By Dan Eaton, Reporter
May 20, 2011, 2:38 p.m.
SBC hosted a preview screening of the movie Thursday for employees, clients and media. Spoiler alert: Pom Wonderful is among the several companies to buy into his plan, along with JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ:JBLU), Old Navy and many others. Central Ohio companies were mostly absent from the film, although billboards for Express Inc. (NYSE:EXPR) and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE:AEO) pop up briefly and, at one point, in a montage of commercial images, I’m pretty sure I saw some Victoria’s Secret ads.
But that doesn’t mean companies and agencies around Central Ohio aren’t actively working to break into entertainment.
“Product placement is one of the hardest things to get our customers to buy into,” Wilson said.
Showing up in a movie or TV show is often a quick, one-shot impression and it can be harder to quantify the potential return on that exposure, he said. The key is building on that impression. SBC created a DVD giveaway and sweepstakes promotion for client Krazy Glue, for example, when that product made an appearance in the 2001 Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey movie The Wedding Planner. The scene in question involved one of the characters knocking over a statue and breaking off … let’s just say an appendage … that needed reattached quickly.
“Our client had a good sense of humor,” Wilson said.
Not all do, as some of the tales in Greatest Movie Ever Sold reflect.
Iannarino said the movie’s depiction of the business was accurate, although Dearfoams has never been in some of the meetings as quirky as the ones in Spurlock’s movie. It also doesn’t pay for product placement, she said. Like some of the companies in the movie, R.G. Barry uses product placement specialists such as Hollywood Branded Inc. and [highlight]Stone Management Inc.[/highlight] to help get its placements, which aren’t always product. In the aforementioned No Strings Attached, there is a scene where Portman’s character is getting in a taxi topped with a Dearfoams ad.
“It’s exciting to see it on the big screen,” Iannarino said. “We got calls from a lot of people who saw it.”
Dearfoam slippers have appeared on the TV shows Mike & Molly, Hot in Cleveland and Better with You. The company sent boxes to the set of the movie Locked in a Garage Band, currently shooting in Canada, which they hope will be seen stacked up in the titular garage.
The company also sends products to shows not for on-air use, but in the hopes of converting customers. Contestants on Dancing with the Stars all receive Dearfoams slippers backstage and some, like celebrity Kendra Wilkinson, have put the slippers to use in everyday life — caught by paparazzi, which translates to free publicity for Dearfoams.
SBC has helped clients including Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NYSE:BBY) with appearances in The Other Guys and Something Borrowed, but one of SBC’s main targets is the DIY Network, where clients have donated products such as Elmer’s Glue, Channellock Pliers, Genie Garage Door Openers and Armstrong Residential Ceilings, to home improvement shows.
“We get a lot of calls,” Wilson said. “TV shows are on tight budgets, so when you give them products, it gets you in the game.”
Wilson said he thought the movie was an accurate presentation of the product placement process, from the initial excitement to the litany of questions and concerns connected to it about cost, portrayal of the brand, etc.
Not addressed in the movie, which doesn’t really take a stance on product placement, is where the practice goes from here. But Wilson said he’s already seeing the evolution — getting products into commercials for other products. In a new Verizon commercial, one of the characters sips from a 7-Eleven Big Gulp.
“When I saw that,” he said, “I stood up and cheered.”