Hello Everyone-
Here again after another long MIA. My bad. I got a promotion at my new job, I’m a Project Manager now which means I get to work directly with studios on upcoming films. It’s doing exactly what I set out to do. So I’ve been busy, but I consider myself lucky.
For this entry, I’m going to step away from assessing placements and the regular routine to discuss The BrandCameo Product Placement Award Winners of 2013 which came out recently on the site BrandChannel.
I wanted to share with all of you the highlights from the first half of this year in case you missed them. It’s a good insight into what’s going on in the Entertainment Marketing industry. To avoid boring you, I’m only going to picking out a few highlights to discuss, but feel free to visit >>>this link<<< to get the full list of this year’s award winners.
Award for Product Placement Impact:
James Bond: Skyfall – Macallan
After Skyfall rolled out into theatres, Macallan received a huge surge in attention. 
According to this article, the company had no advanced knowledge of any scenes in the film and was only asked for brand clearance by the filmmakers.
As a result of the placement, search volume for “Macallan” increased by 150% from its previous year’s average. Front Row Marketing Services estimates the Bond tie-in is worth a value of $8.98 million. Not bad for a placement that didn’t cost Macallan a penny!
Award for Product Placement Adaptation
Silver Linings Playbook – Post’s Raisin Bran
This award goes to a movie that effectively adapts a placement originally written in a book onto the silverscreen. The silver lining to this winner is: in the book they use the generic term raisin bran; in the movie Post scores the role of The Raisin Bran over competitors such as Kellogs.
E.T./ Reese’s Award for Achievement in Media coverage
James Bond: Skyfall – Heineken
220,000 was the number of search results that came up for Heineken when searching for “Product Placement” and/or “Skyfall”. I’m won’t say much more about it, because I hated this placement…but I can’t deny that the Bond franchise is a for sure bet; possibly one of the biggest consistencies, and most credible sources [Bond, James Bond] in the Entertainment Marketing business. The article notes that in 2007, Casino Royale also won this award. 
And the award that I found most interesting…
Award for Product Placement Production
Looper
When Chinese partners came on board this project, the filmmakers switched one of the scenes meant to be shot in Paris, over to Shanghai to accommodate. Turns out, filming in such a big market opened the project up to some lucrative product placement opportunities. In the version of the movie released in China, extended scenes of the main character in Shanghai were added. This also created opportunity to implement a significant product placement for 360Buy.com, China’s online retail giant. Um, CHA-CHING! It’s a win-win for both sides here, but I’m pretty sure production got the betterdeal. Extra money for filming that they wouldn’t have had otherwise, and a partner to help them fast track filming. 
The article mentions China’s co-production officials allowed this to fall outside of the country’s film quota system.
What I take from this is: if you’re a filmmaker, it’s good to be flexible—good things happen. This also points out a good opportunity for filmmakers as well. Double selling placements could enable production 2X the amount of support and 2X the amount of money from sale. Say that 2 different brands/products, thriving in 2 completely different markets wanted in on the same movie. I don’t see how this would be unethical [can someone tell me otherwise?]. Production would just have to make the effort to shoot the same scene over again for the second brand. I can’t imagine any complaints to a second check. All 3 parties win…it’s a win-win-win.
Make A MovEment 