Film partnerships: the good, the bad and the ugly
by Chris Reed
I still can’t believe that Paramount Pictures let Double A4 paper become a commercial and marketing partner for the new Transformers Dark (side – they forgot that word…) of the Moon. They even introduced it bizarrely into the film itself because you often think – paper – cars, cars transforming into aliens that blow things up, paper………and exactly how many paper ordering decision makers will be watching Transformers? Strange beyond belief.
Transformers opens in China this week there will be unprecedented product placement exclusively relevant to the Chinese market in what is a ground breaking shift of power. Bonwe gain exposure on the lead actors t-shirt for example and one of the robots, Brains, transforms itself out of a Lenovo Edge computer while TCL TV’s also makes an appearance and Shuhua Low Luctose, from China’s leading dairy, actually features in the script despite not being available in the US.
The brand partnership could have amazing synergy but if the film’s rubbish and performs appallingly/below expectation at the box office does that backfire on the brand connected to it? The answer is yes because the whole essence of brand partnerships is synergy.
If you look at films like Kung Fu Panda, Rio, Transformers and Green Lantern which all got slated in reviews and performed disappointingly at the box office, what happens to the myriad of brands that have invested millions of dollars in marketing that supposed positive association? Ironically if they have product placement in the film they will always be associated with that film forever more – that’s the up and downside of one of the most cost effective forms of marketing there is.
What happens though if like Nestle you are running an on pack promotion for a film which got bumped off the screens by the next blockbuster and died a ratings and critical death like Kung Fu Panda and you’re promotion outlasts the film life? You could argue that they will get the benefit of the DVD release but if the word of mouth is negative and not positive then who’s going to want to buy your connected product with connected film widget inside your box and marketed on pack? The positive becomes an irreversible negative.
Read more: http://chrisreed.brandrepublic.com/2011/07/21/film-partnerships-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/#ixzz1Si0fuFrc