Extreme Promotions
Promotion involves disseminating information about a product, product line, brand, or company.
It is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix. (The other three elements are product management, pricing, and distribution.)
Promotion is generally sub-divided into two parts:
- Above the line promotion: Promotion in the media (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, Internet and
Mobile Phones) in which the advertiser pays an advertising agency to place the ad
- Below the line promotion: All other promotion. Much of this is intended to be subtle enough that the consumer is unaware that promotion is
taking place. E.g. sponsorship, product placement, endorsements, sales promotion, merchandising, direct mail, personal selling, public relations,
trade shows
Product placement advertising is now typically used for the "below the line" form of
advertising. Product placement(PPL) is a promotional tactic used by marketers in which a
real commercial product is used in fictional media, and the presence of the product is a result of an economic exchange. When featuring a product
is not part of an economic exchange, it is called a product plug. Product placement appears in plays, film, television series, music videos,
video-games and books, and is a relatively new idea (first appearing in the 1980's). Product placement occurs with the inclusion of a brand's
logo, or a favorable mention or appearance of a product. This is done without disclosure, and under the premise that it is a natural part of the work.
Most major movie releases today contain product placements. The most common form is movie and television placements and more recently video games.
Product placement advertising powered in use back in 1982 when a shot of Reese’s Pieces in ET the Extraterrestrial sweetened sales of the candy by 65%.
The most basic form of product placement is the inclusion of a product name or logo in the foreground or background of a scene. Payments are based on exposure, including the number of times the product is shown or mentioned, the duration of that exposure, and the degree of inclusion of the product in the story line. If the product is actively used (such as when a leading character can be clearly seen to take a drink from the bottle or can), placement fees may be higher.
Other times, product usage is negotiated rather than paid for. Some placements provide productions with below-the-line savings, with products such as props, clothes and cars being loaned for the production's use, thereby saving them purchase or rental fees. Barter systems (the director/actor/producer wants one for himself) and service deals (cellular phones provided for crew use, for instance) are also common practices. Producers may also seek out companies for product placements as another savings or revenue stream for the movie, with, for example, products used in exchange for help funding advertisements tied-in with a film's release, a show's new season or other event.
The most common products to be promoted in this way are automobiles. Frequently, all the important vehicles in a movie or television serial will be supplied by one manufacturer. For example, The X-Files used Fords, as do leading characters on 24. The James Bond films were pioneers of such placement: the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun featured extensive use of AMC cars, even in scenes in Thailand, where AMC cars were not sold, and had the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle for the country's roads. Other times, vehicles or other products take on such key roles in the film it is as if they are another character. Examples of this practice include the placement of Audi in I, Robot and The Transporter 2 or the Nokia phone in Cellular, as well as the highway scene in The Matrix Reloaded, in which every car was made by General Motors.
More recently, Apple Computer frequently places its products in films and on television, where they therefore seem much more common than in most real-world offices and homes. In a twist on traditional product placement, Hewlett-Packard computers now appear exclusively as part of photo layouts in the IKEA catalog in addition to placing plastic models of its computers in IKEA stores—having taken over Apple's similar position in the Swedish furniture retailer's promotional materials several years ago.
A variant of product placement is advertisement placement. In this case an advertisement for the product (rather than the product itself) is seen in the movie or television series. Examples include a Lucky Strike cigarette advertisement on a billboard or a truck with a milk advertisement on its trailer.
Product placement is also used in books (particularly novels) and video games, such as Crazy Taxi which featured numerous real retail stores as game destinations. However, sometimes the economics are reversed, and video game makers pay for the rights to use real sports teams and players.
Quantification methods track brand integrations, with both basic quantitative and more demonstrative qualitative systems used to determine the cost and effective media value of a placement. Rating systems measure the type of placement and onscreen exposure is gauged by audience recall rates. Products might be featured but hardly identifiable, clearly identifiable, long or recurrent in exposure, associated with a main character, verbally mentioned and/or they may play a key role in the storyline. Media values are also weighed over time, depending on a specific product's degree of presence in the market.
Product placement companies work to ensure that their clients' products receive maximum screen time and exposure - whether it be the Nokia phone that Agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) uses on Alias, the Lacoste polo shirt that Alex Hitchens (Will Smith) wears in the feature film Hitch or the Rimowa pilot case Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen) carries as he arrives at crime scenes on CSI. Product placement can be seen as a modern version of the exhibit displays seen at world's fairs, concerts, sporting events, or anywhere that large numbers of potential customers gathered. Virtual product placement uses computer graphics to insert the product into the program after the program is complete.
The film The Truman Show explores the idea of a 24-hour on-air reality television program funded entirely by product placement.
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