Successful Product Placements in Hollywood Films

Hollywood creates amazing opportunities for brands to assimilate their products into American culture. Sometimes it is an unpaid product placement, other times it’s an investment made by companies. However, the data has shown that if the product is well integrated into the film, the results can be impressive. Here are five brands that benefited from placing their product in a Hollywood film.

Product: Ray-Ban's Wayfarer

Movie: Risky Business (1983)

In Tom Cruise’s breakthrough movie, he plays a suburban high school student whose parents go out of town for the weekend, leaving him free to go wild. His character wears Ray-Ban’s Wayfarer sunglasses throughout the movie. Ray-Ban went on to sell 360,000 pairs that year.

Product: Reese’s Pieces

Movie: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

In this classic Spielberg film, we see young Elliot lure E.T. go back to his room with a bag of Reese’s pieces. This was the first paid product placement, and it surely paid off. Profits rose 65% after the movie.

Product: Mini Cooper

Movie: The Italian Job (2003)

Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron star in this action adventure thriller that revolves its plot around the size and speed of Mini Coopers. BMW lent thirty cars to the producers, which came back around to benefit them. The brand experienced a 22% increase in sales over the year before.

Product: BMW

Movie: GoldenEye (1995)

Pierce Brosnan rides around in the famous “Bond car”- a BMW Z3 Roadster- throughout the movie. BMW invested $3 million to place it in the film, but ended up earning $240 million in advance sales. Another win for BMW in Hollywood.

Product: Etch-A-Sketch

Movie: Toy Story (1998)

Although Etch-a-sketch only played a small role in the movie, it made a huge impact in the marketplace. Sales boosted a stunning 4,500%.

There is a lesson here for businesses of all sizes. If you are willing to take risks, the reward can be tremendous.