Physical vs Digital: Product Placement Moves On

Apr 07

Product placement has given brands the chance to integrate into popular films and TV shows for decades. It’s an innovative and highly successful advertising medium, although traditionally it’s meant agencies liaising with directors and producers to secure adequate representation in broadcasts. A time consuming affair, and one that calls for quite some investment – and patience.

Smaller brand owners have been forced to forgo this method of promoting their products because of the cost and time involved in realising a return. But, thankfully for the advertising underdog, things are changing.

Digital product placement is making an impactful debut. Thanks to new technologies, brands can be placed seamlessly within broadcast content retrospectively – and there are many benefits.

It’s all in the Timing

Through digital insertion, brands can be embedded within existing content, rather than having to be physically included at script or production stage.

It can be anything from three to nine months before a TV programme is aired, and much longer for films.

In terms of products, trends and real-world events, this period of time is very significant and the impact of a particular brand name on its chosen audience may be lessened as a result. Digital insertion makes it possible for advertisers to use timing to great effect when choosing how to promote their products. Lexus – an official partner of the Melbourne Cup Carnival in 2011 – provided an example of this by superimposing an image of its logo on a railing in a scene from Winners & Losers, where the characters were at the races.

An Open Market

As digital insertion can be completed within a matter of days, greater flexibility and choice is given to the advertiser who is free to make last-minute decisions regarding product placement. There is also a reduced need for a particular programme to have only one or two long-term sponsors, as digital product placement can open up any number of revenues for other brands that may not want to commit to a 13-week series. This opens up the market to smaller companies with tighter marketing budgets, who will be able to get involved with a more flexible form of product placement advertising which was not previously accessible.

Making the Impossible Possible

Flexibility is a huge benefit of digital product placement advertising, as networks will now be able to sell in-programme ad placement to several different advertisers based on location. Advanced video technology can be used to seamlessly replace any product being used in a movie or TV show, including items being held or worn, even as the actor is moving. This opens up any number of possibilities for advertisers to market their products to different audiences, and networks will even be able to ‘resell’ product spots in their TV shows to different brands after the show has aired for their online catch-up services.

As the popularity of digital insertion grows, it won’t be long before Hollywood et al produces its films with product placement in mind from the earliest stages. Films will be designed specifically to support digital post-production product placement, by providing the actors with items (such as soft drink cans) in solid colours, making it a simple process to overdub a brand later on.

The possibilities for digital insertion are infinitely more open than with physical product placement, making the technology an exciting new move in embedded advertising.

Product Placement set to Flood China Movie Market

Mar 13

China’s national ban on commercials during TV dramas drew much attention when it hit the headlines in January this year. And now, perhaps as a result, all eyes seem to be on a relatively new concept in Chinese marketing – product placement.

Mobile security software firm NetQuin is set to feature its products heavily in upcoming gangster film, Du Zhan; a lucrative move in the already-booming mobile internet industry.

The Rise and Rise of Product Placement in China

In China, product placement has only been used frequently since the early 2000s. However, the industry is now expanding at up to 40 per cent every year, banking an estimated $10 million in profit in 2010. Hit Chinese TV series such as Meteor Shower and Unbeatable feature extensive brand placement, the latter showing obvious plugs for anti-dandruff shampoo, Clear. And far from being a hindrance to the popularity of the shows, the clever combinations of star actors, quality production and sophisticated ways of weaving brands in with plot has boosted the popularity of the shows, with Unbeatable 2 garnering an amazing 100 million online hits in two weeks.

‘The Advertisement King’ Breaks Box Offices Nationwide

It’s not just Chinese TV shows cashing in either. Famed Chinese director Feng Xiogang is such a fan of product placement advertising that he won himself the nickname of ‘The Advertisement King’ for his use of it in his films. 2004’s award-winning World Without Thieves covered its entire cost of production with earnings from product placements, while 2008’s If You Are the One and its 2010 sequel featured over 35 brands. The films smashed the box office, proving Chinese audiences are certainly not fazed by embedded advertising and don’t let it stop them enjoying a good film.

Upcoming film, Color Me Love, is set to feature upmarket brands such as Apple, Diesel, Cartier and Versace, showing the potential of product placement to advertise upscale products in China, where over half the country lives in rural areas. The increasingly popular method of advertising Chinese products seems to be just as popular in Hollywood, with hit US film Transformers: Dark of the Moon heavily featuring Chinese brands, such as Lenovo laptops, TCL electronics, Metersbonwe apparel and dairy giant Yili’s Shuhua milk.

Chinese Audiences Receive ‘Good Impressions’

Whilst Chinese audiences are not oblivious to product placement advertising, they’re certainly not put off by it. Creative moves to push brand awareness with product placement advertising are increasingly commented on positively across social media networks, with movie-goers describing ‘good impressions’ of the products. The noticeably positive reaction to the brands has been more than accounted for in sales, with Clear shampoo’s market share rising significantly with the broadcast of TV series, Unbeatable.

Product placement advertising in China has huge commercial potential to promote everyday products as well as new tech or luxury brands. With the new limitations on the airing of commercials, it’s likely that embedded advertising will be an innovative solution: one that will continue to go from strength to strength in Chinese media.

Vespa, Wrigley’s, and National Geographic: Where Product Placement REALLY Started

Feb 25

Many consider product placement in films and TV shows to be a new phenomenon. You may be surprised to learn then that it actually dates back to around the end of the 19^th century.

We mentioned a few posts back that the first paid-for product placement advertising appeared in a 1919 silent film starring Fatty Arbuckle. But the fact is, the starting point pre-dates even this example.

The Earliest Days of Product Placement

In 1896 French film directors the Lumière brothers collaborated with Swiss businessman François-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke on a short film called ‘Défilé du 8eme Bataillon’ (‘Parade of the 8^th Battallion’). Lavanchy-Clarke agreed to publicise and distribute the film in exchange for advertising space. The logo of one of his products, Sunlight Soap, briefly appears in the film on the side of a wheelbarrow; an example of product placement as old as cinema itself.

As cinema progressed, so did brand placement. In 1931, Fritz Lang’s famously dark offering ‘M’ prominently featured an ad for Wrigley’s PK chewing gum. The ad is in shot for around thirty seconds and stands in sharp contrast to the sinister tones of the picture – although it’s certainly not something any viewer could forget!

National Geographic Profits from Brand Placement

Into the 1940s and It’s a Wonderful Life made history with its life-affirming story, now widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. Lesser known is its use of product placement. In a scene where the younger version of Jimmy Stewart’s character talks of wanting to become an explorer, he’s seen holding a copy of National Geographic magazine. The magazine did very well from its placement in the heart-warming and memorable film: a truly great moment in product placement history.

‘New Age’ Product Placement

America’s first full-length cinematic foray into Italy came with 1953’s Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn having a whale of a time on her Piaggio Vespa scooter. The product placement proved very lucrative for the brand, with 100,000 sales for the Vespa scooter resulting.

But it was the highest grossing film of the 1950s – The Greatest Show on Earth – that really held the front page when it came to brand placement. The film was set entirely within the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The use of the circus was pivotal to the plot, with numerous instances of the name cropping up during the film. And this some thirty years before E.T. which many refer to as ‘early’ product placement!

Product placement has blurred the lines between story and advertisement in popular films for over a hundred years. From its beginnings in the earliest examples of cinema, all the way through to modern pictures, the story of embedded advertising continues to this day and will be one to watch to see how it develops into the next decade.

Product Placement in Movies: A Brief History

Jan 17

Product placement advertising is incredibly commonplace in movies, on TV and in music videos these days, but did you know the phenomenon that is considered such a modern-day marketing initiative actually dates back to the early 1900s? 

Oliver Noble’s video, ‘A Brief History of Conspicuous Product Placement in Movies’ runs a timeline on embedded advertising from its debut in a silent movie through to 47-brand-placing Transformers, and makes an interesting, if not slightly cynical, coffee-break watch. 

Fatty Arbuckle film first to use paid-for Product Placement 

The video reveals that the first documented, paid-for product placement advertisement appeared in a silent movie starring Fatty Arbuckle back in 1919. And that Hershey’s Chocolate used product placement in 1927 in ‘Wings’ – the first ever film to win an Academy Award for best picture. Even the Marx Brothers got involved in 1932 picture ‘Horse Feathers’ where Life Saver’s Candy made a timely appearance. 

And who could forget E.T.’s craving for Hershey’s Reece’s Pieces in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster? Their £1million investment reportedly boosted sales by 65%, a memory Mars – who were given first refusal, and took it – would no doubt rather forget. 

The Future Backs Brands 

Mac and Me, The Wizard and Back to the Future in the late 1980s are considered by Noble as some of the first movies to have gone too far with product placement and cites, as does the rest of the world, Adam Sandler as the Oscar-winner when it comes to embedded advertising. 

Into the 21^st Century, and Noble’s video explains we’re seeing more brands than ever per movie; in 2005 a total of 35 brands were placed in The Island, from Cadillac to Xbox. And in 2009, this record was blown out of the water when a staggering 47 brand owners took advantage of the opportunity to feature in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

“Creating a Positive Emotional Association with the Viewer” 

Noble may be slightly cynical in his coverage of a subject that clearly has its audience divided, but it is an interesting piece to watch nevertheless. Other spectators reporting their views on his video have voted in favour of product placement advertising, with one saying, “Watching a movie’s hero quench his thirst with a Dr. Pepper not only promotes brand recognition but it manipulatively tries to create a positive emotional association with the viewer.” (Political Remix Video.)