Download Guru Interview: Jean-Marc Lehu

Jean-Marc Lehu is Associate Professor in
Marketing and Director of Advanced
Graduate Studies in Logistics at
Panthéon Sorbonne University, Paris 1.
He
lectures
in
marketing
and
communications at several other French
management schools including HEC,
ESCP-EAP and ESG.
As an independent consultant in
communications
and
marketing,
Professor Lehu specializes in consumer
behaviour and brand strategy. His most
recent book is Branded Entertainment –
Product Placement and Brand Strategy in
the Entertainment Business (Kogan Page,
2007).
In this interview, Jean-Marc Lehu speaks
about the development, risks and
potential rewards of product placement
as an advertising technique.
Guru Interview:
Jean-Marc Lehu
In this interview, Jean-Marc Lehu
discusses the development, risks and
potential rewards of product
placement as an advertising
technique.
Interview by Sarah Powell
Guru Interview | Marketing
Emerald for Managers | © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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What do you consider the respective merits of
product placement compared with the 30-second
advertising slot, and how do changing consumer
habits challenge advertising effectiveness and
media choices?
close relationship with the film’s story, or more
generally with the environment in which it is to
appear, that its presence will seem natural.’
What are the risks to both film and product of
‘overkill’, and are consumers showing any
resistance to product placement?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Jean-Marc Lehu:
We face a challenging paradox. On the one hand
the sheer choice of TV channels, radio stations,
books, magazines, newspapers and billions of
Internet ‘pages’ available brings unparalleled
opportunities to discover, learn or be entertained.
On the other, our lives are ever richer and busier,
with an increasing range of activities and leisure
pursuits diminishing the time available for any
single pursuit. The result is a modern brand
manager’s
living
nightmare:
tremendous
audience fragmentation and consequent dilution.
The number of viewers of a prime-time, 30second commercial is declining day by day. Even
more frustratingly, the profile of the audience is
ever more difficult to predict. In early 2007 two
leaders in the packaged goods business, Procter
& Gamble and Unilever, declined to purchase
airtime for their commercials during the February
Superbowl in Florida – the major media event on
US TV. Will they regret it? Surely not. Were they
right? Probably.
Meanwhile
everything
is
becoming
‘entertainment’ – even the saddest events of our
lives can be broadcast on the news. Is this a good
or bad thing? The answer really doesn’t matter; it
is simply the way of the world and brand
managers must cope with it. Since marketing
became a management discipline, managers
have had constantly to adapt and this has led
branded entertainment to be seen as an
attractive strategy.
Brand and product placement offer the
opportunity to maintain contact with potential
consumers, sometimes without them even being
aware of the advertising aim. Product placement
also compares favourably in cost terms with
traditional mass media advertising which has
remained expensive despite declining audiences.
You write that ‘the brand must be able to enjoy a
genuine process of symbiotic integration: such a
The symbiotic integration principle suggests that
a brand can merge with its entertainment
‘receptacle’; the best case scenario is that the
brand is ‘seen’ without being ‘noticed’ – which is
the most important criterion for success.
However, if a film incorporates more than a few
dozen brands, there is a strong likelihood that
these will be neither strategically nor cleverly
integrated – which would constitute a new kind
of advertising ‘pollution’. In Big Momma's House
2, a comedy by John Whitesell, General Mills’
Lucky Charms rubs shoulders with Kellogg’s.
Dodge, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Ford drive
along the same road. HP shares the credit with
Apple, LG, Panasonic, Dell, Philips, Samsung and
Sony. . .this could be considered a small step for
symbiotic integration and a giant leap for a new
kind of extremely long commercial break!
What are the issues relating to differing national
advertising standards and legislation and how is
this addressed in product placement in films or
TV series released for global consumption?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Film production offers what is perhaps the most
blatant example of a ‘loophole’ strategy. In many
countries, advertising of alcohol and tobacco
products is banned. In others it is authorized in
certain, restricted media on condition that a
warning message is included. Very few countries
allow advertising of firearms. Advertising of
prescription drugs is habitually banned in
developed countries. However, there are ways
around these restrictions. Bacardi rum featured in
Guru Interview | Marketing
The time and quality of exposure in product
placement are a huge asset. The brand manager
has more control of the marketing goal and his
brand may also benefit from multiple product
views. A film, for example, may be seen in
cinemas, on TV (including re-runs), on DVDs and
videos including video-on-demand (VOD). If it
were possible to compare Gross Rating Point
(GRP) and Cost Per Mille or Thousand (CPM) with
precision, the huge potential of product and
brand placement would be only too evident.
The vast majority of academic studies indicate
not only that consumers are not resistant to
product placement and branded entertainment in
general, but also that some viewers like it.
However, your question raises an important issue
because the branded entertainment world we
have become used to in recent years appears to
be changing. Many more brands are developing
their own entertainment world. They are
extending placement of brands and products into
films, TV programmes and series, cartoons, the
theatre, songs, novels, comics and so on. We
need to ask how consumers will react when they
perceive an advertising overload similar to that in
traditional media – the research company
Yankelovich recently estimated that a citizen in a
developed country is exposed daily to up to
5,000 advertisements.
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Miami Vice while J&B whisky appeared in The
Break-Up. Brand placement of tobacco products
has become rarer but Marlboro appeared in Four
Brothers while Camel was smoked in Fun with
Dick and Jane. In none of these cases was there
any health warning. Meanwhile firearms
placement has included Smith & Wesson in Night
at the Museum and Beretta in Snakes on a Plane.
Drug placement has seen Viagra feature in both
The Pink Panther and The Dukes of Hazzard.
“If the placement is blatant,
inconsistent or irrelevant,
the product or brand’s
reputation will suffer – as
will that of the director and
actors for failing effectively
to use and integrate the
brand or product.”
Nothing prevents the country where such films
are released in cinemas or broadcast on TV from
editing out the product placement. But such
editing only takes place in countries with limited
freedom and democracy – it is not countenanced
in developed countries. This means that brands
that are banned from advertising directly,
proliferate in films. This loophole also allows the
targeting and seduction of specific consumer
groups such as children and teenagers.
Who has the final say in product placement, and
how are contractual issues relating to product
placement addressed where there are directing
or editing changes that reduce or delete product
placement?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
This is a very interesting question. A film with
international potential will have international
advertisers who will want a say. However, final
decisions can actually depend on where the film
will be produced and shot. If the production part
of the contract is US-based, the producers, given
their responsibility for the finance, retain overall
control. This arrangement benefits the advertiser
because a detailed contract is likely to be
honoured – there have been very few cases
where products have not appeared on screen as
per contract, leading to court action.
Given these country-of-origin realities, there is a
need for early and active collaboration between
stakeholders. Even in a producer–advertiser
relationship situation, all efforts must be made to
meet not only the director but also the property
manager, set designer and of course the actors,
who are partners in the operation. All parties
must understand the aim of the placement, not
seeing it simply as a money-earner. Apart from
any other considerations, only some 25 per cent
of placement operations are based on payment.
The vast majority are barter deals and/or
promotion exchanges.
Ultimately, the really important answer to your
question is actually, not whether the advertiser,
producer or director has the final ‘say’, but what
is the outcome of the placement – and this is
determined by the viewer. If the placement is
blatant, inconsistent or irrelevant, the product or
brand’s reputation will suffer – as will that of the
director and actors for failing effectively to use
and integrate the brand or product.
How can advertisers measure the return on
investment (ROI) of a placement compared with
that of a 30-second advertising slot?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Numerous methods of measuring return have
been promoted, some of which focus on the ROI
of product placement in films and video-games,
but most on that in TV shows and series. There
have also long been ROI assessment methods in
traditional advertising. However, while such tools
enable improved assessment, none can claim to
identify the exact ROI.
The way in which a product placement works is
very different from that of a 30-second
advertising slot. With the expansion and diversity
of TV programmes, TV advertising offers the
opportunity to select the supposed random break
in a specific programme to enable it to ‘reach’ a
specific target. However, ‘reaching’ does not
necessarily mean being seen, memorized and
appreciated to the extent that the product will
subsequently be purchased.
Product placement aims primarily to increase
brand awareness and, if possible, depending on
how it is integrated within the host
entertainment, to improve the brand’s image.
Numerous studies explore how a brand benefits
from the placement using these criteria; however,
identifying the ideal tool to reveal the exact
impact of a product placement would necessitate
Guru Interview | Marketing
If we look at France, however, the situation is very
different. There the director retains ultimate
control. Whatever the terms of the product
placement contract, if the director decides at any
point in the filming or editing process that a
scene or a shot must be cut, it will be, and any
placement affected will simply disappear. The
advertiser has no recourse to complaint. At best
the advertiser will not pay, or any payment will be
reimbursed. But the product placement work will
have been a complete waste of time.
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ignoring all the other variables which interact to
affect the consumer’s attitude or behaviour, e.g.
advertising, promotion, experience, nature of the
market, product image and reputation, day-to-day
behaviour of the brand and the company, and so
on. . .
Your question is particularly relevant because a
large part of the reason why some brand
managers are still reluctant to develop a branded
entertainment strategy is because there are no
strict quantitative arguments to persuade a
finance director that such a strategy is not just
the latest marketing fad – and this leaves aside
the fact that the very nature of creative
entertainment means films, novels and videogames have an even more uncertain future than
TV channels, radio stations or magazines.
Your book names four distinct types of product
placement: classic; institutional; evocative; and
stealth. Can you offer a brief definition of each
type and the arguments for and against them?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Broadly speaking, a classic placement sees a
product (whether branded or not) placed in front
of the camera, e.g. the KitchenAid appliances in
Susannah Grant’s Catch & Release. Classic
placement is the earliest and easiest form to
practise, but the benefit of re-runs will be lost if
the product is later withdrawn from sale.
Institutional placement focuses solely on the
brand name. The product or service is never
shown. A good example of this is the appearance
of the MetLife building in Tim Story’s Fantastic
Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, with no indication
that the company is an insurance business. In
this form of placement, while the brand is easy to
place, benefiting all the company’s branded
products, there is a risk that it will not be noticed
or recognized.
In an evocative placement the product is shown
but neither it nor its brand is cited. However, its
packaging or shape is so well known that it
should be easily recognized, e.g. a brief shot of
green would, to many in the audience, have
identified the film put in a camera in Billy Ray’s
Breach as FujiFilm. Evocative placement can be
risky but it can increase the involvement of the
targeted audience in its identification.
There is also another type of placement that
merits mention: the fictional placement. As its
name suggests, the focus is on a fictional name.
The National Inquiry newspaper which appeared
in Martha Coolidge’s Material Girls is a good
example of this.
What do you consider to be the rules of effective
product placement?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Product placement is not a new advertising
technique. ‘Onegin drives to the boulevard, and
there goes strolling unconfined till vigilant
Bréguet to him chimes dinner,’ wrote Aleksandr
Sergeyevich Pushkin in Eugene Onegin in the
early nineteenth century. The timepiece was no
ordinary watch – it was a Bréguet! Likewise, a
hundred years ago, the characters in Warner
Brothers’ movies mainly drove General Motors
cars because of a product placement deal
between the manufacturer and Jack Warner.
“There is a huge difference
between an ordinary
placement, which has many
potential pitfalls, and a
savvy integration into the
plot which can ensure that
a positive trace is left in a
viewer’s memory.”
What has really changed since the early years is
the professionalism of the product placement
technique. While it is still impossible to conceive,
produce and display an advertisement in the
certainty that it will be effective, there are certain
keys to potential success. While placement is
most effective in an entertainment environment
specifically designed for it, there are also
occasions when a particular product or specific
brand is required for use in a specific context –
rather than simply to ‘plug’ the brand. Clifford
Irving, the character played by actor Richard Gere
in Lasse Hallstrom’s The Hoax, drives a Mercedes
convertible, which is consistent with the
character he is playing. In Robert Shaye’s The
Last Mimzy a can of Sprite soda is integral to the
script. It is not just placed on the corner of a
table. It has a role (albeit small) to play with actor
Chris O’Neil.
What are the major pitfalls to avoid (e.g. in terms
of potential damage to brand image if, say, a
Guru Interview | Marketing
A stealth placement is the most discrete method.
The brand is either not named at all or the
mention is very brief and the product may not be
identified as being a specific brand, e.g. the
computer – a Gateway – in Michael Lehmann’s
Because I Said So. This may be the best way to
integrate the product in the script but postscreening identification via end-title credits or a
tie-in advertising campaign is required if the
placement is to benefit the brand.
Emerald for Managers | © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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product is associated with an unpleasant
character or disaster scene)?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
As you suggest, a product or brand can suffer
very negative repercussions where there is a
failure to control produce placement, for
example, if in a film there is a clearly identifiable
car driven by a sadistic killer, or in a novel a
horrible character frequently eats a particular
branded ice-cream. . . Simply because this is
‘branded entertainment’ does not mean that
brand management can be neglected. Strategic
thinking, detailed contracts and close monitoring
of execution to completion by the brand manager
or assigned agent are essential.
There is a huge difference between an ordinary
placement, which has many potential pitfalls,
and a savvy integration into the plot which can
ensure that a positive trace is left in a viewer’s
memory. In Shooter, an action drama film by
Antoine Fuqua released in 2007, Anheuser-Busch
could have opted for a classic ‘plug’, paying to
place a billboard in the background of a scene in
the hope that the film’s viewers would notice the
ad. Instead, the script included an adorable dog
which managed to open a refrigerator door to
remove a bottle of Budweiser (an AnheuserBusch brand) which it carefully transported to its
master, the main character, who is then seen to
enjoy it.
What legislative controls govern product
placement and how do they differ between
countries?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
While product placement has been largely
forbidden in TV shows and series produced by
domestic TV channels in EU countries, it
nevertheless appears in US series that are
broadcast on the same channels in these
countries. This is very unfair to European
advertisers. The 2006 revision of the Television
Without Frontiers directive promises some
harmonization of legislation within the European
Union which may help shift the balance of power,
but the new European legislation is more
restrictive than US regulations and market
globalization means practice will still vary from
country to country.
Legislation is also complicated by technology.
Even if legislators resolve to ban certain
placements for public health reasons, for
instance drugs, alcohol, tobacco or guns, it can
be very difficult to ensure the regulation is
uniformly respected because technology is
developing so fast. Recent developments include
podcasts and dedicated download websites such
as MySpace, YouTube and DailyMotion which
receive a huge volume of new content every
single day. It is difficult to see how all this can be
controlled.
Can you cite some brands that have had an
outstandingly successful strategy of product
placement?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Most brands that use product placement would
assess their strategy as being very successful in
one way or another. Coca-Cola, for example, is so
iconic that it is sometimes placed without the
company even being informed of this or charged
for it. At the time when The Hire, with Clive Owen
as the driver, was showing in cinemas, BMW
attracted more than 50 million people on to its
website to watch mini-films devoted to its cars. . .
There are many other such examples and success
has many faces depending on the brand’s
strategic goal.
If I had to choose one outstanding case, contrary
to many critics I’d choose that of Cast Away. This
adventure movie by Robert Zemeckis told the
story of a FedEx employee marooned for years on
a desert island following a plane crash. The
incorporation of a known express delivery
company made the film much more believable.
Some critics accused FedEx of taking over the
film, but FedEx’s involvement was a real
collaboration. The FedEx CEO played himself in
the film while FedEx even mocked itself in a
commercial following the movie release. FedEx is
a leading player in its own market, but it did not
lead the film. The film, though, gave the company
the opportunity to be seen and recognized
worldwide. FedEx’s market is global, hence the
company was fulfilling its promotional remit for
the benefit of its stakeholders.
Guru Interview | Marketing
Legislators face two distinct problems. The first
relates to an author/creator’s rights. In a country
in which tobacco advertising and smoking in
public places is strictly forbidden, should a
novelist be prevented from writing that a
character is lighting a cigarette – perhaps
specifically a Marlboro? Surely not – and not
because this restricts advertisers but for reasons
of basic freedom of speech.
In a totally interconnected world, global
regulations are difficult to establish and apply. In
the USA, in November 1998, following pressure
from consumers’ associations, the major tobacco
manufacturers and the film industry signed the
Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), banning
cigarettes from films, video-games, TV shows and
so on. However, research since then confirms
that cigarettes still appear, notably in films, even
though the MSA has reduced the incidence.
Emerald for Managers | © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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But citing such examples reveals a general
weakness. Product placement and, more
generally, branded entertainment are still
considered by many brand managers to be
complementary techniques rather than serious
strategies. Nevertheless, as classic mass media
advertising loses prominence, brand managers
will doubtless come to think differently.
What are the current and, in your view, major
future vehicles for and trends in advertising
given changing consumer habits, preferences
and aspirations?
Jean-Marc Lehu:
Crystal ball gazing is always tempting and fun,
but it can be hazardous in such a fast-changing
world. The major transition in our consumer
society started some 40 years ago and it is not
yet over. While branded entertainment is
increasingly seen as a strategic opportunity to
advertise in a different and more appropriate
way, I do not believe that advertising in its
classical form has been necessarily ‘sentenced to
death’. There is clearly a need to adapt to
changing circumstances, but cleverly conceived
classic advertising can still deliver.
example, has signed a partnership contract with
Weinstein Studios ensuring the cosmetic giant is
the first contact for the studios’ next film project.
The fact that Unilever, M&M’s, Renault, CocaCola, Budweiser, Mini, Kool-Aid, MTV and
Amazon, to name just a few, offer exclusive
collections of mini-films, interactive contests,
online games, downloads and diverse goodies
via their websites, and/or post messages and
films on blogs and on YouTube, indicates that the
branded entertainment world has many potential
extensions in the virtual one. A brand’s website
has multiple opportunities to become the first
point of contact with the consumer. An
entertaining interactive connection may soon be
vital for staying in touch with the consumer. □
You can order Branded Entertainment – Product
Placement and Brand Strategy in the
Entertainment Business from amazon.com
Republished from Emerald Now, March 2007.
In terms of product placement, I am confident
that professionalism will increase as the media
become more diverse and sophisticated, the
competition tougher and consumers less naive.
In my view interactive games of all sorts will be
the next new frontier. There are two reasons for
this. First they offer a better way to control brand
integration and, if necessary, evolution in terms
of space, place, form, appearance, target
placement, renewal. Second, the interactive
immersion aspect creates a potentially more
intense link with the player/potential consumer.
Multi-channel communication will also exert an
impact on branded entertainment. Brand or
product placements are more likely to be
designed for several media rather than a unique
medium, contributing to the development or
maintenance of brand awareness.
Guru Interview | Marketing
Unfortunately many brand managers still fail to
see branded entertainment as a strategic
approach to capitalizing on integrated marketing
communications. It is interesting to note that,
although Ford and Toyota were strong partners in
24, the Fox TV series, none of their cars can be
driven in 24: The Game, the video-game sequel
produced by 2K Games, in which Chrysler was the
major investor. It is possible, of course, that the
potential for capitalizing on the previous series
placement was not a relevant strategic choice.
Brand managers may have to accept that good
integration opportunities are rare, and will remain
so. However, this being the case, assuring and/or
developing a specific entertainment content for
the brand could provide a solution. L’Oréal, for
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