Define Product Placement — Types and Definitions
Define Product Placement — Types and Definitions
The internet is so full of garbled and erroneous information on how to define product placement that it often confuses people about what the term means, and leaves readers scratching their heads over what types of product placement are in practice today. We have decided to put together a master list of definitions used by the top people in the industry in order to clear up some of that confusion. Below you’ll find a helpful glossary of product placement related terms. It includes definitions about the many different types of product placement as well as how to define product placement itself. It might be good to print this out and keep it handy when first working in the product placement business. If someone asks you how to define product placement you will now be armed with all of the different types and definitions.
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Product Placement
Product Placement is any form of audio or visual commercial communication, which includes or references a product, service or the trademark thereof, so that it is featured within a consumer released form of media.
Note: Product Placement is often incorrectly defined as being a type of paid advertisement, but in reality over 99% of all product placement is unpaid. Product Placement is therefore a type of promotion and not a form of advertising.
Organic Product Placement
Organic Product Placement is a form of unpaid product placement where a product or service appears within a production but is not mentioned or called out by name in the script.
Note: When you see a television show where someone is drinking a product such as Coca-Cola™, that is typically a Paid Product Placement. Everything else you see in the scene is considered Organic Product Placement. This includes wardrobe, furniture, plants, flooring, paint, etc.
Free Product Placement
Free Product Placement is the placement of a branded product or service within a program when no fees are paid to the media producer. In this case, the studio accepts the goods or services purely as a donation to the production.
Paid Product Placement
Paid Product Placement is any form of product placement where a fee is paid by the brand in exchange for its inclusion in a production.
Note: This is the only form of product placement which should be considered advertising.
Product Integration
Product Integration is the inclusion of a product or service as a key component in a production. For example, a movie could be written to have one character only wear Levi’s™ brand jeans. Somewhere in the script, the character would talk about why he loves Levi’s™ and will not wear anything else.
Note: Product Integration is not always paid. In many cases it is done in exchange for product.
Direct Product Placement
Direct Product Placement means placing a product directly with a celebrity in real life. Photos or video are typically taken with the celebrity and product together. These are used to promote the brand as a form of first person validation.
Entertainment Marketing
Entertainment Marketing is any form of brand promotion via product placement, parties, gift suites or other social events.
Note: This definition is only related to the context of product placement. Other definitions exist related to how an entertainment property, such as a movie, promotes itself to the general public.
Embedded Marketing
See: Product Integration
Branded Entertainment
Branded Entertainment is a form of branded content, where an advertiser develops a TV show with the goal of creating a conversation around their brand. The show is designed to promote the product or service, and commercials aired during the show are almost always exclusively ads for the brand behind the show’s development.
Placement Directory
The entertainment industry’s sourcing guide of products and services available for organic product placement.
Product Placement Agency
A company which represents a number of brands in an effort to obtain product placement agreements.
Originally published at Product Placement — Placement Directory.
