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Last week we spoke about how product placement has turned into become situation placement – the question is however “How in earth do you create such plan”. How do you secure space in a computer game, manage to be mentioned in a song or shown in a movie? That’s what this weeks article is all about.
Before even considering going along this track you need to consider what you want to get out of it. In contract to traditional “above the line” marketing – it’s almost impossible to measure the effect of this approach – at least on a short-term basis.
The good news about product placement – or situation placement as I call it, situation placement meaning that you in fact ensure that your product becomes the hero – enhancing the story – in stead of a ad-on element without any affect on the story, is that it still, despite having been around for some time is still considered being very new. Marketeers still don’t know how to handle this, film studios, musicians and in particular game developers still see this as a quick revenue generating exercise – without any fixed prices – helping you to decide the price on a ad-hoc basic.
Tell me what’s the price of sponsoring the equipment handed out in the Matrix or Doom game? Who knows? No one really knows and therefore you can in many cases set the standard and secure an extremely high value out of this type of marketing effort.
My experience is that if you happen to be a brand appealing to kids or tweens at least 10 if not 15 per cent of your budget should be dedicated to “underground” branding – with situation placement as one of the main activities.
My advice to you therefore is to ensure a less focus on the result as it’s almost impossible to prove… which by the way is the reason why you most likely can secure a fabulous price.
Next step for you is to determine where and how to place your brand and brand message. Again the approach is slightly different from what you might be use to. Try to think of your brand as the hero – now tell me how can it become the hero. Like in the example with Red Bull – giving you energy – and therefore extra points – you need to extract the benefits of your brand into the story. If you are Nike your brand might optimize your skills – beating your competitors. Ensure to identify the unique skills of your brand – and then to place your brand in a story where your brand turns out to be the hero, the helper or the focus point.
Forget about online banner ads, logo’s placed on walls. … Yes even clouds I’ve seen examples of. People forget it.
What people don’t forget is if your brand was the hero of the story, the game or the event – making their life easier, making the story more relevant or helping the hero in the movie.
The third and last step is to think out side the box. Contact game suppliers, even if they happen to be based out of Japan and Korea. The further away – often the better price you can secure. Think about ways of placing your product no one really have thought about. And yes there are a lot of opportunities – the more creative, the lower price. I guarantee you.
A truly successful situation placement campaign is determined on your ability to leverage the space you have dedicated. If you identify it your self- you most likely will succeed – however it’s a very limited space and the demand is increasingly growing – so be fast – before it’s game over.
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