use of product placement is the increasing use of digital video recorders (DVR) such as TiVO which enable viewers to skip advertisements. This ad skipping behavior increases in frequency the longer a household has owned a DVR.

Definitions

Because products play a broad role in society and in media, it's sometimes useful to distinguish between different types of product appearances in video material. Key categories are sponsorship, brand integration, cost reduction oriented product placement and fee based product placement.

In early media, e.g. radio in the 1930s and 1940s and early TV in the 1950s , programs were often underwritten by companies. "Soap operas" are called such because they were initially underwritten by consumer packaged goods companies such as P&G or Unilever. Sponsorship still exists today with programs being sponsored by major vendors such as Hallmark. Incorporation of products into the actual plot of a TV show is generally called "brand integration". A recent example is HBO's Sex In The City, where the plot revolved around an attractive male model dated by one of the protagonists, Absolut Vodka, a campaign upon which she was working, and a billboard in Time Square where the bottle prevented an image of the model from being X-rated. Knight Rider, a TV series featuring a talking Pontiac Trans Am is another example of brand integration.

Actual product placement, according to ERMA.org, a Hollywood product placement association falls into two categories: products or locations that are obtained from manufacturers or owners to reduce the cost of production, and products that deliberately placed into productions in exchange for fees.

Faux product placement

Some filmmakers have responded to product placement by creating fictional products that frequently appear in the movies they make. Some examples:

• Kevin Smith - Nails Cigarettes, Mooby Corporation, Chewlees Gum, Discreeto Burritos
• Quentin Tarantino - Red Apple Cigarettes, Big Kahuna Burger, Jack Rabbit Slim's Restaurants
• Robert Rodriguez - Chango Beer
• Pixar Animation Studios - Pizza Planet, Dinoco

This practice is also fairly common in certain comics, such as Svetlana Chmakova's Dramacon, which makes several product-placement-esque usages of "Pawky", (a modification of the name of the Japanese snack "Pocky", popular among the anime and manga fan community in which the story is set) or Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon, which includes numerous references to the series which Sailor Moon was spun off of; the anime makes further use of this meta-referential gag, going so far as having an animator on a Codename: Sailor V feature film be a victim in one episode.

This practice is also common in certain "reality-based" video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series which feature fictitious stores such as Ammu-Nation, Vinyl Countdown, Gash (spoofing Gap. Another spoof was made in with Zip), Pizza Boy, etc.

In the 1984 cult film Repo Man, a reverse form of product placement is used, with an exaggerated form of 1980's era generic packaging used on products prominently shown on-screen (these include "Beer", "Drink", "Dry Gin" and "Food - Meat Flavored"). Reportedly, this was done out of necessity after an intended advertiser, who was to have used product placement, backed out in mid-production.

Emerging technologies

As of 2007, a new trend is emerging in product placement, the development of capabilities that permit dynamic or switchable product placement. Previously post production tools have permitted one time insertion of new product placement images and billboard advertising, e.g. at baseball or hockey games. As of 2007, new startups are offering or developing the ability to switch product placement. First generation virtual product placement has tended to be based upon sports arenas where the geometrical relationships of camera and the surface of the flat area onto which the billboard is projected, can be easily calculated. Second generation product placement or dynamic product placement is more focused upon commercial products. Third generation virtual or dynamic product placement allows targeting of customers with different products that can be dynamically switched based upon e.g. demographics, pyschographics or behavioral information about the consumer.

Reverse product placement

So-called "reverse product placement" takes "faux product placement" a step further, by creating products in real life to match those seen in a fictional setting.^[8] For example, in 2007, 7-Eleven rebranded 11 of its American stores as "Kwik-E-Marts", selling some real-life versions of products seen in episodes of the Simpsons such as Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's cereal.

References

• Pascal Schumacher: Effektivität von Ausgestaltungsformen des Product Placement, Fribourg 2007

External links

• Brand Cameos - Tracks product placement in blockbuster movies.
• Fast Company - Plinking as Emerging Web Jargon.
• Product placement in famous video clips.
  
• Measuring Product Placement