The Growing Product Placement Industry

Apple products appeared in 30% of the 33 top films in 2010. Nike, Chevy and Ford in 24%. Sony, Dell, Land Rover and Glock in 15%. Product Placement is a $25 billion industry now. In fact, the next James Bond movie will cover one-third of it’s budget with $45 million in product placement revenue.

Pontiac hoped to sell 1,000 Solstices in 10 days. Instead they sold 1,000 Solstices in 41 minutes after its exposure on The Apprentice.

As consumers become more and more resistant or just plain apathetic to advertising, strategies like product placement are gaining momentum. Parallel to the movie industry is sponsorship in the content industry. As content developers build authority and increase their audiences, the opportunity to increase revenue through sponsorship is building. The MarTech blog is no different… Zoomerang and Delivra are incredibly important to our ability to continue promoting and investing in MarTech. (We’re seeking additional sponsors as well, if you’re interested).

The only difference that I personally see are the federal regulations associated with each. While I have to publicly disclose every single relationship I have within the content that we write, the movie industry just mentions some info at the end of the film. That Hollywood money in politics really makes a difference!

Building an audience takes time and a lot of effort. Finding someone with that audience already and partnering with them is a great alternative. With this blog, it’s imperative that our sponsors be great companies since we’re staking our reputation and risking our audience when promoting them. I don’t know that movies risk as much! A movie that bombs doesn’t necessarily let down the product they’re promoting… and a lousy product doesn’t necessarily take away from the movie.