If you’ve ever watched an episode of reality television, you may have noticed a disclaimer at the beginning: ‘this program contains product placement’. Similarly, scrolling through your Instagram, you’ll almost certainly see posts with a covertly placed ‘#ad’ hashtag.
The reason this has to be mentioned is because brands featured in various media forms are likely to experience a soar in demand for their products. Whether we realize it or not, this is an incredibly clever and often carefully orchestrated marketing tactic.
While the promotion of products on celebrity Instagram feeds may be a relatively new phenomenon (as discussed by Scrunch.com), featuring brands in forms of media other than their own promotional materials is not. In fact, we can see this happening all the way back to the earliest days of cinema, when silver-screen starlets would model the hottest trends of the day and send sales soaring.
Here’s why ordinary businesses should pay attention.
The Importance of Brand Awareness
In the modern commercial sphere, it’s fair to say that many markets are increasingly oversaturated. While the advent and evolution of the internet has arguably made it easier to build an audience, it has also allowed more businesses to develop than ever before.
The problem with this is that there is a limited number of consumers with a finite amount of spending power to sell to. In order to attract these buyers, brands must accomplish one important task: they need to make themselves known.
The reason for this is simple: without an audience, you cannot convert consumers into customers, and without customers, you have no sales and no profits coming in. Thus, this brings us to the necessity of building brand awareness.
How Music and Movies Can Help
Since brand awareness is vital for the survival of every successful company, business owners and marketers must look for ways to enhance their profile, both online and offline. One of the most effective options is to approach those in the public eye for assistance.
That’s because ordinary individuals are often influenced by those they admire, such as celebrities. When they see them modeling a particular pair of sunglasses or wearing a certain designer’s shoes, they’re driven to want these products for themselves.
Thus, one way that brands can showcase their wares is by having them featured in music videos or movies, or even on the Instagram feeds of popular figures. Not only are these products broadcasted to a large audience, but they are also immediately deemed as desirable items to buy.
Three Famous Examples of Product Placement
This all sounds good in theory, but it’s more interesting and informative to see examples of when these ideas have been put into practice. With regard to products featured in movies, there are numerous exemplars.
One of the most famous is Ray-Ban, which has been showcased in several flicks over the years, from The Blues Brothers to Top Gun. The latter showed the company’s Aviator-style glasses numerous times on-screen and on the faces of its main characters, leading to a 40 percent increase in sales in the months that followed its release. Indeed, many would argue that the cult popularity of the film transformed the shades into a timeless and enduring classic, with the style selling for about $154 at retailers like GlassesUSA.com even today and it is listed at the top of the site’s drop-down “Brands” menu.
Another movie that reinforces this point is Bullitt. It contains one of the most famous car chases of all time, which lasts over nine minutes and pans the camera to a 1968 Ford Mustang GT390. The result was not only a huge boost in sales of the car upon its release, but according to BrandsandFilms.com, it earned a spot in the classics’ hall of fame.
A third example is Suntory whisky, which was featured in the 2003 film Lost in Translation. A Japanese brand, the movie helped bring it to the attention of global audiences. The general manager of its marketing department even claimed that: “It was a great boost for us… our company got famous internationally.”
When it comes to timeless advertising, movies and music might just deliver the most enduring brand awareness of all tactics. Getting products featured in popular parts of history can sometimes mean that they remain in the public eye for decades to come, as seen in the case of Top Gun.
Would you consider cashing in on the cult of celebrity and collaborating with high-profile stars if you had the chance?
