We’ve recently written a piece on the 10 most iconic examples of product placement in films, but that got us thinking about how the process of organising product placement actually works.
That piece featured some great examples, from Wayne’s World’s tongue-in-cheek promotions to the subtle use of Nike in Back to the Future. But how are these pairings set up? Is it the brand that goes to the film or TV show or vice-versa? And what legal issues arise from these situations? We speak to an industry expert to give you the answers!
What is product placement and how are partnerships set up?
Product placement is when a brand pays for their product or brand to appear in a particular TV or film in order to increase their exposure and, hopefully, boost sales. It is also sometimes referred to as embedded marketing.
It can often result in an increase in consumer recall and brand awareness, bring in a new audience based on the people who are engaged with the content, as well as heighten brand recognition and increase sales. So it’s clear to see why brands would benefit from this but what about the production company?
Well, they benefit by being able to add more real-world relevance to their production which is particularly handy for films or shows trying to reflect ordinary, suburban life. Also, by selling airtime, they can hugely increase their budget for the price of what may be just a few seconds of showing a brand.
These partnerships are normally either set up directly between brand and production company, or brands pay an agency to work on their behalf, finding the best shows or films for their products.
In terms of who goes looking for what, it’s normally the brand that goes looking to place their product, but sometimes it will be the other way round particularly if part of the storyline requires a specific product. Often lawyers need to be involved to ensure that the partnership doesn’t break broadcasting rules, but we’ll get onto that in the next section.
What are the legal issues around product placement in TV?
One thing you may notice when watching product placement within a programme, is the letters PP appearing in the corner of the screen. This is Ofcom’s way of making sure that the audience know that money has been exchanged in order for these products to appear in the programme.
However David Oudôt, who is the Legal Director of Production at Moonbug Entertainment, told us that if a product is being used as part of the story, it’s not technically product placement and therefore wouldn’t require a warning.
“It ultimately depends on the nature of the programme, if it’s purposeful product placement and this brand wants to pay to feature, or whether it’s just going to be there.”
This is all because of something called editorial justification. If there is reasonable cause for a particular product to be in a certain programme, then use of that product within the programme may be given editorial justification.
This means that they can use that product without having to warn viewers or necessarily exchange money with the brand. This is how both documentaries and review programmes such as Top Gear are allowed to use brands.
“If it’s Top Gear then you’re fully entitled to use (products) for free because of an element of copyright law called ‘fair dealing’ which means you can use copyrighted material for the purpose of reviewing or critiquing it, same as Film 2021 who reviewed films.”
One example of a paid product placement that David has been involved in the process of during his career, was on the popular reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex. Veet Men had paid to be shown being used by some of the stars of the show.
“There was not necessarily any editorial justification for this, Veet were obviously paying for one five minute scene where half the cast members are in their living room, stark naked apart from boxer shorts, just using Veet on themselves and having Veet packets on display all over the place, that’s a prime example of product placement.”
Although he wouldn’t go into details about how much this kind of placement would cost, he did tell us that: “It depends on the programme, it depends on the time slot for example, as well as the channel.”
Brands can earn a lot out of these types of partnerships. Fashion brand I Saw It First saw over 2000 of the dresses worn by Mollie-Mae Hague sold in the first 10 minutes following her final date with fellow Love Island star Tommy Fury.
Co-op, who were placed onto the cobbles of Coronation Street, saw a 14% increase in purchase intent for their products during their placement, and a 13% increase in their brand being seen as “for people like me.” This shows how beneficial it is for brands, and therefore how vital it is to regulate these kinds of placements.
How does this differ to big budget Hollywood films?
As you would imagine, the prices when it comes to films vary largely depending on the size of the film, but the prices overall are much higher than with TV programmes.
“With films, it’ll be like the media vs the brand, that’s just a massive auction basically and that’ll be handled by financiers. It’ll be open to the biggest bidder,” David says.
The highly successful partnership between Heineken and James Bond, for example cost around £28 million for Bond to ditch his usual vodka martinis for Heineken in Skyfall.
However, the success this brings the brands involved is worth the hefty price tag. Figures suggest that Heineken’s sales went up by 5.2% in 2012, partly as a result of the partnership.
The rules are much more relaxed with films, as I’m sure anyone who has watched Wayne’s World will have guessed. As long as a legal agreement is in place between a brand and a production, then it’s okay for the production to mention or show products as much as they like.
In fact, even if products are shown without an agreement in place, it’s unlikely brands are going to complain about free advertising. Unless the brand is mentioned in a negative or defamatory way, and that’s where the problems start according to David:
“If it was a controversial programme and you’re showing a villain getting out of a black BMW and you focus on the brand then you would need permission for that or make a conscious effort not to show the brand.”
This is why it is always recommended for production companies to get a legal agreement in place before using brands, just in case.
What about BBC Programmes?
Generally speaking, product placement is not allowed on BBC programmes. Under the terms of the BBC Agreement, product placement is not allowed in programmes made for BBC licence fee funded services.
However, if the programme is one which the BBC acquires, or has been made by one of the BBC’s commercial services (e.g. BBC Studios, BBC Studioworks or BBC Global News) then the normal Ofcom product placement rules apply.
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