Advertisers often innovate different methodologies to market their product. Entertainment media is one of the prominent platforms for the advertisers to target their audience. Imagine a scene in a movie where the actor is busy drinking a branded soda, and then a bad guy appears and steals his branded car; then the actor’s follows him, and finally throws the bad guy out of the car on a big truck with a logo on it. This might appear to be a normal movie clip but the brands that are focused in the above scene is a form of an advertisement called as product placement.
Product placement is a smart way of branding and advertising a product, where the lead actor or any one of the character highlights the brand. The product is sometimes spoken verbally or exposed to the audience in such a way that it catches the attention immediately. The brand is embedded in various forms in the chosen media to accelerate sales or promote trademark.
Product placements are never disclosed as a form of advertisement. One could easily observe the branded product that is promoted in the movie, news program and other story line of the popular television shows. The most common products that are promoted through product placement are branded notebook computers, popular drinks, mobile phones, personal accessories and other items.
Few entertainers and movie makers dislike the idea of product placement as the movie might look too commercial for the audience, while some of them welcome product placement as it adds additional fund in the making of the movie. In spite of its commercialization, this phenomenon works very well in most of the cases as the movie viewer remembers the scenes along with the brand.
According to a product placement consulting firm PQMedia, the product placement market earned $3.1 billion in 2006, and in 2010 the market is expected to close with approximate revenue of $10 billion. The major promoters of product placement are the digital video player and other modern equipments that allow the viewers to skip the advertisement.
Product placement was initially started in the later 19th century, where authors used to mention a brand in their novel. Books still contribute in the promotion of a particular product to a certain extent. After 1920’s movies started product placement which is still an effective form of advertisement. Sports and other popular forms of entertainment sources are common picks for the advertisers.