How Branded Entertainment and Product Placement works – an Introduction to the Fundamentals

We believe a consistent and thought-out approach is required to make Branded Entertainment work.

Start with understanding the basics mechanics of how placements happen (the discussion below will help in this regard). Success in branded entertainment is closely linked to the creative process and it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Get close to what is happening and there is a lot of opportunity for the informed and engaged participant. This is as true for small companies as for the large players in the field.

Technological changes continue to drive the way consumers experience entertainment. Hardware convergence will soon make watching web and TV shows a blended experience. With advertising models outside of content still developing there is a greater impetus than ever for companies to engage directly with relevant entertainment projects to reach their audience.

The celebrity endorsement of products has been a staple of marketing practice ever since Socrates endorsed hemlock. Product placement involves displaying, mentioning, demonstrating, or consuming a branded product within entertainment contexts that build awareness and are likely to lend credibility, buzz, or glamour to the product. Product placement is effective, cost-efficient, and increasingly popular, which is why today’s agency professionals and client-side marketers need a basic familiarity with its fundamentals. This brief overview will introduce you to the essentials of the business.

Over the past decade, the prevalence of product placement, its sophistication as a marketing practice, and the industry systems that enable it have all advanced considerably. Along the way, the product placement industry has roughly distinguished three terms that you need to know. Industry professionals do not use these terms with consistent exactitude, and ‘product placement’ is widely used to refer to the whole lot, yet you will find the following distinctions useful:

• Brand Integration describes the practice of open collaboration between producers and brand agents to script brands into shows. Brand Integration operates on a paid model, wherein the brand getting exposure compensates the entertainment company for the production efforts required to integrate the brand into the show.
• Branded Entertainment has two meanings. First, it is used as a general term to describe the whole area of associating brands with entertainment projects. Second, the term more specifically refers to programming developed at the preliminary show concept stage either by a brand or by a production in very tight liaison with a brand. Designed to promote brand values its primary funding is the brand which is a difference from network or studio-funded content. Branded Content is another term used to describe this type of programming.
• Product Placement was the term coined originally to describe the whole area of associating brands with entertainment before the paid model of placement became so prevalent. When used specifically nowadays, the term ‘product placement’ usually connotes placements which are not paid for and wherein the brand therefore has less control and certainty over the nature and context of how its placement will be shown. Unless otherwise indicated, however, we will keep things simple in this discussion by using the term ‘product placement’ in its more general sense, whether or not the placement has been arranged for free.

Newcomers often assume that they’ll find a clear correlation between the mechanics of getting a brand into a show (e.g., was it free or paid for?), on the one hand, and the extent of visibility and integration of the brand in the finished entertainment, on the other. Yet frequently there is no such precise correlation: the novice is typically confusing the model of placement – free or paid – with the outcome. While it is easy to find paid brand integrations everywhere in today’s media, compelling integrations can still happen with little or no payment. The free and paid placement models will be explained and distinguished further in this discussion.

Companies get involved with product placement because it works. Research indicates that purchase interest increases 145% for product placements in ‘highly enjoyable’ programming and that product placement in TV boosts brand recognition by 20%. Alongside this the decreasing effectiveness of more traditional methods of advertising as technology increasingly places consumers in charge of what they watch and when they watch it. An effective way to cut through the clutter of fractured media, product placement also taps into the astonishing power of celebrity. Advertisers reach the audience with a powerful subliminal message of endorsement that creates a strong emotional feeling.

Product placement can deliver huge results for companies. Consider the case of Kids Crooked Houses, a Maine-based company that manufactures specialty playhouses for kids. In June 2009 they delivered four playhouses to the set of ‘Jon and Kate plus Eight’ a popular American reality TV show. According to the company’s owner:

“Within 60 seconds of Kate saying the phrase ‘crooked houses’ on TV last night there were 170,000 visitors to our Web site. We estimate that half a million people logged on to the site Monday and nearly 7,000 people have requested catalogs as of 10 a.m. today. The phones are ringing off the hooks.”

Now in 2012, Kids Crooked Houses is an official sponsor of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC.

Big consumer marketers have been very active in Product Placement. Coke routinely generates the highest number of product placement recalls as measured by Nielsen, and Dell computers have featured prominently on shows such as CSI and Desperate Housewives. The movie ‘Up in the Air’ by director Jason Reitman featured prominent placements by American Airlines. For the airline, the film’s positive critical reception has had a halo effect on the early buzz in social media they had been measuring on their role in ‘Up in the Air’.

“The performance from the actors and the script itself created something that fans really love, so we know that will leave a lasting impression on our audience” said Billy Sanez, the airline’s Director of Advertising and Promotions.

Smaller Brands have successfully used Product Placement to really build awareness. Alienware computers experienced a breakout response to its placement on the hit show ‘24’ with huge spikes in traffic both to its website and to its call center. Alienware’s Marketing Director described the impact “like winning the lottery”.

The bottom line is that product placement drives awareness and traffic. It creates an emotional connection with consumers and sells product. This is the reason for the phenomenal increase in the use of product placement as a core marketing strategy.

There are plenty of reasons why products are placed for free. Quite simply productions need products to create the set and a sense of realism. If your product fits and gives it realism then it will appear. We live in a branded world and the brands we choose say things about us that words can take much longer to say.

Brett Ratner, director of movies such as Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand and Beverly Hills Cop put it like this:

“What are my needs for the story?” he explained in describing his search for an organic

solution. “What car do I need that can become a character in the movie?”

Free prop placements are creatively-driven. There is no fee payable for these placements. The production gets the benefit of using the product in the way that they want with product provided at no cost. Often, producers prefer to deal with free prop placements as they arise as part of the creative process and are generally very ‘organic’.

The results can be staggering. In Live Free or Die Hard a D-Link security camera is featured full screen for few seconds with every detail clearly visible. This was a creatively driven free prop placement seen by 60 million people worldwide at the box office and by more than 100 million over its lifetime.

From the brand perspective the free prop model is very similar to PR. The hard cost is relatively low and the work is in knowing the opportunities and making the contacts. However with the free prop model the coverage is not guaranteed. Not every delivery produces a placement as not every pitch delivers a story. As a brand however you should understand the creative fit and the place for your product in the show. No suitable place = no product placement.

Interestingly, today almost all placements are assumed as paid when this may not actually be the case. As an example, the video by Lady GaGa for the hit single ‘Telephone’ created a lot of fuss for its use of product placement:

Troy Carter, Lady Gaga’s manager, explained that the scene in which Gaga curls her hair with Diet Coke cans was an unpaid placement, as the scene was in homage to her mother who used the exact same grooming technique in the ‘70’s.

Everyone has heard about the big bucks being paid for product placements. The James Bond franchise has featured placements from a multitude of brands including Sony Erickson and Omega. American Idol features Coke glasses prominently displayed in front of the judges – another paid placement. There are of course numerous other examples of paid placements in TV shows, feature films, music videos and web series.

Today, with their revenue model being eaten away by ad-zapping and pirating, and with the cost of quality production relentlessly increasing, producers and distributors are keen to incorporate brands for monetary compensation.

Brands now value the opportunity to be ‘in-content’ and un-zappable so the productions themselves have recognized the potential to tap this additional source of revenue. For a brand paying for product placement there are several advantages. The brand marketer:

• Will enjoy more control over the way the product is seen and used.
• May also get the chance to work to help script the brand in a certain way.
• May even be involved in the concept creation of the piece.
• Usually gets more assurance that the placement will survive the final cut of the show.

All of this allows the construction of a broader marketing platform to leverage the placement. Brands wanting to engage in this way will want to develop something that is genuinely cross platform. The more they can extend their program with the show the more value they can drive.

Payment for placement occurs in three ways. First, payment can be made in cash. Second, it can be promotional spend tied to the release of the show. Third, it can be provision of considerable amount of contra product. This was the model used by American Airlines for ‘Up in the Air’. [Note though that only supplying a limited numbers of items free of charge is still considered to be the ‘free prop’ model.]

When finding paid product placements, it is still best to find a good creative fit to build on. Issues arising from obtuse placements are often the result of a need to force product into creative because of fees already paid.

Product placement certainly creates debate. Extensive coverage in the media focuses on placements incorporated in an obvious or obtuse manner. This is breaking the cardinal rule of product placement – product placement should at all times allow the viewer to remain in the action of the show.

A good product placement is one that is generally organic to the creative of the show. The elements of fit and believability are important to create the right impact on the viewer. Time spent finding the right types of opportunities and reviewing the various different opportunities available is well spent.

Forcing a product into a show with no true creative fit often results in a bad product placement. Brands should avoid the urge to ‘shout out’ the placement to drive recall. Product placement works best as a subtle, subliminal and emotional form of advertising. Preferably drive recall and association with a particular property through a sponsorship model rather than a poorly crafted product placement. Also co-ordinate commercial spots around the placement to reinforce the branding.

In a study by Nielsen:

In shows that are considered “emotionally engaging” by their viewers, those viewers are 43 percent more likely to recognize products placed by advertisers either in ads aired during the shows or in product integration within the show.

Brand recognition also increases 29 percent for product placements during “highly enjoyable” programs, according to new research in Nielsen’s Consumer Insight (via Brandweek). Recognition for commercial spots during highly enjoyable programs increased 21 percent, and increased 5 percent for the combination of a product placement and a commercial spot.

The research also found that:

• Positive brand feelings during a highly enjoyable show increased by 85 percent for product placements, 75 percent for commercial spots and 68 percent for a combination of the two.
• Purchase intent during highly enjoyable programs increased 145 percent for product placements, 120 percent for commercial spots and 97 percent for the two combined.