The dawn of the streaming age has given consumers unlimited access to almost every form of media; thousands of films, series, documentaries and live events are quite literally at the tips of our fingers.
While this may be a revolution for the consumer, liberating them from the shackles of traditional television and its inflexible schedule, it has led to a significant casualty – the ad break. For so long part and parcel of our viewing experience, the commercial break has seen its relevance nosedive dramatically over the last 15 years.
This is not a new phenomenon, and the issue first arose with the advent of home video recorders in the 1990s, but it has been deeply accentuated by the death of traditional TV. So how do marketers rectify this problem? Unskippable ads of course! But also – and increasingly – they are making use of targeted product placement across popular films and series.
Product placement is hardly new, with the James Bond franchise’s Aston Martin partnership going back 60 years. However, the 21st century has seen the practice become more prevalent as customers are increasingly difficult to reach using traditional methods.
“Product placement has the ability to generate lucrative ROI and see sales for the products featured skyrocket,” said Sortlist co-founder and CMO, Nicholas Finet.
“Studies have shown that product placement has the ability to increase the viewer’s awareness around the product and create a more positive stance towards the brand.
“It also makes the consumer more likely to discuss the brand and products and search them online, showing just how powerful this form of advertising can be.”
Which films and franchises have embraced product placement – and has it had the desired effect on the brands being featured?
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Josie and the Pussycats (2001) – 109 placements
This teen musical comedy didn’t fare too well with critics or the wider public, failing to make much of an impression at the box office. It did however gain a cult following in later years, with its incessant use of product placement one of its more prominent idiosyncrasies.
On average, there was one placement per minute. However, it should be noted that this was an entirely satirical device used by co-directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan to lampoon American society’s rampant commercialism.
Sex and the City (2008) – 89 placements
Sex and the City’s TV series had already been a tried-and-tested placement platform for fashion brands such as Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo, so when production began for a feature film, it was set to be a marketer’s paradise. The production was clearly willing to incorporate fashion and luxury brands into the characters’ lives.
With close to 90 placements, brands from almost every sector rushed to get a piece of the pie, from upscale designers Vivienne Westwood, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton to tech companies like Apple, Blackberry (ring a bell?) and Dell.
Talladega Night: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Will Ferrell’s NASCAR-themed comedy was always a mouthwatering proposition for brands with the competition’s racing cars famously covered head-to-toe in sponsors. Interestingly, NASCAR itself canvassed its real-life sponsors, pitching the upcoming Sony production to them as a golden marketing opportunity.
Although Sony did not receive any money for the placements, Ricky Bobby’s (Ferrell) main sponsor US sliced bread brand Wonder Bread made a whopping £3.2 million off the back of the mammoth exposure received (11 minutes and 32 seconds of screen time).
Product Placement: an industry perspective
In terms of product placement representation, there are two clear frontrunners: Clothing & Fashion and Food & Groceries, with the Tech sector a distant third.
It is no surprise to find clothing at the top of the list, as fashion placements go hand-in-glove with the film industry, offering marketers and film producers alike a discreet and unobtrusive promotional tool.
Similarly, food and grocery items are typically easy to use in scenes without disrupting the film’s authenticity. In fact, using real-world food and drink brands often adds a layer of realism, allowing viewers to relate more closely to the events and characters they see on-screen.
We’ve already seen which motion pictures used the technique most frequently, but which brands have consistently broken the bank to secure lucrative placement deals?
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Apple (Tech) – 3,771
Multinational tech firm Apple leads the way as individual company, with a combined 3,771 placement across its leading products – the MacBook and the iPhone.
The Californian company’s products have become part of parcel of daily life in the Western world and with the US being the dominant force in the movie industry, it’s no surprise to find it topping the product placement list.
Nike (Clothing) – 3,134 placements
US sportswear giant Nike tops the list, featuring in worldwide blockbusters such Back to the Future II, Forrest Gump, and the Wolf of Wall Street. Nike shoes are a marketer’s dream, as they can be inserted into almost any scene set in the modern day without seeming contrived.
With an annual revenue of close to £30 billion, it is perhaps unsurprising that Oregon-based brand routinely splashes the cash in this way.
Coca-Cola (Grocery) – 1,570
In distant third we find global soft drink market leader Coca-Cola, whose brand has been ingrained in popular culture – including the entertainment industry – for well over a hundred years. The Coca-Cola company was briefly a major Hollywood player, owning Columbia Pictures for most of the 1980s.
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What does the future hold?
With streaming now a key entertainment channel, product placement is likely to continue to grow in importance over the coming years, as more traditional marketing and advertising techniques grow ineffective or irrelevant.
Sortlist’s Finet said: “Research has suggested that during the course of our lifetime, we spend over 78,000 hours in front of a TV screen,
“With this in mind, brands will see the big and small screen as a way to advertise their products right in front of your eyes without you even knowing and in a more relaxed way compared to a TV advert or a city centre billboard.”
With that in mind, perhaps what was once seen as a significant, yet niche sector of the marketing industry may yet come to dominate it entirely.
