Product Placement

Product placement is becoming more prevalent in today's advertising scene. If you are not updated on product placement, it is the use of real products are paid to be in movies, shows, books, and even video games. Although some people argue that can distract from the shows, it can make the films more realistic.


A major product placement is Heineken in "Skyfall" which is the latest James Bond movie. This allowed Heineken to reach a very large audience in a very discreet and subtle way. Although it is difficult to estimate how many people have seen the movie (since the box offices are recorded in monetary amounts), it broke over $1 billion in box office tickets world wide. It also sold over $100 million just in domestic DVD sales. Needless to say, Skyfall has reached a very wide audience.

However, this kind of coverage comes at a hefty price. It is estimated that Heineken paid $45 million to appear in the film. This one deal covered almost a third of the film's budget, and James Bond had multiple deals with from Sony to Tom Ford to cover other costs.



These product placements have other benefits besides making a production more realistic. The major benefit is helping cover costs for productions. This allows producers to invest more in other areas of the movies, such as special affects and recurring top actors.

Needless to say, product placement is not going anywhere. It is a big money maker for producers, and it exposes a product to a very large audience in its realistic setting.