Placing Brands for YouTube, Television and Movie Fans
By Delaney Jobe, PR/Account Intern and Hollie West, Copywriter Intern
Have you ever been watching one of your favorite television characters drink a Coke and suddenly you’re craving the fizzy, ice cold beverage? Or how about following along on a YouTube tutorial when suddenly your favorite influencer shouts out a brand that you “have to have.” It’s almost like they know you perfectly… maybe that’s because they kind of do.
PRODUCT PLACEMENT
In the age of beauty gurus, influencers, and streaming services like Hulu or Netflix, product placement is quickly gaining popularity. Product placement is when a company, manufacturer, or producer pays for their brand or products to be featured in order to gain exposure. Product placement came into existence in the 19th century. This form of advertisement became more prevalent with the invention of radio, later followed by television and cinema.
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With YouTube being the third most visited website in the world, next to Facebook and Google, it is very common to see influencers interact with brands to make a profit. Because brands can contact specific YouTubers and almost effortlessly reach a specific demographic, brand placement on YouTube has gained popularity at a rapid rate.
A YouTuber is a person who produces videos, specifically for YouTube, and their subscribers. YouTubers are in touch with their audience, based on the type of content that they put out. For example, if a beauty guru recommends a certain makeup product, their makeup-enthusiast subscribers are likely to buy it. This differs from the television space because YouTubers come across more relatable to their audience. A big reason for this is due to the separation, or lack there of, between YouTuber and subscriber.
Product placement on YouTube is not always easy to point out, which raises the question of ethics. Because many YouTubers are making a living on brand placement through their channels, there is some controversy as to how honest they are being when reviewing a product. If a company is signing your paycheck, or sending you free products, how easy is it for some YouTubers to give their honest and objective opinion about a product?
This depends on the influencer themselves. If a person is comfortable with promoting something that they do not truly believe in, it will eventually become apparent to their followers. If an influencer wants a long-lasting, loyal fan base, they should do everything in their power to retain credibility and promote products they truly believe in. YouTuber, Gena M., explains brand sponsorships and why it is important to retain your honesty to subscribers when you are doing reviews of products (2:28).
GRAB THE POPCORN
Product placement has also been known to pop up on the big screen. Movie product placement tends to be much less obvious than it is on social media. One of our favorite examples of subtle and clever product placement is Manolo Blahnik in Sex and the City. Being obsessed with a fancy shoe fits seamlessly in the storyline and is exactly what you’d expect from Carrie Bradshaw. Therefore, the viewer’s expectations of the character make this placement less obvious.
Another great example of subtle product placement appears in the iconic 80’s movie, Back to the Future. You probably never realized that Marty’s self-lacing shoes were Nikes, did you? You also probably didn’t notice all of the Pepsi products he drank, or the miniature Pizza Hut pizza that is heated up to full size. Those products were placed strategically to get you thinking about their brands and associating them with something iconic. However, many viewers, including ourselves at first, didn’t realize these were acts of product placement. We as viewers deemed the inclusion of these brands as plausible, as they didn’t come across as commercial. Thus, these brands are exceeding in their strategy — subconscious brand awareness.
One of our favorite, less subtle examples of product placement is an iconic scene from Wayne’s World. In this scene, the film shamelessly plugs various brands while calling out others for accepting money for product placement.“It’s like people only do things because they get paid,” Garth says as the camera slowly moves to show off his head to toe Reebok. Although this scene is obvious product placement, the irony and humor make it effective on viewers.
PRIME TIME
The last place with frequent product placement is television. Especially now that regular network programming is trying to compete with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, many networks have tried to limit commercial time and instead, feature products during the show. However, these “commercial free” streaming services like Hulu and Netflix aren’t straying away from product placement. On Hulu, The Mindy Project has had several product placement spots for brands like Lexus and Microsoft. Amazon has even tried doing a one-click purchase for products placed in the show. These streaming services often use these placements to fund their original content. To land one of these placements can cost you between $50,000 and $500,000.
Unlike common product placement, it is possible for a brand to be placed in a show just because the creators of that show wanted it to be a part of the storyline. As an example, Eggo’s role in the hit Netflix show, Stranger Things. Show creators and executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer told Yahoo Entertainment that Eggo had no part in their inclusion in the show. They said that it’s not about product placement to them, it’s about what these kids would like. However, since the show’s success, Eggo has played a more active role in their participation including a combined Eggo and Stranger Things Season 2 Super Bowl commercial spot.
LONG LIVE PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Living in the Information Age, it is not hard to grasp that the average person can see up to 5,000 ads a day. What is hard to grasp is the fact that products are being thrown in our faces every night during our favorite shows, and it is possible for them to go unnoticed. While some critics argue that product placement is an invasion of privacy, at the end of the day it is a brand’s job to break through the clutter however they choose to. And because of the success of these placements, love them or hate them, it looks like product placement is here to stay.
