Product placement : between sponsorship and advertising

Everyone has already seen product placement in movies or TV shows, but are we really aware about it ? Product placement is when branded goods  are placed in a context usually devoid of ads (movies, television shows, news programs, publishing, sport, video games…). I would like to focus on product placement in movies. Nowadays, product placement is a real part of the film budget. The film director use a specific brand in his movie’s props (cars, computers, food and drink, clothes…) and he gets something from the company he has chosen. It may be a financial compensation (5.000 to 10.0000 euros) or a supply of product.

Some examples of recognizable brand names appearing in movies:

 

Apple-  Kick Ass

 

 

Mac Donald – The fifth Element

 

Converse – I am a legend

 

 

The relationship between cinema and advertising is very important. The result of product placement and the economic kickstart that it provides are very more efficient than with the other ordinary advertising ways. It is really different from “in-your-face” ads. The goal is to find the most effective ways to reach consumers, who are captive by the movie and not suspicious of advertising. Companies and brands want their products to be visible within a scene, but not the focus. Incorporation of products should be into the actual plot of a film and take part of it. When done correctly, product placement can add a sense of realism to a movie.

Here is a brief history of conspicious product placement in Movies, really interesting:

 

Nowadays this form of advertising/sponsorship is very used in all movies. There are also specific corporate positions and entire agencies that can handle the job. So, next time you watch a movie, try to keep an eye out for products or brand-names you recognize…

Personal experience with Social Media

Thanks to our marketing class, I’m getting now a real “geek”… I ‘m not pretty good with technologies. Of course, I have an e-mail box and a Facebook account, but that’s all. Usually it’s enough for me, but since I have arrived in Finland and I have been far away from my friends, I need to stay in connection with them, so I’m using social media. For example, I have created an account on “Picasa Albums Web”(by Google) to share my pictures or I have also opened a blog to share my feelings (Blogger, by google as well).  It’s very usefull but it needs a lot of time to manage with all these applications. I’m little lost.

Social Media can be used to promote personal contacts (dating and chatting website, sites of former-students or friendly relations), but they can also feed distribution and artistic visibility, or help management careers. That’s why, I think it’s interesting to use social media in your professional life. Social media are such of presentation of your skills and your interests. You can share your CV, or maybe also some works you have written. As far I’m concerned, I intend to find a job in the cinema sector (film distribution, exhibition, or exportation). So I would like to create a blog about french cinema : What kind of view does foreign people have about french cinema ? I could write on the blog and try to answer to this question using my Erasmus exchange experience for example… It could be a good advantage if my future boss could read this work.

So now I’m really more interested in Social Media and their affect in the life. My last discovering : SCRIBD, a social publishing and reading site. Do you know we can share documents on line thanks to your Facebook, Twitter, Google doc. account ? With Scribd you can share and discover entertaining, informative and original written content across the web and mobile devices. Scribd has now more than 50 million users and it hosts more than tens of millions of documents. It’s free, and considered as the potential “YouTube for documents”…Very useful for student !

[http://www.scribd.com/]

Advertising for Cannes Film Festival

Our marketing courses about Advertising have given me the opportunity  to think about film festivals’ advertising. One of my favorite is the Cannes Film Festival.

Here you can see the poster and the trailer of the 61th festival in 2008:

This Cannes Film Festival poster was created by Pierre Collier, a famous french cinema poster creator who is born in 1959. He created more than 500 posters for international movies (Mystery Train, Raining Stones , Bowling for Columbine , The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Persepolis). This advertising is kind of enigmatic, sensual, intriguing, disturbing… It was inspired by a David Lynch’s picture, which was showed in Paris during the photo exhibition “FETISH” by David Lynch.

Pierre Collier created a whole specific atmosphere around this 61th festival with a lot of different visuals as a great aesthetic environment for all the festival-goers. He refused  to include in this poster the usual red carpet, pieces of film, cameras, palm trees and claps. The Festival wanted to look ahead.  ” This woman’s face with the eyes removed is revealed a suspended moment between reception and projection, waiting for a revelation… Like Cannes Film Festival”, said the author Pierre Collier.

Actually we can see Anouck Margueritte (Paris Crazy Horse dancer called “Nooka Karamel”). On this poster she looks like Marilyn Monroe and she perfectly represents movie star-system : platinum blond as reminiscent of Norma Jean.

Personally, I find this advertising very artistic, in suitability with the Cannes Film Festival. Each year the new poster is a good surprise. Here you can see all the posters since the first festival

http://www.topito.com/top-63-des-affiches-du-festival-de-cannes