Are luxury brands in the tank for product placement?

Licensed to shill

Careful product placement in movies, television and music videos can influence brand perception, build awareness and solidify an already-established reputation. Do luxury brands get it?

Having a celebrity wearing, mentioning or driving a luxury item in a blockbuster film or popular music video can put a luxury brand on the map. The association with an adored celebrity can also raise a brand’s prestige status.

“A product placement strategy attempts to remove the appearance of selling while still promoting the product,” said Dalia Strum, founder of Dalia Inc. and SocialFashion.com, New York. “By incorporating the product into a television show or movie based on the type of show and the type of viewer who watches it, the initial appeal is introduced to the consumer.

“This approach aids in the latest trend in advertising to make it less advertorial,” she said. “Our society has become numb to in-your-face ads, therefore product placement has become more prevalent in reaching consumers by inserting the product message inside the show they are watching.

“In doing so, advertisers can promote their products or services to a more clearly defined demographic with similar interests and a loyal following.”

Viewing on video
Brand placement in a much-anticipated or popular movie can be a great way for established brands to emphasize their status or for a lesser-known brand to build awareness.

Some of the most legendary brands linked to cinema are BMW and Omega products in the James Bond films.

Daniel Craig reprised his role as James Bond in the 2008 “Quantum of Solace,” where he wore the Omega Seamaster watch. Indeed, even past 007 actors have worn the brand while portraying the iconic agent in the motion picture series.

Omega solidifies its pride in the placement with a segment devoted to the 007 agent on its Web site.

Omega’s product placement on Web site

Additionally, Mr. Bond  saved the world in style by racing around in the BMW Z3. Its presence in the much-watched ”Quantum of Solace” helped to put the brand on the map. Abe Sauer, writer at Brandchannel.com, New York, doubts that the model’s launch would have been as explosive without the screen time.

Other watchmakers take advantage of the publicity that movies offer luxury brands.

Tag Heuer is promoting its chronograph in the new film, “Lincoln Lawyer,” set to open March 18.

The watch is seen on the official movie poster being worn by star Matthew McConaughey, and on the actor throughout the movie.

“The Lincoln Lawyer” official movie poster

Tag Heuer is showing this affiliation on its Facebook page, where it allows consumers to see exactly where the brand will be in the movie. It also offers details about the model.

“For luxury brands, in most cases, product placement serves mostly to reinforce an existing brand position,” Mr. Sauer said. “It is very difficult to leverage a product placement to make a luxury brand out of something it wasn’t already.”

Tapping TV
Luxury brands would also be well-advised to introduce new products or build brand awareness by showing their brands on television shows that correlate with the audience that they are trying to reach.

One example is the mention of almost every luxury brand in the estrogen-filled “Sex and the City” series.

The main characters name-drop brands from Christian Dior to Roberto Cavalli, but no brand gained as much recognition as Manolo Blahnik.

The Spanish shoe designer became one of the most well-known manufacturers because of its consistent presence in the show.

Furthermore, its connection with women who are well-known for their expensive taste and fashion-savvy made Manolo Blahnik luxury by affiliation.

Similarly, the CW’s “Gossip Girl” regularly features mention and product placement of luxury brands such as Chanel and Stella McCartney.

Chanel on Gossip Girl

Additionally, the show’s star, Blake Lively, is Chanel’s newest brand ambassador (see story). This makes it plausible that the brand would appear in the show.

Brands can also benefit from product placement on internationally-televised events, such as the Super Bowl.

This year’s Super Bowl XLV was the most-watched game in history, with an astounding 111 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

These millions of viewers also saw Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas when she performed during the half-time show – wearing $2 million in Harry Winston jewelry.

The brand advertised its connection to Fergie on its Facebook page, where a link to the brand’s official Web site is available.

Musical measure
Another sector where brands can be noticed is in the music industry, namely music videos.

Swarovski Crystal and BMW have both been featured in Jennifer Lopez’s latest video, “On the Floor.”

The singer/actress is seen riding in a BMW vehicle and opens a Swarovski box and takes out a pair of earrings.

Swarovski in “On the Floor”

As of March 16, “On the Floor” is the No. 3 video in iTunes’ Top 10 most-bought music videos and No. 3 on iTunes’ Top 10 Pop videos.

Tying a luxury brand to a famous artist can increase revenue with consumers because it connects them with iconic and famous personalities.

“It’s simple math,” Mr. Sauer said. “I admire Celebrity X, in fact, I want to be Celebrity X.

“Celebrity X uses Luxury Brand Y and therefore, if I use Luxury Brand Y, I will be closer to being Celebrity X,” he said.

When celebrities are wearing specific designers, there are major opportunities to provide that information to the media as well as the brand’s customers.

This increases loyalty when a celebrity is willing to attach her influence and wearing a brand that she supports.

“Consumers have the tendency to follow their trends, because if a celebrity is willing to put their name on it, then it must have some credibility,” Dalia’s Ms. Strum said.

“Designers feel that when their designs are worn by celebrities, they have hit the pinnacle of success,” she said. “This provides an opportunity to give the brand a face and personality.”

Potential pitfalls
While connecting a product with a celebrity, movie, TV show or music video can guarantee publicity for a brand, it could also hurt a reputation if it is not tied together properly.

Brands have to be sure that this strategy is tightly controlled, or it could be shown out-of-context or in placement where no one will notice.

“Unless the placement of the brand is tightly controlled, who knows how it will come across to audiences,” Mr. Sauer said. “Is the bottle of your energy drink going to help the hero save the day or be used to urinate in by a trucker?

“Worse yet, a brand can spend a bunch of money or expend a lot of effort on product placement and nobody will notice,” he said.

Therefore, it is in a brand’s best interest to make sure that the product is seen in the media as a desirable and status-worthy item.

In contrast, premium-brand Coach suffered from appearing in MTV’s “Jersey Shore.”

“Some negatives could apply towards brands whom are looking for better positioning and will implement negative contextual product placement towards their competition,” Dalia’s Ms. Strum said. “An example of this was displayed recently with Jersey Shore’s Nicole ‘Snookie’ Polizzi and Coach.

“She didn’t have the best track record and was recently arrested,” she said. “Coach considered that a negative association and started sending her products from competing brands.”

Brands should also be aware of over-exposure. Familiarity breeds contempt, so repeated product exposure may convince consumers to eventually tune out the brand’s message.

However, if the item is properly placed and looks stunning, consumers may try to seek out the brand or the product.

Add to that measure exposure and the mystery and exclusivity of a luxury brand is kept alive.

“It’s best not to directly talk about the technical details of it – maintaining the wall separating sincere endorsement from paid shill is important,” Mr. Sauer said. “The best approach any brand can take to support a product placement is to make it easy for audiences Googling the tie-in to find it.”

Final Take
Rachel Lamb, editorial assistant at Luxury Daily, New York

Rachel Lamb is an editorial assistant at Luxury Daily. Reach her at rachel@napean.com.

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Tags: Chanel, Gossip Girl, James Bond, luxury, luxury marketing, Omega