[ad_1]
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.
