Given the widespread need for cars in almost every film, Ford’s prevalence is not surprising, often coming in background or inconsequential shots—New York taxis, for example, are almost always Fords. But one area where Ford is making more than background strides is the prominent inclusion of its “oldy” new Mustang design. The new model has more-than-meets-the-eye showings in the recent hits Transformers and I Am Legend. The classic model, on which the new one is based, plays huge roles in The Bucket List and American Gangster. Furthermore, the Mustang is just revving up onscreen. With its prominent starring role in the upcoming testosterone-driven Death Race, and next year's Transformers 2, the model is back in a spotlight it hasn’t seen since 1968’s Bullit.
But the yet-to-be-seen onscreen ROI of Mustang’s efforts won’t come early enough to stop Ford’s at-press-time financial woes (year over year sales declines of 15 percent). Nor will it come in time for Mark Kaline, Ford’s global media manager, who was responsible for Ford Motor Company's Global Brand Entertainment team, which handles all Ford product placement for the brand stable. With Ford for 11 years, Kaline was written out of the Ford script in a recent marketing department retooling.
Brandcameo E.T./Reese's Award for Achievement in Press Coverage: Transformers
Mentioning E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial has become a clichéd prerequisite for media coverage of anything product-placement related. Watch it here. This award recognizes the film whose product placements, justifiably or not, received the most scrutiny.
Although Iron Man and Sex and the City gave it a good run, Google News shows that in terms of total news volume about “product placement,” nothing during the period from Jan. 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 (or for that matter, during any time that Google has ever tracked news volume from 2004 to present) out-produced Transformers during the first days of its July 2007 release.
Brandcameo Award for Best Off-Screen Support: Iron Man
Audi’s R8 played an impressive role in Iron Man. And to blur the line between film and reality, Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. arrived at premiers in the same R8 model. Plus, the actor publicly showed off his special edition 18K gold-plated LG cell phone, just like the one used in the film. But to win this award, Iron Man went the extra mile. It wasn’t enough to have Tony “Iron Man” Stark scarf a few BK burgers straight from the bag. Taking  product placement to a whole new level were Iron Man star Robert Downy Jr.’s comments to Empire Magazine stating that it was a trip to Burger King that convinced him to clean up his life. Though, in true product placement tradition, the brand doesn’t always get to control how it is placed: “I have to thank Burger King. It was such a disgusting burger I ordered. I had that, and this big soda, and I thought something really bad was going to happen."
A Spotlight on brandcameo Numbers
A total of 52 films were number one during their respective weeks at the US box office during the period of January 2007 through June 2008. Several films reigned for more than one week.
In these films, brandchannel spotted 1,251 brands. This works out to approximately 24.1 discernable brands per film, completely average for the millennium. (In fact, an average of 23.5 b/p/f is so common we figured the math was wrong; it is not.)
From 2001 to the present the numbers are:
2001: 25.1 brands per film (30 films)
2002: 21.6 brands per film (30 films)
2003: 20.1 brands per film (38 films)
2004*: 16.7 brands per film (30 films)
2005: 23.5 brands per film (37 films)
2006: 23.5 brands per film (37 films)
2007: 24.9 brands per film (32 films)
2008, Jan – June: 22.1 brands per film (20 films)
* The low ratio in 2004 is because several number one films, including those during a stretch from early May through mid-June (Van Helsing, Troy, Shrek 2, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), had no placements at all.
These ratios may differ from what we printed in previous brandcameo reports. We often receive suggestions of placements we might have missed, and the numbers are updated accordingly.
No two brand appearances in a film are equal. Measuring product placement value and impact continues to be very subjective. Our margin of error is dependent on films seen in the theater versus DVD. While tracking brands on DVD is easier than tracking brands on the big screen, the benefit of tracking in theatres is that if the brand placement doesn't make an impact on those of us actively looking for it, chances are it isn't registering with the audience much at all.
For the first time, brandchannel hosted a global survey on product placements that recognized seven distinct awards from the following year, August 1, 2007 through July 25, 2008. A total of 883 product placement enthusiasts responded. Below are the results with analysis.
The Welcome to Reality Award for a fictional brand or product you would most want in real life.
Winner: Stark Industries - Iron Man
It's possible that the newly found benevolence of Stark Industries attracts viewers because large-scale hyper-technical weapons makers do already exist. But it was close, with Stark’s 24 percent of the vote edging out Superbad’s Gold Slick Vodka (21 percent) and Wall-E’s Buy-N-Large (20 percent). Semi-Pro’s Flint Tropics will not be going pro, with less than 6 percent of the vote.
Remarkable Write-Ins: Wayne Corp. (The Dark Knight); Duff Beer (The Simpsons)
Noteworthy: Despite its 13.5 percent fan base, Bee Movie’s Ray Liotta Honey has a 100 percent desirability rating from this writer.
The Scene Stealer Award for the brand that took the spotlight from its human co-stars.
Winner: Ford Mustang - I Am Legend
The blueprint for good product placement: Steal scenes that would otherwise be forgettable. Don’t overpower a plot or actor so as to be too obvious. Be memorable for your obvious role, not for your obvious “placement.”
Remarkable Write-Ins: Audi R8 (Iron Man); Mountain Dew (Mission Istanbul); Planet Hollywood (21); iPhone (Sex and the City)
Noteworthy: Mustang clobbered the competition with 41percent of the vote. But there’s more: Unlike some other winners, the ‘Stang was multi-laterally championed across age groups, gender and nationality.
The Bomb Award for product placement that ruined the enjoyment of a scene.
Winner: Nokia - Cloverfield
Remarkable Write-Ins: Apple (I Am Legend); iPod (Wall-E); Burger King (Iron Man); some variation of "everything" or "all" (Sex and the City)
Noteworthy: Hardly lopsided—Nokia/Cloverfield: 19 percent; Symantec/The Incredible Hulk: 16 percent; Sony/Vantage Point and Fox/The Simpsons Movie: 15 percent—this was all about the advanced subtleties of audience expectation. Those over 31 years of age—the more “refined” viewers—voted placements as “bombs” in much higher percentages in films that they may have “expected to be better.” For example, while about 35 percent voted bombs for both Vantage Point and Cloverfield, about 10 percent more voted for Fox in The Simpsons Movie. Those under 31 showed no such imbalance.
The Most Mouthwatering Award for placement most likely to prompt an immediate purchase.
Winner: Louis Vuitton - Sex and the City
Remarkable Write-Ins: MV Agusta F4 (The Dark Knight); Audance (Fan Chun); Lamborghini, incl. various spellings (The Dark Knight)
Noteworthy: This award skewed heavily by gender and it could be said that a couple of the placements here hit their target demos. Louis Vuitton’s winning 26 percent of the total vote was nearly 70 percent female. While Harley Davidson (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) managed 20 percent of the total vote, 77 percent of those votes came from men. Even better for Harley, three-fourths of its total votes came from the desirable under-40 crowd.
|
Winner: Sex and the City
commenting closed
bookmark
print
suggest topic
recommend
email
Sorry, but you forgot the Best one: Apple in WALLY. 
| Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | FAQ