Sunday, September 30, 2018
Audi in Marvel Movies: The Impact of Product Placement
As we have learned in class, product placement is a great marketing strategy for a company to advertise their product. In movies today, companies will pay thousands of dollars for even a quick glimpse of their product in a film. From music playing in TV shows, to nice cars racing in movies, everything is there for a reason.
I grew up with Iron Man as my favorite movie and an Audi R8 as my favorite car, and that wasn't a coincidence. After seeing Tony Stark, my favorite superhero as a kid, constantly drive around in that car, it instinctively made me want the same. This is a prime example of product placement at work. Through Audi's contract with Marvel, we see Audi's supercars to SUV's appear in movies. By advertising their cars performance in high action chase scenes, to simply showing off their aesthetics and comfort in others, Audi can directly target buyers and regular people like me.
This type of product placement is the same we see in movies such as James Bond. Similarly to what we see with Audi, by using the Aston Martin as a main aspect of the movie, the companies popularity will immediately increase. When someone thinks James Bond, they immediately think Aston Martin, and visa versa. In this situation, product placement is not only benefitting the advertiser, but is benefitting the movie company as well.
This idea of product placement is the same as the example Mr. Stewart gave us about MTV in class or music playing in Starbucks. The music we hear on TV and in the store isn't playing just because it sounds good. In both situations, big music companies are paying large sums of money to play their music in hopes for people to enjoy it, and want to hear more. Just like with Audi and Marvel, everything is there for a reason.
Overall, Audi's deal with Marvel to advertise their cars through movies is a great marketing strategy, and in some cases one that benefits both parties. Through using the R8 in Iron Man, any fan would recognize Audi as "Iron Man's car." This is ultimately what companies want when it comes to product placement in movies- to be recognized when the movie comes to mind.
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I think that product placement is a very interesting marketing technique. In the market of luxury cars, Audi has a substantial amount of competition, with companies such as Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, or BMW. So, every company must do whatever they can to get an edge. As much as they can improve their car, what is really going to make up the minds of most people looking to buy a luxury car is how the car is being marketed. And according to your post, Audi was clearly able to do this: they targeted a younger demographic of children and teenagers watching super hero movies and ingrained the image of an Audi R8 in their minds from a young age.
ReplyDeleteProduct placement can be super effective when it comes to forms of media and entertainment. Just like how many fans associate Audi with "Iron Man's Car," the same can be said about certain songs and soundtracks for movies. In the example of Black Panther, a lot of rappers and successful artists came together to create a powerful soundtrack to support that movie. The movie benefitted because they had a professional soundtrack, and the artists were able to gain popularity through people who watched the movie.
ReplyDeleteI completely share that same experience as you. I remember watching Iron Man and knowing instantly I wanted an Audi R8 one day. They'd debut prototypes in the movies to hype up their car releases. Similarly, even with older makes and models, companies can advertise their brands. Mission Impossible and BMW have had a partnership for a few movies. They used their older E28 5 Series, as well as some newer makes to advertise that if you want to have an exciting vehicle, you should buy a BMW.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://jalopnik.com/mission-impossible-fallout-is-going-to-ruin-the-old-bm-1827841847
I like how your personal example shows the effectiveness of product placement. It is easy for our mind to make associations between two objects. I was surprised to learn that the music played by Starbucks is purposeful. It makes sense though that record companies will pay Starbucks to play specific pop songs because they know that Starbucks attracts a younger group of customers, so they will most likely want to buy that music. Therefore with this product placement, Starbucks may have a "cooler" feel to it, and if the consumer hears a song on the radio that they first heard in Starbucks, they may suddenly want to get a drink from Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteThis post is very relatable. While reading your blog I realized that I was also affected by the clever marketing used in Iron Man. Without knowing much about cars, I somehow knew what an Audi R8 was and associated it with Iron Mans car. I vividly remember an ad campaign that was running before the Spiderman: Homecoming movie came out where the young actor from that movie was driving around the car. Your post made me realize that we subconsciously make relations in our brain that help us remember certain things. I doubt I would've remembered the Audi R8 if it wasn't known my head as Iron Mans car.
ReplyDeleteWhat you said in your blog post about Marvel movies showcasing Audi reminded me of when I watched a documentary called Free Solo and noticed heavy product placement. Alex Honnold, the rock climber the documentary centered around, was consistently sporting clothes from The North Face and his rock-climbing friend was consistently sporting clothes from Patagonia. This choice of product placement is especially effective because both The North Face and Patagonia are outdoor active-wear brands, and theoretically a consumer who has interest in documentaries about rock-climbing would also have interest in outdoor activities (which would require active-wear). The same goes for Marvel movies and Audi. It makes much more sense for Marvel to promote a car brand than, say, a makeup brand.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I much appreciate the topic of Marvel, as the franchise is one I greatly admire and watch religiously. The marketing surrounding the Iron Man movies was so clever and delicately placed in the craze of the film. When such powerful fields collide, that being action movies and cars, it creates a world of success for both areas. The Hollywood movie subtly glamorizes and promotes an individual vehicle, thus increasing sales for the said car model. It's so interesting to realize that when you think you are watching pure insanity, you are really watching something that colossal amounts of time, energy, and marketing smarts went into.
ReplyDelete