By Bob Meyer

Media research firm PQ Media did a study last year that showed 64% of products placed in movies and television shows are done on a bartered basis. The trading of “exposure” is a multi-billion-dollar way-of-doing business. (It accounted for $2.44 billion in 2005, and is expected to grow 15% a year through 2009.)

It started in the 1950s with the acclaimed movie, The African Queen, when actress Katharine Hepburn’s character was paid by Gordon Gin to toss its liquor bottles overboard.

Then in a 1967 beverage plug, a young Dustin Hoffman sipped a can of Olympia beer as he floated in Mrs. Robinson’s swimming pool in The Graduate.

The advertising technique really came of age in the early 1980s with the film ET. When M&M/Mars turned down director Steven Spielberg’s request for permission to use its candy in the film, he turned to Reese’s Pieces…owned by Mars rival Hershey Foods. The brief scene in which the candy was used set off a sales boom for the Reese’s candies.

Product placement has always been viewed as an alternative medium, but in the last few years it has become an established marketing tactic. By getting various products on trade, Hollywood saves a bundle of cash from its production budget. In return, products get immortalized on film.

With the average cost of making a movie now over $60 million, and marketing costs running another $20 million or more, studios are under intense pressure to shave expenses where they can. Bartering “product exposure” is a simple and productive way to offset costs.

The product placement with the most sizzle could well be Learjet…the company typically provides its planes to studios to cart around cast and crew in exchange for the plane appearing in the movie.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Best & Brightest Barter, Media & Travel, Marketing, Purchasing & Financing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.