Product Placement in Films

A business always tries to find new ways to advertise their branded good or services. An increasingly common way to promote is by showing the actual product or an ad for it as part of a film. This form of advertisement is called product placement and even though it does not constitute a major segment of the advertising and promotions business, it has proved to be effective for plenty of companies.

E.T.

Throughout the years advertisers have become more and more reliable on product placement in films. It has been around since the early 1990s but it wasn’t noticeable until Reese’s Pieces were used in the film E.T. in 1982. The audience didn’t realize that a promotion was going on but it was acknowledged. Why? Because that year, Reese’s Pieces sales rose around 65% to 70% and the candies were added to about 800 movie theaters where they had previously not been sold.

Cast Away

Another huge blow out with product placement in movies was the film Cast Away. Fed Ex and Wilson Sporting Goods decided to take action with the product placement. Fed Ex didn’t pay a thing for brand placement. At first, the story of how a Fed Ex airplane crashes with all the packages, was a concern to the CEO because it might affect the image however, overall it was seen as a good thing. The company saw an increase in brand awareness after the film. After the film was released Wilson Sporting Goods introduce its own promotion focused around the fact that one of its product was a co-star with Tom Hanks. Wilson manufactured volleyballs with the hand print face on one side like in the movie. It was sold for a limited time and customers purchased the volleyball because they really just wanted “Wilson” to be their friend too; excellent marketing strategy.

Wilson

It's become more and more common throughout the years, but like every marketing technique it has advantages and disadvantages. Exposure is an advantage because there is a large amount of people that watches movies. Also how frequent the product is utilized in the film. A disadvantage can be a high cost for the product placement. In some contracts you may have to pay to have the product seen, pay more for an actor to mention it and pay extra for the actor to actually use it.

Many companies use films to promote their products. Advertisers often have to make decisions based on their own creative insights or just rely on the credibility of the source. However, there is some prove that has demonstrated the potential effectiveness of product placements. They just have to keep up with the technology and what their target/market is always up to.

-Jess!


"Creating Memories, Building Characters."