Brand games
How product placement is reaching the consumers who have switched off from traditional advertising
PRODUCT PLACEMENT REACHES AUDIENCES IN A WAY TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING NO LONGER CAN
Words: Jean-Marc Lehu
WE’RE TALKING $7.5 BILLION: this is the investment in branded entertainment we can expect by 2010, and a major reason why advertisers need to be aware of what it is exactly, why it’s growing so fast and how to be an effective part of the game.
Branded entertainment – positively integrating a brand in an entertainment media – isn’t new. In 1895, Oscar Wilde placed Perrier Jouet champagne in Algernon’s hands in The Importance of Being Earnest instead of champagne generically. Brand placements have mushroomed since then, in plays, films and songs. In the movie Night at the Museum, for instance, brands including Nike, Apple and Toyota can clearly be identified.
The main reason why such branded integration is the hot topic of the moment is that the media environment has changed drastically in recent years. Traditional advertising is suffering from a fragmentation and a dispersal of the audience; there are more TV channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines and internet pages than ever before. And the younger demographic spends longer in front of computers than TV sets.
In addition, electronic devices such as DVR, TiVo or ReplayTV help consumers avoid commercials altogether. In a recent study, Forrester Research agency showed that 92% of TV advertisements were avoided by TiVo users. Branded entertainment may not be the miracle solution to solve this problem of audience escape, but it offers an opportunity to reestablish a branded relationship with the consumer while he’s watching a movie or playing a video game.
According to the American Nielsen panel, more than three-quarters of all homes that contain a male aged between eight and 34 possess a games console. No surprise then to find Puma shoes specially designed for Nick Kang, the virtual character in True Crime: New York City (Activision). Video-game publishers are increasingly teaming with brands; they receive money for the game development and create a more realistic world, branded like the real one.
But contrary to what most people think, less than one placement in four is paid for by the brand, especially in movie placements. Some are free (if a product is needed in a specific scene or if it makes a chance appearance) but in most cases the placement relies on a barter deal. Better for the production to see Her Majesty’s most famous secret agent destroy an Aston Martin kindly supplied by Ford Motor Company than their having to buy it. The placement promotes the brand, and the brand promotes the movie in its communication, via tie-in operations.
Since General Motors signed a contract with Jack Warner – founder and owner of the eponymous American film studio – nearly a century ago to see its cars used in Warner’s movies, product placement technique has drastically changed. Even so, many brand placements fail to reach the public’s interest, because the product has been blatantly plugged into the media with no relevancy. But when Rolling Stone magazine subtly appears in Marc Lawrence’s Music and Lyrics, a film about a 1980s singer (Hugh Grant) attempting a comeback, the placement is logical and well integrated.
Integration is key. Prominence, number of scenes, time of exposure, and, most important, plot integration, are the main variables that will lead to a successful brand placement – or not.
When strategically done, brand placement is a way to merge cognition (brand name or purpose) and effectivity (brand image, emotional context, connection with celebrities) in a more spontaneous way than by advertising. After big-distribution names (Subway, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart and Starbucks among others), smaller newcomers are joining the fray: Bed Bath & Beyond (in Click) and Rally’s Hamburgers (in Talladega Nights), for example. Some brands even create their own brand placement platform. In 2001, more than 50 million people downloaded The Hire mini-films series from BMW’s website. More recently, OfficeMax teamed up with the successful ElfYourself.com website to give the opportunity to send funny, original e-cards. In our over-equipped society, many consumers want fun and entertainment in their buying process, or simply help in choosing a specific brand among hundreds.
Jean-Marc Lehu is the author of Branded Entertainment, Kogan Page (£22.50). Available from www.kogan-page.co.uk
