Abstract
Product placement has existed in its most primitive form since the dawn of cinema. Now, due to the saturation of conventional advertising, this technique has reached its zenith, with brands appearing in an environment without competition, as a natural element of the plot. The automotive sector has been present from the beginning and soon understood the expressive possibilities that were offered. General Motors began its journey in the film industry in 1933 following an agreement with Warner. Since then, the General Motors group has had a growing presence in the film industry, which reached its peak in Transformers (2007), an unprecedented type of product placement. It is possible to identify a clear cause-effect relationship in the company’s sales, with product placement being an efficient marketing tool within the media mix, as we will show throughout this investigation. The study begins with a historical review of brand placement in North American cinema (1933-2014), then proceeds with a content analysis, following the methodology proposed by Méndiz (2001), of advertising placement in film and a structured interview with Norm Marshall, the director and founding partner of Norm Marshall & Associates, responsible for GM’s product placements.
Highlights
The advertising technique of product placement, which involves placing brands within fictional environments as natural elements of the plot (Méndiz, 2001), has existed since the dawn of cinema.In 1896, as Newel (2005) confirms, the first PP1 in history appears in the film Défilé de 8e Batallion by the Lumiere Brothers, featuring a poster for Sunlight soap, arranged by Francois-Henry Lavanchy Clark, a film producer and sales representative for that company.Eckert (1978) dates the origin of PP to 1913, in the film Age of Consent, in which a poster for CocaCola is visible
The study begins with a historical review of brand placement in North American cinema (1933-2014), proceeds with a content analysis, following the methodology proposed by Méndiz (2001), of advertising placement in film and a structured interview with Norm Marshall, the director and founding partner of Norm Marshall & Associates, responsible for GM’s product placements
We present the case of General Motors and Transformers and identify the main strategic lines of action developed
Summary
The advertising technique of product placement, which involves placing brands within fictional environments (primarily audiovisual) as natural elements of the plot (Méndiz, 2001), has existed since the dawn of cinema.In 1896, as Newel (2005) confirms, the first PP1 in history appears in the film Défilé de 8e Batallion by the Lumiere Brothers, featuring a poster for Sunlight soap, arranged by Francois-Henry Lavanchy Clark, a film producer and sales representative for that company.Eckert (1978) dates the origin of PP to 1913, in the film Age of Consent, in which a poster for CocaCola is visible. The advertising technique of product placement, which involves placing brands within fictional environments (primarily audiovisual) as natural elements of the plot (Méndiz, 2001), has existed since the dawn of cinema. In 1896, as Newel (2005) confirms, the first PP1 in history appears in the film Défilé de 8e Batallion by the Lumiere Brothers, featuring a poster for Sunlight soap, arranged by Francois-Henry Lavanchy Clark, a film producer and sales representative for that company. We would have to move forward in time, to 1945, to encounter the first case confirmed and verified by different researchers, marking the emergence of the technique: Mildred Pierce by Michael Curtiz. According to Nebenzhal and Secunda (1993), the first documented case occurs when the actress Joan Crawford, who played Mildred, drinks Jack Daniel’s Bourbon Whiskey (a perfectly recognizable drink) on camera, with a very different use than those mentioned above; it is the first case negotiated and agreed upon in exchange for a financial sum, as part of the brand’s advertising strategy
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