From Then Till Now: Big Brands’ Enduring Love Affair With Product Placement

Despite being over 100 years since the first documented example of product placement ran—a soap endorsement within the Lumiere brothers’ 1896 film Washing Day in Switzerland—the advertising technique remains popular.

If the reaction to a 20-year-old Cerveza Cristal integration appearing within the original Star Wars trilogy when aired in Chile is anything to go by—it can still prove a highly effective weapon in a big brand’s arsenal to capture public attention.

Despite originally running two decades ago, reportedly without the permission of Lucasfilm to add their beer brand and its accompanying jingle into key scenes within the movie, the clips quickly went viral across social media in early March.

According to data provided by Brandwatch, the beer brand owned by Heineken experienced a significant rise in mentions. Last year, the brand received 250 mentions per month on average, while between March 1-13 this year, it received 112,000 mentions. This marks a 5922% increase from the previous month. The hashtag #cervzacristal gained 19 million impressions through X, as fans shared follow-up parody videos that incorporated the brand into additional scenes across the Star Wars franchise.

Product placement continues to be popular with the world’s biggest brands. The Product Placement blog found that Apple was its most spotted brand of 2023 with almost 2,000 appearances on TV and films, more than double the second-place brand Nike which has over 750 placements. Other brands on its top 30 list included Microsoft, Adidas, Budweiser, Pepsi and Samsung. 

According to PQ Media, the total amount spent on product placements by 2026 will reach $41.4 billion, with over half coming from the U.S. Over 70% of that spending will be in TV.

BenLabs’ State of Product Placement report from last year, 86% of marketers who weren’t using it were considering adopting it, while 81% of those who have tried it felt it was an effective marketing channel.

The evolution of product placement

In this era of technological innovation and artificial intelligence (AI), product placement is evolving beyond simply placing a brand or product in the hands of an actor and holding it toward the camera. With the increasing use of ad blockers, marketers see media integration as an alternative and trustworthy alternative, and that is becoming more personalized with the addition of first-party data from subscribed streaming viewers.

That’s what works in a 2024 environment, not just following the playbook of what the architecture of what a 30-second spot should be.

—Kaylen McNamara, chief business officer, VaynerX

BENlabs research discovered that four out of five marketers felt that AI would prove important when it came to their company promotion decisions, with the technology being used to predict results when exploring new channels to adopt.   

“The biggest challenge brands have faced in product placement is inherent human bias and subjectivity,” explained Ricky Ray Butler, the CEO of BENlabs, as brands vie to appear in the biggest audience engagement opportunities.

Butler’s organization has created AI technology and data systems to support brands as they aim to overcome the challenges of ad avoidance and decentralization in media consumption habits.

“By leveraging predictive AI models, brands can optimize for ROI, getting inside content before they become hits, when the cost to partner increases exponentially,” he explained.

In the age of the creator, product placement and branded entertainment are no longer the sole domain of media companies, with individuals able to agree to major brand endorsement deals to showcase products within their content and further amplify existing integrations.

“The newest creator on the block is creating the most virality because they understand the platform,” claimed Kaylen McNamara, chief business officer at VaynerX.  “They may not have the experience in brand building or in coming up with big ideas, but they intimately understand the behaviors happening on the platform. And that’s what works in a 2024 environment, not just following the playbook of what the architecture of what a 30-second spot should be.”

McNamara added that product integration deals can also be amplified alongside creators with behind-the-scenes content now being filmed on set during production involving the actors. Creators can also research, test and explore the audiences that already have an affinity with the brand.

She cited a TikTok post for the sandwich chain Jimmy John’s, the response to which led to the development of a three-minute spoof of the reality series The Batchelor, using red velvet cookies instead of roses.

“Out of that shoot, we got 100-plus pieces of creative that were natively built for the platforms. And it allowed the brand to not only market their limited-time offers (LTO) but it let them drive engagement and show that they’re on top of these trends that are happening on TikTok,” explained McNamara.

With zero paid media behind the campaign, “MILF and Cookies” organically received 267.7 million impressions across social platforms. Meanwhile, the cookies sold out nationwide in less than four weeks, setting a record for January sales.

The use of programmatic to embed personalized content into content is also emerging with virtual product placement now offered by streaming services and emerging tech companies. Add on A.I. and data to automate those positions in a similar vein as digital ads, and the potential for driving a more personalized viewing experience is clear.

However, according to YouGov’s Dominic Prince who developed its Placement Quality Score (PQS) to measure the effectiveness of such integrations, AI still struggles with context and how brands feature within a narrative.

“Once you have the ability to programmatically advertise to consumers, you can break those billion eyeballs down into fractions of however many you want, and set them up separately. And so it allows a lot more brands to enter the space,” added Prince.

Measurement and Attribution

One issue in the product placement space that has been apparent over the years is attribution. Previously, research was conducted using custom costly surveys asking viewers what they noticed. That cumbersome approach is now being overcome through technological means.

Research firm YouGov’s Placement Quality Score examined how much a branded piece of content was viewed alongside the value of that media over the length of time the brand appeared or was mentioned on screen.

Prince, who devised the PQS, explained that he still goes through each integration personally, citing the use of JIFF peanut butter within Stranger Things as one example reviewed in 2022, valuing the delivery at over $27 million.

Meanwhile, with supporting social media activity around a brand deal, it is also possible to attribute sales uplift during the period in which it is released, tied directly to when the product placement itself takes place, explained VaynerX’s Kaylen McNamara. She added it can also validate creative concepts, using them in a meta environment to test and tweak depending on the sales response before investing more in further media.

With further progress, the mystery of product placement’s return on investment is looking more feasible to determine.

“I would encourage brands to truly take a step back and leverage all the data and technology available at our fingertips today to ensure that they are reaching the right audiences, with the right messages, at the right time—in this way, leveraging data-driven systems and processes, a brand like Cerveza Cristal can have the impact of a viral campaign not just once, but consistently to drive efficient ROI,” said Ray Butler.