Product placement: pinup shoes

While TV viewers practice channel switching speed during commercial breaks, advertisers are looking for new ways to attract and retain their attention. And they find it. Not as straightforward as TV commercials, but no less effective. We mean product placement - a tool that allows you to unobtrusively introduce a particular product into a movie (and not only). Maria Nikolaeva understood all the pros and cons of this method of product promotion.

What is product placement

Product placement - advertising placement of a particular brand or the product itself in an artwork. Not necessarily at all - only in the movies. The same technologies of unobtrusive emphasis on the product are successfully used in the creation of music videos, computer games, and book publishing. Just in terms of the impact on the audience, the movie screen far surpasses all other carriers of such advertising.

Product placement types

There are three types of product placement: visual - when a product, service or logo can simply be seen; verbal - when an actor mentions this product; and finally, complex, which involves the use of products in the virtual life of the hero. The latter type is most in demand by advertisers.

The most important thing for the advertiser is the choice of a movie character with whom the product will be associated. This should be an attractive character for the viewer, evoking positive emotions and trust, a hero who wants to imitate.

Foreign experience

It is believed that one of the first experiments in this area was the animated series about the sailor Popeye, which first appeared on the screens in the 30 of the XX century. This character absorbed a huge amount of spinach, thanks to which he gained unprecedented strength. As a result, sales of spinach in the United States increased several times.

However, the famous Bondiana has become a real symbol of product placement. Such companies as BMW, Ericsson, Smirnoff, Omega, Martini, Visa, Catterpillar built their advertising campaigns on the basis of advertising in films from the James Bond series. The results were worth it: after only one film "Golden Eye", BMW increased its sales by $ 300 million. And the demand for Omega watches increased nine times.

Do not lag behind "Agent 007" and other famous movie characters. So, in the tape "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Seduced Me" 14 brands were presented. Seagram's paid $ 1,2 million for an episode in Basic Instinct featuring Jack Daniel's whiskey, resulting in a fivefold increase in sales of the drink. Product placement of Hersheys chocolates in the film "Alien" increased sales by one and a half times in a matter of weeks. Legally Blonde, played by Reese Witherspoon, raised sales of Clinique cosmetics by a quarter. The ad for Nike sneakers in the House MD series (the whole episode of the first season was built around the doctor's shoes) created an unprecedented excitement around the "launch" of a new model.

By the way, some experts believe that it is Nike that makes product placement easy and unobtrusive. For example, in the first film "Terminator", filmed in 1984, a soldier from the future Kyle Reese, taking away dirty pants from a homeless person, hides from the police on the second floor of the supermarket. Here he decides to get hold of shoes. Close-up: it fastens Velcro on sneakers with the Nike logo.

I must say that sports shoes fall into the frame more often than other types of shoes. So, in the movie "I, Robot", the character of Will Smith wears Converse sneakers of the 98 year instead of high-tech shoes.

Highscores only

Record in terms of advertising was the penultimate film about James Bond, "Die, but not now." Among the brands featured in the film are Bollinger champagne, 7UP drink, Norelco electric razors, Revlon cosmetics, Brioni suits, Visa cards, British Airways airline, Ski-Doo snowmobiles, Philips electronics, Omega watches, Samsonite travel accessories, Plantronics wireless headphones, vodka Finlandia with unchanged Martini. Ford company provided shooting cars of several brands at once: Aston Martin, Jaguar, Thunderbird, Range Rover. In addition, for the first time in 13 years, James Bond lit Cuban cigars. Meticulous critics have estimated that for hidden advertising, the creators of the bond received about $ 70 million, setting a record for advertising in a feature film.

Released on the screens “Matrix. Reboot ”couldn’t even get close to this figure, despite the fact that two new products from the American company Cadillac appeared at once in the film: the latest Cadillac CTS sedan and the luxurious Cadillac EXT pickup. By the way, the first Matrix advertised clothes produced by Kim Barrett, the costume designer for the film. The logo of her brand appears when Neo and Morpheus rise to the Oracle on the elevator: to the right of Neo's head you can see a scratched inscription: Kym.

Russian features

Russian product placement is still quite young. The starting point is the picture of Eldar Ryazanov's “Prediction” (1993). A special scene was written for the film in which the hero of Oleg Basilashvili gives French perfume to the lady of her heart. At the same time, a bottle is demonstrated, the name of the perfume sounds and their merits are told. This was the first paid placement in the history of Russian cinema. Everything that happened before was nothing more than a government order.

Appeared fifteen years ago, domestic product placement is gradually gaining momentum. In the sequel "To Love in Russian-3", the German refrigerator became the object of hidden advertising. A well-known manufacturer of household appliances in this way decided to win the heart of a mass buyer. This was followed by the famous epic "Features of national hunting and fishing." In addition to vodka, brands of cigarettes, SUVs, mobile phones, beer and even dumplings were successfully promoted in these films.

Product placement within the framework of one Russian picture can be considered super successful if the movie manages to get a budget of one million dollars. Information about such contracts is usually not disclosed, but leadership in fees is attributed to the same Dozors, Antikiller, Bekmambetovskiy remake of The Irony of Fate and Gloss.

“Night Watch” became famous for its assertive, often unmotivated advertising. If the hero drinks coffee, then the whole frame will be occupied by the Nescafe logo, and while Anton Gorodetsky is talking on a cell phone, you have time to remember the details of the Nokia interface. In the film, the heroes eat dumplings “Sam Samych”, look for news on “Rambler”, and in the final on the roof of a skyscraper the MTS logo lights up.

The continuation of the criminal action movie "Antikiller-2" is called, for some reason, by Panasonic's long commercial. Major Koreneva (Gosha Kutsenko) is densely surrounded by TVs, laptops and other electronics of the Japanese company, and Panasonic mobile phones play an important role in the plot. Other brands are found in abundance (Nemiroff, Alfa Bank, Audi).

The main characters of "Gloss", except for Galia performed by Yulia Vysotskaya, are drinks: "Ya" juice and "Russian diamond" vodka. You can also notice the promotional services of Alfa-Bank, Alfa-Direct and in some frames ROC cosmetics. Bidding usually starts at $ 10-15 thousand for a one-time mention in the series and from $ 50 thousand in a full-length film. The leaders among films in terms of income from product placement in production companies are considered "Night Watch" and "Antikiller-2" - each is credited with $ 500.

After the release of the first Antikiller film, producer Vladimir Kilburg received dozens of offers from companies that wanted to show their products in the film. At Antikiller-2, they managed to “unlock” laptops, the Alfa-Direct online trading system, Audi, an automobile magazine, Nemiroff vodka and the Prazdnik agency. But even those who did not watch the film, the hero of Gosha Kutsenko was remembered as the owner of a Panasonic mobile phone. By the way, as one of the conditions for participation, Panasonic demanded that only positive film characters use its mobile phones. Thanks to the placement of such advertising, the budget of Antikiller-2 increased by $ 100 000.

Watch not review

Naturally, the question arises: how bright are the prospects for this segment? It depends on the general pace of development of the film industry. But they are generally quite good.

The first and main question: will people watch movies? That is, what is the potential audience?

Film Market (that is, the number of tickets sold) in 2007 in physical terms increased by 9,6%, and the sale of licensed DVDs grew by 37,6%. The average number of cinema visits per Russian in 2007 was 0,68. For comparison, in European countries a similar indicator was 3-5 visits per person per year back in the 2005 year. Such a low attendance rate in our country is explained by the insufficient development of film distribution in the regions. Market participants understand this and are focusing their efforts on the development of cinemas outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg - film distribution is growing now mainly due to expansion into the regions. According to experts, in 2009, regional rental will occupy 72% in the market structure. In value terms, the film distribution market is growing almost 2,5 times faster than in-kind (in 2007, it amounted to $ 1,16 billion). The main reason is that tickets are getting more expensive.

The second and important question: will Russian films be shot? Still, providing product placement in Russian films is easier than in foreign ones.

According to the research company Movie research, in 2007 the number of Russian films at the box office increased by 23%, and their total box office grew by 41%. Investors believed in domestic cinema after the Night Watch, the box office of which exceeded $ 16 million with a film budget of $ 4,2 million. However, average fees from renting one Russian tape last year increased by only 15% (excluding inflation); for comparison, in 2005 the growth was 135%.

For reference. Number of films shot in Russia

1924-46

1957-140

1994-35

Advertising

Advertising of Business Global Expo LLC, Taxpayer Identification Number (INN) 7710961530, erid: 2W5zFJRB7Va

2005-83

2006-105

2007-78

Strengths

From a business point of view, product placement in feature films is beneficial to both the customer and the performer. Heroes, one way or another, are forced to drink something, dress in something, move about something. Why not logo their actions? Again, it is no secret that regular advertising, which takes up a huge amount of airtime, often annoys the viewer, a person switches the channel, is distracted from what is happening on the screen, which reduces the effectiveness of advertising. Product placement does not interrupt the film, therefore it guarantees maximum attention and spectator interest in the proposed product.

No less convenient in the marketing sense of the television series. It has a short production cycle and clear distribution. Thus, product placement customers are able to plan their marketing activities. In addition, in this case it is much easier to track the results and effectiveness of this type of advertising. Its quantitative indicator is measured directly by the rating of the series. Indeed, unlike an ad unit that attentively watches no more than 35% of viewers, an art product attracts all 100% of the audience of a movie. Sociologists conducted a study in which it turned out that hidden advertising is noticed in the film by about 80% of viewers. At the same time, about 70% said that such advertising does not annoy them. About the same number of viewers were able to reconstruct from memory the plot associated with a particular brand.

Ekaterina Mintusova, Senior Manager for Advertising and PR Network of shoe caskets "Econika":

- As a rule, film company stylists select shoes for the film. They visit our showroom and cascades, select the necessary models, after which we form an order based on the sizes suitable for the actors. Usually we are talking about models (shoes and bags) of the current or past collections. The footwear of our company was used for filming the series "Champion".

We are always open for cooperation of this kind and often provide shoes for various public events (including for fashion shows at Russian Fashion Week and Fashion Week in Moscow, as well as for television programs, for example, for “Fashionable Sentence” on Channel One).

We do not consider product placement as an option for regular advertising. Effective - yes. Efficiency depends on the choice of the project (if it is aimed at our target audience, intersects with it, then the effect of product placement increases).

After serious advertising projects, we conduct brand awareness research. For example, after a three-month sponsorship of ECONIKA in the show “Dancing on Ice”, “Velvet Season” on RTR, our brand recognition grew by 8,3%. The most recent example is the Champion series, which aired on the STS channel.

Individual product placement consultant Daniil Gridin:

- There are several options for getting into the film - contact specialized product placement agencies that are involved in “pandering” to producers and advertisers for a modest (and sometimes not very) percentage. You can contact the producers of the picture directly. And you can create movies yourself (as Sony Pictures does).

The cost of placement in a film is influenced by the fame of the director and cast, the budget of the film, the “channel” of the picture (support from one of the federal channels). In addition, the price depends on the type of placement (verbal, visual, mixed, cross-cutting) and its volume. In Russia, the price for placement, taking into account the type of product placement, timing, etc., ranges from $ 15 to 100 thousand. In the West, the amount is an order of magnitude higher.

Theoretically, you can try to do without financial costs. Barter relations are a fairly common practice. For example, in the latest James Bond film (Quantum of Solace, Quantum of Solace), Ocean Sky provided five aircraft for a weekly shoot, each hour costing five thousand pounds. In exchange, the company logo should appear in eight episodes of the new film.

Unfortunately, evaluating the effectiveness of this type of advertising is quite difficult. Product placement is very weak in both forecasting and measurement. And this is its main drawback over standard advertising channels.

As practice shows, the share of product placement is about 5-10% of the total budget of the movie. Excluding barter, its volume in Russia is about $ 12 million. For comparison, Western companies spend at least $ 1 billion annually on product placement.

It is clear that Russian volumes are still incomparable with Western ones, but positive dynamics are evident: large companies are slowly starting to pump budgets towards non-standard channels (including product placement).

According to preliminary results of 2008 of the year, Ford became the absolute leader in the number of placements (18 placements in Hollywood films). In addition to it, top 3 includes Apple (16 placements) and Mercedes (12 placements).

Western sellers of clothes and shoes also show interest in this type of advertising, and quite a while ago. Let’s recall the series Sex and the City, which has become a classic of product placement, where dozens of well-known fashion brands (from Nike to Vivienne Westwood) have appeared. From the Russian placements, one can recall the product placement of Malamati fur coats in the film “Radio Day”.

For placement in the film to be as effective as possible, you need to choose a film that will be adequate to the target audience of your brand. Choose a hero who will express the mood of the brand. And, of course, make the introduction as natural and non-irritating to the eye as possible. After all, the viewer paid for a movie ticket, not a festival of advertising, right?

Ferragamo from australia

On the occasion of the world premiere of the film "Australia" Basa lurmann fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo released a copy of the sandals worn by the main character of the picture (Nicole Kidman).

Especially for filming in "Australia" designers Ferragamo made several pairs of shoes for the Hollywood star, including evening sandals, riding boots and classic platform shoes. To recreate the atmosphere of the 40 of the XX century, the craftsmen used materials, colors and decorative elements characteristic of that era. Now elegant evening sandals made of red velvet can be found in limited quantities in all boutiques of the brand.

Jimmy choo for blondes

To shoot the film Legally Blonde-2, shoe designer Jimmy Chu was commissioned to make 63 various pairs of faux leather shoes. After the shooting of the film was over, the main character Reese Witherspoon asked all the shoes to leave her a souvenir.

Lynch & Lubuten

Shoe designer Christian Louboutin, along with director David Lynch, released a pair of stiletto heels in April 2008, naming them Siamese. Shoes became part of the Lynch installation for Cartier. “I always dreamed of making shoes that were impossible to wear,” Lynch said. And he did it very well - shoes with 25-centimeter heels can be worn, but even just standing in them is already difficult.

Historical facts

The first Oscar was awarded on 16 on May 1929 for 1927-1928 films. Candidates for the award are nominated by their colleagues in the film industry. Winners are determined by secret ballot by members of the academy. Each winner is awarded a gilded Oscar statuette by production designer Cedric Gibbons and sculptor George Stanley. She depicts a figure of a knight holding a sword in front of himself and standing on a reel with film strip, the five spokes of which symbolize the five very first guilds of the academy - actors, directors, producers, film technicians and screenwriters. Since 1947, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts began to award awards to foreign films. The very first to receive an Oscar was the Italian film Shoe Shine.