Product Placement - Categories and Variations

Categories and Variations

Actual product placement falls into two categories: products or locations that are obtained from manufacturers or owners to reduce the cost of production, and products deliberately placed into productions in exchange for fees. In Amanda Lotz's book she refers to two classifications within these two categories, what she refers to as "basic" and "advanced" placement. Basic placement is when the logo of an object or a brand name is visible but the characters don't draw attention to the brand. Advanced placement is when the product or brand is mentioned by name by characters in the show or movie.

Sometimes, product usage is negotiated rather than paid for. Some placements provide productions with below-the-line savings, with products such as props, clothes and cars being loaned for the production's use, thereby saving them purchase or rental fees. Barter systems (the director/actor/producer wants one for himself) and service deals (cellular phones provided for crew use, for instance) are also common practices. Producers may also seek out companies for product placements as another savings or revenue stream for the movie, with, for example, products used in exchange for help funding advertisements tied-in with a film's release, a show's new season or other event. In some instances companies will donate products to set designers and prop companies, this way the company will make their brand visible without having to pay for the placement.

In automotive racing, the concept of the factory-backed contestant, who is provided with vehicles and technical support in return for the car's manufacturer obtaining visibility for its products in stock car competition, dates in NASCAR to the 1950s and Marshall Teague's factory-backed Fabulous Hudson Hornet. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was once a common cliché among automakers.

A variant of product placement is advertisement placement. In this case an advertisement for the product (rather than the product itself) is seen in the movie or television series. Examples include a Lucky Strike cigarette advertisement on a billboard or a truck with a milk advertisement on its trailer.

Another variant of promotional consideration occurs when a game show awards a product as a prize and promotes the prize on the air in return for consideration from the product's manufacturer. On game shows, the promotion generally consists of displaying the prize and/or its packaging and reading descriptive copy which is generally seven seconds in length. Depending on its value, the supplier may give the show a prize at a discount (cars, boats, travel trailers, etc.), as an even trade, or as a so-called "fee item" where the prize is of relatively low value (e.g. grocery and other consumer items) and the supplier pays an additional fee in addition to providing the prize itself. The prize, together with any fee paid or discount received, are all considered to be "valuable consideration".

A variant of product placement is product integration. Product integration varies from product placement because product integration goes beyond just having the product on the screen as part of the show. According to Amanda Lotz, product integration is defined as instances when “the product or company name becomes part of the show in such a way that it contributes to the narrative and creates an environment of brand awareness beyond that produced by advanced placement.” While this type of advertising is usually seen in unscripted shows such as The Apprentice, it can also be used in scripted shows. In the series, All My Children one character got a job at Revlon. This is integration because the product is a part of the script. The character's job at Revlon becomes part of the character and her development. This is different from product placement where the character would use a Revlon brand lipstick one day. Another example occurred in season two of the show Damages, which had a plotline involving characters exchanging information via the GPS system of a Cadillac Escalade. Not only was the brand name vehicle prominently featured by characters referred numerous times to "The Cadillac".