Product Brands have found a comfortable and extremely profitable niche in product placement in film.
As early as 1927 there was product placement in film, it was Hersey’s Chocolate. Since that time product placements in film have increased dramatically. In 1995 with the film GoldenEye $100 million dollars was invested in product placement. With the advertising of the BMW Z3 and other products the film grossed $300 Million dollars. Obviously there was a huge profit margin.
Steven Spielberg resurrected product placement to an all time high. Who can forget that E.T Extraterrestrial was lured out with a trail of Reese’s Pieces? The run on Reese’s Pieces after this film skyrocketed. It must have really irked M&M because Spielberg asked them if they would like to place their product in the film first, but declined. Rumour has it, it was due to the fact that M&M thought being in a children’s Sci-Fi film would not benefit them. It’s more than likely they have been kicking themselves ever since.
If a consumer uses their PVR to fast-forward an advertisement on TV and the brand is still noticeable, imagine the impact of having a brand name product placed in a high-grossing film. (See: Advertisers: Start your Social Media Engines).
Interestingly enough Ford took Apple’s place as the #1 brand in the top films of 2012.
Brand advertising of products in films also has been seen in fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King. Every parent who has ever bought a Happy-Meal at McDonald’s remembers Beauty & the Beast toys that came out with the Disney film.
Now we are seeing a great deal of money placed on product placement prior to the actual film. Recently Acer computers had an advertisement on TV that showed the computer with the special effects backdrop of the new Star Trek film, due to be release in a couple of weeks.
When it comes to product placement in film, it is usually done 10 days prior to a film being released. The stock values of that company’s product show an increase at that time, and during the time the film is running. However, after the film has finished its run, the stock tends to normalize.
The James Bond film Skyfall had no less than 28 apparent product placements, including the famous Aston Martin, that helped the film gross $88 million dollars. There is even placement of brands in animation films. Hotel Transylvania had Doritos, which is apparently for the young children’s marketing niche.
How does one get a brand product placed in a film? Are there people at a film company whose only job is to seek out products that are appropriate for a particular film? Do the companies with their brand name products go knocking on Hollywood’s door? I imagine it is a little bit, or rather a lot of both of these types of vying going on. What if you have a relatively new product, whose door do you knock on? What is you favourite film with a distinct product placement? For information on brands listed in films go to www.brandchannel.com.