Beyond Product Placement

Placing your brand effectively in a movie doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to place subliminal messages. You can feature your brand very effectively in a movie but it is not an easy task. The brand becomes absolutely dependant on the movie, relying that it will attract the general target the brand is aiming at. Movies cannot target product placements according to demographic (much less behavioral) characteristics of the audience.

Brands placed in movies have to become another character. They have to be featured incidentally. They can play any role, big or small. It doesn’t matter if they are blown up, crashed, shot at or thrown in a garbage can, as long as it is done the right way, at the right time and by the right people. The brand has to act like it is; respecting its brand equity. Remember the brand personality? Well, your brand must act like that “person” it is. Take look at the role FedEx and Wilson played in Cast Away. Sort of like the way brands are being featured in video games.

There is also a small dependence of the movie on the brand. Just like when you define someone by the brands they use, brands can also define how you judge and feel a character in a movie. Mitsubishi starred on 2 Fast 2 Furious. Why would any other car brand be interested in being featured there?

What would be of Steve McQueen, Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible and Will Smith in I am Legend without their Belstaff jackets? The bad guys in Superman Returns and Cyclops in X-Men: The Last Stand also wore Belstaff jackets. Ghost Rider’s bike wasn’t a Vespa, not because Vespa does not make good bikes, but because it lacks the rebel spirit other brands have. Turtle Wax fits perfectly in the Shark Tale’s Whale-Wash. The equity behind those brands helped defined each character.

Sometimes brands do not choose to be featured in films and, besides the legal issues there might be, the damage done to a brand may be strong. For example, From Hell (Albert and Allen Hughes, 2001) is said to be intentionally an anti-masonry film.

On other cases, some movies, like Star Wars, become brands all by themselves. In most of these movies, there are no other brands featured. Here are a few:

Films with no brands featured in them:

Horton Hears a Who	Open Season
10,000 B.C.	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Golden Compass	Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Beowulf	Kingdom of Heaven
SAW IV	Hero (Ying Xiong)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Shrek the Third	Troy
300	Van Helsing
Apocalypto	The Passion of the Christ
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

There are many brands being placed in movies. Here is an extract of the most featured brands in movies according to brandchannel.com:

Brands Featured in Films:

Ford: 105	Volvo: 19	MTV: 14	Rolls Royce: 10
Coca-Cola: 77	USPS: 19	TAG Heuer: 14	Doritos: 10
Apple: 70	Ford Mustang: 19	Sony Playstation: 14	American Express: 10
Mercdes: 62	USA Today: 19	Reebok: 13	Visa: 10
Chevrolet: 56	Red Bull: 18	Reebok: 13	Pontiac: 10
Pepsi: 55	FedEx: 18	Land Rover: 13	ESPN: 10
Budweiser: 53	Lincoln: 18	Corona: 13	New York Post: 10
Sony: 50	Hummer: 18	Lexus: 13	S. Pellegrino: 9
Nike: 46	HP: 18	Verizon: 12	Tabasco: 9
Cadillac: 38	Samsung: 18	Polo Ralph Lauren: 13	Michelob: 9
Motorola: 37	Heineken: 17	NBC: 12	Dos Equis: 9
Panasonic: 37	Jaguar: 17	Aquafina: 12	Corvette: 94
Dodge: 29	Montblanc: 17	Burger King: 12	Spalding: 9
GMC: 29	Kodak: 16	Range Rover: 12	Jack Daniel’s: 9
Nokia: 29	Ferrari: 16	Starbucks: 12	Yahoo!: 9
Volkswagen: 28	Lay’s: 16	Sprite: 11	Lacoste: 9
Adidas: 28	Miller: 16	Moët & Chandon: 11	Rolex: 13*
BMW: 28	Honda: 16	Dr. Pepper: 11	Bacardi: 9
Converse: 24	Volkswagen Beetle: 16	Oakley: 11	Ecko Unltd: 9
Jeep: 24	Nikon: 16	Ray-Ban: 11	JVC: 9
Dell: 24	Bose: 16	Sony VAIO: 11	CNN: 9
Toyota: 23	Belstaff: 16	Krispy Kreme: 11	eBay: 9
Philips: 22	New York Yankees: 15	Canon: 10	Grey Goose: 9
Puma: 22	Fox: 15	Oprah Winfrey: 10	Heinz: 9
McDonald’s: 21	Mountain Dew: 14	Nissan: 10	Bentley: 9
Porsche: 20	Chrysler: 14	SoBe: 10	Chanel: 9

So go beyond product placement. Find different alternatives. When placing your brand in a movie, merge them. Remember, you will not always reach the target audience you desire... your fate will be determined by the success of the film.