Brand Placement is the commercial insertion of a brand within a specific media program to increase the visibility of the brand

and thereby increase awareness of the product or service that the brand represents.

There are multiple ways of placing a brand to create its awareness. Some of them are:

Publicity Promotion techniques gift coupons, discounts, free trials, etc. Advertising through various media vehicles like, television, radio, outdoor, print media, ambient, etc. Direct Mailer wherein communication is made directly with the target audience, providing detailed information on the brand and the product or service Events Events can be held specifically for the benefit of the product, like a press conference for the launch of the product or sponsoring events which relate with the brand and its product

These are the traditional ways of brand placement used by most advertisers.

This is a unique method of creating awareness of your product, wherein it need not necessarily be perceived as a paid form of advertisement.
It has been noted that the traditional means of brand placement has lately lost its charm and has increasingly losing its effectiveness. The regular TVCs placed during television soaps, or commercials placed even during movies, are generally looked upon has hindrances. The audience tend to either switch channels if its on television or walk out during the interval in theatres. The same goes for radio advertisements even print for that matter. Hence there is a need of introducing ways in which you can reach the target audience more effectively and in a positive way. This method is being used in Hollywood since a longtime now and has subtly made its entry into Bollywood as well. Eliminates competitive exposure in the same medium at the same time, leaving a lasting memory of your brand in the mind of the audience.

Brand placement in movies has many benefits which makes it very attractive:

It targets the right segment of the audience, as the brand will be placed in relation to its personality in the specific movie. Being placed within the movie, compels the audience to view the brand and take note of it. Its a captive audience. Assuming the movie does well at the box office, the brand placement also becomes successful. Many people who tend to get influenced by their favourite actors / stars tend to go and buy the product. Considering the fact that now-a-days movies are released worldwide, an advertiser who wants to reach out globally, this would be the most effective tool at an extremely reasonable cost. Much more cost efficient than television commercials.

In case of brand placement through movies, it is very important to understand the methodology of this medium.
The selection of the movie will depend on multiple criteria:

The objective of the brand, whether it can connect itself with the movie.
The brand personality does the movie have content which can relate with the brand personality.

Does the actor in the movie fit the personality to suit your brand?
Who are the target audience of the movie are they also your brands target audience? How confident are you about the movie being successful

Once the movie is selected based on the essential criteria. A strategy needs to be formed as to how to ensure that your brand message reaches the target audience, most effectively.
There are technicalities which need to be looked into while designing the creative in this particular medium. Very important to note that the audience going to the theatres are going there to forget realities of life and are not expecting any kind of advertising message to be thrown at them.

Hence the creation of the message should be such that it fuses completely with the motion picture and the audience receives it in the same manner.
At the same time, it must be effective enough to capture the attention of the audience.

The Brand Image is the perception held in the mind of the consumer as reflected by the creative message and other brand associates.
It is very important to ensure that the creative message being disseminated through the movie, results in a positive image for the brand. Hence it is extremely important to relate the personality of the brand with the character of the movie, to ensure effective communication. Under no circumstance must the message be loud, leading to extremely evident advertising, it could lead to negative impression in the mind of the viewer. The plot where the brand placement is done, must be carefully chosen, so that the audience does not feel it is out of context.

Example of context usage: In Taal (1999), where the hero uses a bottle of coke as the symbol of exchange of love and thereby, increasing the contextual strength of Coca Cola, which has been targeting the youth.

There are four different ways to place a brand in a movie :

Visual Here there can be one or more appearances of the brand in

the movie at different levels. The camera shot will be done in a manner where the brand is clearly visible. Here the logo or the name of the brand or the firm will be shown.
Used in a scene Here the brand will be used by the character but no

verbal inferences will be made to the name or the benefits of the brand. E.g. Phir Bhi Dil Hain Hindustani (2000) and Hyundai Santro Zip, where Shahrukhs character drives the car in the movie

Examples of Used in the Scene method: In Phir Bhi Dil Hain Hindustani (2000), the movie shows Shahrukh Khan using a Hyundai Santro Zip Drive. This is an example of the second method i.e. Used in the scene.

Integrated Explicit Here the brand name is formally mentioned in the scene and the attributes and the benefits of the product is clearly demonstrated. For e.g. Koi Mil Gaya (2003), wherein Hritiks character actually talks about the attributes of Bournvita.
Non-Integrated Explicit Here the brand name will be mentioned formally i.e. the sponsor name will be mentioned at the beginning or end of the program but it will not be integrated with the program. For e.g. Welcome (2007) and Frankfinn Institute for Airhostess.

Examples of Integrated Explicit form of brand placement: In Koi Mil Gaya (2003), where in a scene the character of Hritik is shown speaking about the attributes of Bournvita after he beats the school bullies.

Example of Non-Integrated Explicit: In Welcome 2007, there is a scene where they are playing a game of April Fool and the name of FrankFinn Institute of Air Hostess is announced before the game begins. This is a example where the name of the sponsor was announced but the benefits were not explained in details

An interesting study published in the South Asian Journal of Management has derived the following results from its experiment of the reaction of the viewers with regard to the brand placement in movies:

A positive brand image leads to positive brand evaluation

The stronger the congruity between the brand and the program, more positive is the evaluation.

An implicit brand placement led to more positive consumer response than integrated explicit brand placement.
However ethical response is negative in implicit brand placement as compared to explicit placement.

The Study also proved that the popular brands were recalled much easily than the less popular ones. There were eight brands involved in the study i.e. Coca cola, Pass Pass, Stroh, Santro, Hero Cycles, Swatch, Akai, HMV. Of the eight, Coca Cola had the highest recall value (100%), whereas HMV had the least (4%). Hence the brand image itself is also highly important for the audience to notice it. Further the audience has an ethical view also with regard to the brand placement