At the Movies: 'The Vow' Product Placement Hides in Plain View

Product placement in The Vow is a great study in one of the most important problems facing the practice. How valuable is a product placement if the audience can't identify it? The Vow had two such instances.

The movie, starring Rachel McAdams as a wife with amnesia, features wedding rings by one of the film's official partners, Parade. But the Parade brand name is never spoke or seen, so how can Vow fans know where to seek out the brand of rings? What good is a product placement that viewers can't identify?

Then, there is Imperfect Indulgence. The small Toronto design studio was lucky enough to see a number of its handbags used prominently in the The Vow. The designer, ‪Ana Niculae‬, says she contacted the film's producers via a Toronto organization that supports independent designers. The Vow Director, Michael Sucsy, then chose a number of bags from the Imperfect Indulgence collection.

‪Niculae‬ told us that as of Saturday, she had not yet seen the film because she was  movie was "responding to a plethera of emails, orders, and phone calls. Undoubtedly, we are extremely excited at this moment and working diligently to deliver a vibrant marketing strategy that fits this level of exposure." She added, "There is an increase in interest, absolutely, especially through additional exposure coming from the press and the internet."

The web is the greatest tool brands like Imperfect Indulgence and Parade to capitalize on their product placements. A Google search for "The Vow + wedding rings" returns first-page results pointing to Parade's Lyria collection from the film. One of the top results for "The Vow + handbags" is a Toronto Star story about ‪Niculae‬ and Imperfect Indulgence, which is how we found her.

The takeaway is that landing a product placement deal is only the beginning of the work for a brand. One's product does not simply appear on the big screen and then wait for the orders to roll in. Brands must be proactive and get the word out (case in point: Parade's E! "Say Your Vows" tie-in promotion at top) and win the search results battle, as The Vow clearly demonstrates.

For all of the product placement in The Vow, visit the Brandcameo product placement database.