Product placement practices in independent and box-office films in Turkey

Abstract

Marketing strategies change, evolve and develop together with the advancement of new communication technologies. At the same time, marketing communication efforts also become more important day by day and marketers seek for further opportunities to communicate the changing consumers. The necessity has arisen to reach out the target audience, to whom the advertisement messages cannot be conveyed, by means of different strategies or methods. Though an old method, one of the marketing communication methods needed more as days pass is the product placement. As a technique increasing the brand awareness, product placement is a practice intensely employed in both the global and Turkish cinema since the 1980s. Seen also in the period earlier than 1980’s, this method is beneficial in both material and reality terms for not only the advertiser but also the film producer or director. Regardless of the genre of film, money is needed to realize any film. Co-production, sponsorship and product placement are the primary sources of income for the cinema films. A new era has started following the 1990s in the Turkish cinema, and directors who created their own language of cinema and received numerous awards in national and international arena, like Dervis Zaim, Zeki Demirkubuz and Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Although these directors make films without bearing commercial concerns, yet again they need material resources to shoot their films. This study titled “Product Placement Practices in Independent and Box-office Films in Turkey” examines, through content analysis method, how the box-office films and independent films employ product placement, and qualitatively interprets and compares the obtained results. Keyword Product Placement; Turkish Cinema; Independent Film; Box-office Films; Relationship between Cinema and Advertising.