Product placement is the paid-for placement of a product, service or brand in any form of audio-visual content.
Product Placement in Music Videos
You might be asking yourself ‘are music videos still relevant?‘. At Spark, we say “YES!”. With some recent examples being Doja Cat’s “Woman,” BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” or Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy.” Despite Spotify streams exceeding YouTube views for popular tracks today, music videos remain present and impactful.
- Music videos are not just promotional tools but integral parts of an artist’s creative expression and a key element in the music ecosystem, offering unique experiences that audio alone cannot provide. They become part of music history too.
- Out of the most streamed tracks on Spotify in 2023, 36 out of the top 40 tracks released between 2022 and 2023 had accompanying music videos.
- Some labels even use a postponed music video release as a revival of a song, such as SZA’s “Snooze,” with its music video premiering 258 days after the initial release. This helped the track reach a peak number of 2 in October, 2023.
For many years YouTube has been the go to platform for watching music videos but this is being shaken up by recent developments: streaming giant Spotify has joined Apple Music in introducing full-length music videos on its platform, confirming the relevance and permanence of the music video format.
But with the backdrop of the current digital environment, you might be thinking “why would a record label invest in music videos when it can get similar reach from being featured in a throwaway clip from a TikTok influencer?” We believe that record labels have to make sure they intersect with consumers of music in every possible way they consume it, one of which nowadays is TikTok.
- When a song goes viral on TikTok, the views on its music videos rise accordingly
- TikTok is usually used by artists to tease or promote their new song, with redirect links in their Bio to YouTube or Spotify/Apple Music
- The platform has significantly boosted artist discoverability, shooting emerging artists onto the charts overnight, giving rise to more (and potentially lower-cost) product placement opportunities
Here are some tips from us to ensure successful product placement:
- Match between the target group demographics of the brand and the artist’s fanbase
- Ensure authentic integration of product placement in the storyboard
- Include a social media/PR strategy
- Perform additional actions to increase reach and interaction with fanbase ex. signed give-away competitions, concert tickets, meet-and-greets, etc.
- Don’t forget the government product placement rules and regulations in the concerned territory – contact us for more information on this.
Product Placement in Films
This is different from a film promotion, which is a marketing alliance between two partners, usually a brand wishing to associate its products or services with an entertainment property, and a film studio/record company wishing to maximize the promotional exposure around a specific release date of a film.
Spark recommends the negotiation of a deal that involves both product placement and a marketing promotion, in order to reduce costs for the placement and to maximise exposure overall.
There are countless possibilities for a credible product placement such as:
- Showing the brand used in a natural setting in a key film scene
- Placing the brand logo on a billboard in the background of a key scene
- Showing a print ad in a newspaper or magazine that one of the main characters is reading
- Filming a scene in or outside a branded shop
- Having two characters talking about the brand i.e. while window shopping
- and so on…
Product placement is not yet an exact science, but research has shown that the following can help make your placement more effective:
Dos:
- Interlink product placement with social media activities to expand the value of the placement.
- When the product is used by a main character the audience has expressed more positive attitudes.
- Increasing consumers’ brand awareness is an appropriate goal for product placement – not always direct sales.
Don’ts:
- Placement has to be relevant to the scene otherwise the viewer’s impression can be negative.
- Good to know: men are more likely than women to be influenced by masculine product placements (e.g. cars) that are advertised during film and television programs.
Spark researches suitable films under the following criteria:
- Audience match
- Potential hit film
- Story line or lead actors should give enough opportunity for authentic product placement
- Timing: there are far more opportunities if a film is still in pre-production rather than being filmed or even in post-production
Spark offers research, creative input, negotiations, contract and project management for product placement in various formats, such as films or music videos.
Please email us at [email protected] or contact any of our Spark team members to be added to our product placement newsletter to stay in the loop on upcoming opportunities and trends, to obtain our product placement presentation with more detailed information, or to have your questions on this matter answered.