Event Spotlight

Greater Philadelphia Film Office :: Product Placement - Strategic Branding and Fundraising in Film
by Juanita Berge, 1 Jul 2007

The Greater Philadelphia Film Office (GPFO) is a "film commission" representing southeastern Pennsylvania that officially serves the counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia. We are a member of the Association of Film Commissions International (AFCI), and a founding member of Film US.

Learn more about the Greater Philadelphia Film Office.

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Have you ever gone to a movie you've been longing to see or settled in for a night of television viewing and felt like you're tuned in to the Commercial Channel? You know, cans of soda here, an auto or two there, liquor... sunglasses... fast food restaurants... banks, magazines, sporting & office equipment, water, snack foods, computer equipment, clothing, toys, resorts... you get the picture. Product placement in films and television shows is now big, big business. What started out in the 1940's and 50's as simple product plugs are currently mushrooming into an industry powerhouse complete with its own service companies. According to PQMedia, a consulting firm that tracks the product placement market, 2006 product placement was estimated at $3.07B, projected to rise to $5.6B by 2010. The sheer variety of product placement jargon is telling, and amusing: brand casting, ad-creep, advertainment, covert commercials, embedded ads, stealth ads, product immersion, product integration, product tie-ins, branded entertainment.

Simply stated, product placement is the use of branded objects in films, TV, and any venue of media to act as a visual cue to advertise. It's happening more and more and not just in the traditional media outlets of TV and film. We have product placement companies for books, music and video games – video games now being the preeminent users of product placement. Says Lloyd Remick, an attorney concentrating in the area of entertainment law, as well as president of Zane Management, Inc., a Philadelphia sports, entertainment and communications management firm, "Product placement is technically a marketing tool. In a world where people rely on TV commercials less and less often, product placement represents a new income stream." Remick was the moderator at the June 14th Product Placement Through Film panel discussion presented by the Greater Philadelphia Film Office. Held at the plush Victor's Club at Comcast Spectator – Wachovia Complex, the panel also featured Ron Bozman, executive producer and longtime producing associate of director Jonathan Demme; Nisa Amoils, an entertainment marketing specialist; and Marc Brownstein, President of the Brownstein Group founded in 1989.

Most noted for "The Silence of the Lambs", for which he won a 1991 Oscar, Bozman urged us to recognize this trend as the wave of the future. Not without its downside, he cautioned, "It's important that your work not appear a commercial sell-out," because of all the product placements. "Larger deals come with a full retinue of representatives bringing product to the producer, going through the scripts, sending in a 10-page document suggesting possible placements for their products. You want advertising that promotes the product while it promotes the movie." "A guiding rule is, 'Don't let your product inhibit how you tell your story,' " CBS Paramount TV David Stapf says. We've all been victims of bad product placement. That fluid line that should never be crossed when presenting brand-name items as props in TV shows, movies or music videos - a line that clever marketing folks try never to cross. "We know marketers want their products to be visible in the scene, but they shouldn't be the focus. The product needs to fit almost seamlessly (almost being the keyword here) into the shot and context of the scene," observes Katherine Fordham Neer in her article, How Product Placement Works. To be sure, there are entire websites devoted to the top 10 worst movies for product placement (http://www.theshiznit.co.uk), not to even mention the regular onslaught the FCC gets from media watchdog groups such as Commercial Alert. They view product placement as "an affront to basic honesty", affronts which they claim are 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. Still, others are more circumspect about the aesthetic lines that may be crossed. Says one attendee of the meeting, "Product placement is a disingenuous act that changes an audience viewing an art form into potential consumers of products."

In early media, e.g. radio in the 1930's and 40's and early TV in the 1950's, many programs were underwritten by companies. "Soap Operas" are called such because they were originally funded by companies like Proctor & Gamble and Lever Bros., the makers of laundry soap - early examples of product placement through sponsorship. In Jay Epstein's book The Rise and Fall of the Diamond, he lays out how the De Beers diamond cartel of South Africa helped finance films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" as part of a finely orchestrated campaign to drive up demand for diamonds. De Beer's advertising agency N.W. Ayers came up with a strategy in the 1930's to exploit what was then the 'exciting new medium' of motion pictures. The agency contacted writers and directors to arrange for scenes and songs featuring diamonds to be inserted into films. De Beers also loaned and gave diamonds away to top celebrities (and still does) as 'symbols of indestructible love' that would spur further sales. Between 1938 and 1941, diamond sales went up 55 percent. But the turning point for product placement came in the 1944 film noir "Laura" when Dana Andrews is seen drinking an imaginary whiskey named Black Pony. The film proved so popular, and the image of Andrews with his drink so indelible, that one whiskey producer actually launched a Black Pony brand the following year. Up to this point, real brand names were unheard of on the big screen, but later that year Joan Crawford is seen in the 1945 classic, "Mildred Pierce" downing whiskey from what clearly was a bottle of Jack Daniels. These incidents set the stage for what the industry was up until the 1980's - basically a series of product plugs that lent a verisimilitude to the story. All that would change in the 80's, when two product placements turned the fledgling business into an industry.

The first incident was the appearance of Reese's Pieces candy in the blockbuster "E.T." in 1982. When the movie's child lead used those to lure E.T. out of his hiding place, sales of the candy skyrocketed. The marketing media took notice, especially since M&M/Mars had turned down the opportunity to have its M&Ms used in the film. Placing Reese's Pieces in the film boosted sales of the candy by 66%. Peter Gardiner, chief media officer at Deutch (the agency that handled Reese's) said that "the E.T. product placement was so well done and powerful, it drove sales for years and years." The next year "Risky Business" hit the screen with Tom Cruise playing the lead. He wore RayBan Wayfarer sunglasses throughout the film. When he and the film hit the big-time, so did those shades. When Wayfarers became synonymous with cool, and sales tripled, the industry really sat up and took notice. "In the old days, before "E.T.," film producers would come to the production resources people and ask them to try to get hold of certain products," says Michael Nyman, a partner in Los Angeles marketing communications firm Bragman Nyman Cafarelli. "Then, when the movie was done, they might ask whether there were any promotional opportunities. Now, movie studios might start thinking about potential partners when they have an idea for the script. Our involvement today is very early on the curve. It can be at concept." Bill Buckley, a senior vice president at Los Angeles public relations firm Bragman Nyman & Cowan says, "There was a time when our role was simply to drop the product off on the set. Today, placement is only the beginning. Smart marketers are leveraging their placements with promotions and public relations activities. It's much more strategic... There's point-of-purchase material that says 'as seen in.' We might also use stills from the film in the catalog. Then there's an ad campaign that might include footage from the film, and the opportunity to do something on the internet. There's a lot of clutter out there, and companies need to work harder and harder to break through." Truer words were never spoken. Just a cursory web search of the chief companies in the product placement market yielded over 46 "major" players.

"From a public relations perspective product placement is a third party endorsement and that's very effective," says Marc Brownstein of the Brownstein Group. The media lends your product its cachet of cool, cutting-edge tech, glamour, or sincerity. Think of Marilyn and all her glittering best friends. "If you really want to delight your clients and make the cash register ring in unexpected ways," says Brownstein, product placement is definitely the way to go. Your product should identify in some way with the media in which it is placed. No ads so blatant that they make you wince. The word that comes up a lot is seamless. That's the way placements have to function to be successful. If your PR person is successful at these two things your target audience is delivered to your doorstep. The placement is seen by 100% of your viewers, then seen when the episode (in the case of TV) is shown other times during the season, again when the show is sold into syndication, and any international viewers when it is eventually sold on DVD. That's 100% saturation of your target audience. "Product placement is a non-traditional way to get in front of a very targeted audience," Brownstein concluded.

As products continue to find their way into movies, television, music, books and video games, you might think, 'What more could possibly be done? Where else could one possibly advertise?' But I urge you, never underestimate all those clever public relations firms out there, creatively and constantly regarding their bottom lines. With digital technology skyrocketing, there's an endless stream of new and innovative ways to put products in front of potential customers. There's no doubt you'll continue to see many of your favorite stars holding, handling and using products of all kinds on the big and small screens for years to come.

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