Twilight's Rabid Fans Make Volvo, Billabong, Burger King Into Winning Brandcameos

Some films receive flak for blatant branding attempts. Directors may be acccused of sellout, but consumers keep consuming, with teenagers especially susceptible to media influence.

The Twilight saga has won fans of all ages, including the fickle younger set, and teens by the truckload have run out to purchase anything that relates back to the book and film series. New Moon recently topped the box office, and Volvo revved up at the chance to have one of their products appear in the movie. They got their money's worth: their deal with Summit Entertainment ensured that head vampire Edward Cullen would drive the new XC60 crossover vehicle.

“Presumably with Twilight being a tween girl franchise, they are hoping that the message might be picked up by moms to use the Volvo to take their adolescent little vampires to soccer practice,” said Lucian James of the brand strategy consultancy Agenda.

Last month, Brandweek nominated Summit Entertainment’s president of worldwide marketing, Nancy Kirkpatrick, as a Marketer of the Year. Aside from Volvo, the Twilight series has partnerships with Burger King and the virtual world Habbo.

Twilight is a product placement outlier. Most brands struggle to get their product placements noticed, and some expensive efforts fall flat. Watch brand Tutima paid a ton to be in Righteous Kill, but got only two seconds of screen time in a film nobody cared about, as brandchannel's Abe Sauer noted, and was ultimately settled in court.

But every single brand that shows up in Twilight is closely scrutinized by its rabid fan base and posted online. When Billabong's Hannah-style jacket was spotted in stills, while the film was still in production, its asking price on eBay increased sixfold.

Before Kirkpatrick came aboard, Summit was far from a home brand. “People want to live in that world,” as Kirkpatrick noticed about the magnetism the Twilight book series had on its readers, and leveraged that bond to Summit's benefit.

It worked: Twilight has grossed at least $131 million in worldwide revenue. That's a whole lot of product, however way you drive, eat, wear, or click it.