Product Placement

Product placement subtly advertises products in books, video games, on TV or in movies. It is a really effective way to reach a specific target audience that identifies themselves with for example a specific movie. The effectiveness of a product placement depends on for how long the product is mentioned or seen for example in a movie and, going on using movies as an example, if the product or the brand name is seen in the background or in the foreground. It is also really important if one of the actors in the movie does something with the product, for example holds it up, or if he or she even talks about it. This really emphasizes that the movie supports the brand or the product and therefore appeals to the target audience. Another point in evaluating how good a product placement is (and how much it costs too) is when in the movie the brand or product turns up; whether it is at an important point in the plot or only at a minor point. In the following, I am going to present a few examples of product placements in movies, some of them effective and some of them maybe a little over the top: One of the movies that is most famous for its product placements and that even gets people to expect to see some familiar brands in it is James Bond. There are product placements of cars (Ford, Aston Martin etc.), of watches and jewelry, of cell phones (Sony Ericsson) and of many other things. However, in my opinion, in the last few James Bond movies the companies responsible for the product placements went a little over the top with their attempts to subtly advertise their products. James Bond cannot be identified with anything, for example nobody would ever expect the 007 agent to drive a Ford car that is not known for being very sporty or luxurious. A better example for product placement that works because it matches the movie it is placed in and also the specific target audience can be found in the Spiderman movies. It is very believable that Peter Parker, a young twenty-something drinks Dr. Pepper and also the big billboards that can be seen on Times Square in New York City where he lives are not very far away from reality and will barely be consciously noticed by any viewers as advertisings. This is a good thing, because this kind of advertising is very subtle and not so obvious. It will not make people feel like they paid for a movie only to be exposed to advertisings as it could be the case in James Bond movies. Product placement in movies or in other media can be a really effective way of subtly advertising a product to a special target group. However, one has to be very careful and aware about the thin line between entertaining people and at the same time exposing them to subtle advertising and annoying people by putting lots of products in front of them when they are not interested in those products because they do not have anything to do with for example the movie they are watching. Overdoing product placement can lead to a loss of brand equity and to a negative instead of a positive effect concerning the brand or product that is promoted.

Don't Vote! My favorite celebrity PR campaign

5 More Friends I really liked the “Don’t Vote” PR campaign that I saw a little while ago on MySpace, because it was very different from other PR campaigns and PSAs (Public service announcements) and therefore very effective. Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, along with Sacha Baron Cohen as “Borat,” Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal, are featured in a second of a series of public service announcements to encourage the American youth to vote in partnership with Google, YouTube, Declare Yourself, and MySpace. The non-partisan PSA’s, produced by DiCaprio’s Appian Way, were created to engage and inspire young people to vote and participate in the elections of 2008. I think that they did a very good job especially with the first part of the spot, because it attracts one’s attention right away: people who watch it for the first time must be really puzzled by the fact that all those celebrities all of a sudden start telling people NOT to vote instead of the other way round as usual. One starts to follow the spot closely, because one does not want to miss what else they have to say. Bit by bit the spot starts to resolve the pretended misunderstanding, and the celebrities explain that they were only being sarcastic and they start to bring across their real message: VOTE! In my opinion, it is very effective to use A-list celebrities for a PR campaign like this, because people often feel like they actually know those people and most people are interested in what celebrities have to say and therefore listen to them. I also think that the spot was very cleverly made, because the celebrities do not seem like they are only saying any of their lines from the script; to the contrary they seem really natural and convinced by what they say and it seems as if they all say what they really think (which probably is true, because that is why so many famous celebrities took part in this campaign). This short spot shows that celebrity PR does not necessarily have to be something bad and that celebrities do not always use PR in order to promote themselves or their latest movie/song. Some of them make use of PR to support a good cause with their name. Also, PR does not always have to be shocking and scandalizing like for example most stories about Britney Spears. Good PR brings along a message that the celebrities support to their target public and creates relationships with it, in this case young voters. And whatever some people might have to say against the impact that PR really has, it apparently works.

Super Bowl and Budweiser

The Super Bowl is the most watched TV program of the year in the U.S. On average, about 40% of all US households tune into it every year. This makes the show a perfect stage for advertising to many different target audiences. Ever since the huge success of the Apple commercial introducing the Mac in 1984, the Super Bowl has become the premier platform for extravagant and also very expensive commercials. Companies pay tremendous sums only to have their commercials shown at this special event. A record was set in 2008 when a company paid the unbelievable amount of $ 2.7 million for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl XLII. One of the most established brands that participate in the commercial craziness of the Super Bowl almost every year is Budweiser. 2008s Super Bowl was featuring several Budweiser commercials that were all different from each other although some of them had the same approach: they were targeting young people, preferably males who are used to ‘usual’ commercials and whose humour appeal can only be reached by a commercial that is different and really surprising. For this reason, Budweiser came up with the following campaign. In the commercials, they present really crazy and unbelievable things that they claim people are able to do when they drink Bud Light. However, those things always go wrong, for example one guy thinks that Bud Light is going to make him fly and he actually starts flying with a beer bottle in his hands, however, unfortunately he is sucked in by a blast pipe of a plane and gets roasted. When he is back on the ground another guy asks him: “Rough flight?” This advertising clearly targets young men between 20 and 30 who are interested in challenges and who become curious when they see somebody doing something crazy like being able to fly. The funny climax of this commercial is also exactly tailored to this target group. Another Bud Light example of the company’s attempt to attract the biggest part of the Super Bowl’s audience is the commercial where a few couples are having a house party and the guys are supposed to bring some cheese and wine. Instead, they bring dummies made out of cardboard, though, in order to trick their wives. The dummies contain something that the guys prefer over any other food or drinks – Bud Light. Budweiser obviously tries to reach the biggest part of target audiences in the Super Bowl with their ads. However, in the Super Bowl 2008 there was also one ad that was tailored to a different, smaller target audience: women. The commercial shows the story of a horse who did not get picked for a parade. It meets a dog, though, that starts coaching the horse and helping him to improve until the end of the story when, after one year, the horse finally gets picked for the parade. Budweiser really cleverly picked kind out a random but still moving story in order to reach this different target audience of women. This target audience is definitely older, also because the commercial is for the more ‘grown-up’ brand Budweiser, and it is presented like part of a heart-warming movie. If so many people all over the country watch the Super Bowl every year, these ads must be cleverly picked and the cost for them must be well worth it, because companies are able to reach several different big target audiences by airing them at this special time. (Link to the commercials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ce-SJreIA )

2 Ads I liked and one that I did not like

The first commercial that I really liked was the one for Heineken where some Dutch space researchers send a robot into space to discover a new planet. They are really excited when the robot lands on the planet and also really proud because as they say if there is life on this unknown planet, the Dutch will have discovered it (which, of course, is an allusion to Heineken being a Dutch brand). However, they are really surprised when they see that the little robot is actually opening a beer bar for Heineken instead of exploring the planet. I think the commercial works really well because it applies to the humour appeal very well which also matches the image of Heineken and their target audience which mostly consists of young men. The commercial builds up suspense by showing the researchers in their research center when they shoot the robot into space. Everybody is really excited about what is going to happen next and the tension is suddenly released and turned into laughter when the robot reveals its actual plans. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMAKJjGJpXo) The second commercial that I picked because I think it was really good in appealing to consumer wants and needs is a commercial for Porsche that was part of a viral marketing campaign. I think it was really successful in getting across the intended message, because it did not only trigger the consumer appeal of sex and therefore promoted the “sexy image” of the car brand, but it also approached the consumer appeal of humour at the same time. In the commercial, a really nice looking woman who is not wearing more than underwear and a coat sees a Porsche parked in a dark side street. She is really attracted by the car (which is also underlined by the background music ‘Weil es Liebe ist’ which means ‘Because it’s Love’), falls in love with it and suddenly opens her coat and reveals her sexy underwear to it. The car then ‘responds’ in a funny way: It lifts its back part in ‘joy’. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9VsGjXkHeg) As I already mentioned in my last blog, the first commercial that I chose as the worst ad I have ever seen was the one for Pepto Bismol with the randomly dancing people. The second worst commercial I picked is one of the first commercials for Calvin Klein underwear starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Moss. It seems like a good attempt to use celebrities for these kinds of commercials and the CK ad is also trying to trigger the consumer appeals of sex and humour, however, this does not really work out which makes the commercial come across sexist and shallow. Mark Wahlberg is constantly touching his groin area in the commercial and jokes around about it. The most disturbing and offensive part of the unsuccessful attempt to focus on the consumer appeal of humour, however, is when Mark Wahlberg says that the best protection against AIDS is to keep your Calvin Klein underwear on. This topic was really big in the 90s when this ad came out. In my opinion it is not the right approach to treat it humorously in an ad for underwear though. Maybe this was what their target audience was looking for, but looking at it from today’s perspective, the ad is not very successful. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h0S80qdjOI&feature=related)

My worst ad - The Pepto Bismol Dance

I have not seen very many ads in the US that have really shocked or upset me, even though I am sure that there are plenty of them out there. I could instantly think of a lot of really bad German ads, especially on the radio, which are annoying because of the kind of background music, the speaker or the slogans they feature. German TV commercials that I have found particularily annoying were often ones that featured loud music and silly people or that tried to be overly funny and creative. However,if I had to pick my worst US ad, there is one really bad commercial that I saw a few times on TV in the US which I can still remember because it made me think: "How would anybody ever want to buy this product after seeing such a stupid ad?" The ad was for the upset stomach relief medication Pepto Bismol. In this specific TV ad, there were a few people and a Godzilla (what is the sense in that already??) dancing around to the 'Pepto-Bismol-Song' which has lyrics along the lines of 'heartburn, nausea, diarrhea'. The people in the commercial are not only dancing around in a really silly way, they also hold the parts of their bodies that can be affected by the previously mentioned sicknesses. In my opinion, this ad is really one of the worst that I have ever seen, because it shows an uncreative and weak attempt to 'loosen up' the serious topic of an upset stomach and it is trying to make the whole issue seem funny in order to show that ads for medications do not always have to be deadly serious. However, I do not think that this really will attract more customers, especially because it makes people who suffer from illnesses like this look really silly and ridiculous, because in a way they are represented by the silly dancing characters in the commercial. I think that Pepto Bismol tried to be different but by doing that a company should not forget that it still has to stick to its target market (which is who exactly concerning this spot? Godzilla and some crazy looking people?)as well as it has to underline its value proposition. I do not think that this worked out for Pepto Bismol in this particular TV commercial.

Outdoor Advertising

I have already seen a lot of outdoor ads, but there are only very few ones that I can remember. This seems to be one of the disadvantages of outdoor advertising when using 'usual' things like for example signs: people look at them when they drive by and sometimes this time period is really too short to remember anything. This is why outdoor advertising has to really be special and outstanding in order to attract people's attention and stick to their minds especially in a country like the US where there is lots of signs advertising certain products everywhere. There are a few outdoor ads, though, that I can still remember, because they attracted my attention and caught my interest. One of them was an underwater ad for Coke in a pool. One could only see it when one would stand on the diving board, but it looked fun and zappy, just like the product the ad was for. I also once saw a really nice outdoor advertising on the front doors of a store. It said "look inside" and then the sliding doors would open to both directions and one could walk into the store to 'find out'. Of course, I will also always remember the huge billboards on Times Square in New York City, but I do think that for effective advertising something like this is even a little too much, because one does not concentrate on single ads anymore and the whole scenery is just one big impression. Therefore I think it would be more effective if there was only one, maybe two huge billboards on Times Square instead of lots of them. Needless to say that this is impossible, since everybody wants to put their advertising on this exact spot, because millions of people are exposed to it every day. I still do think, though, that it is not as effective as it could be.