LOS ANGELES — A suburban family covets the neighbor’s Volkswagen Passat. Instead of simply moving it from the driveway into the garage — as the out-of-town neighbor asks — the dad secretly naps in the car’s soft leather seats, the inquisitive son tests out the voice-activated navigation, the older son takes a call on the Bluetooth from his pal, and the mother uses the remote starter on her key fob to punctuate a conversation with a superior. A confrontation with the neighbor ensues.
It sounds like the storyboard for a clever 30-second TV commercial.
In an episode of the Fox sitcom “New Girl,” a Ford Fusion got a starring role when Zooey Deschanel filled in as an auto show model, with disastrous results.
In fact, it was the central plotline of a half-hour episode of “The Middle,” an ABC family sitcom, that ran in January 2012. And it’s a prime example of how automotive product-placement deals are adapting to the age of the digital video recorder and mobile TV viewing.
Auto advertising execs say they are increasingly seeking — and getting — more from their placement deals in TV shows: not just a few seconds of screen time for a brand or nameplate but a more prominent role in the script that identifies the vehicle by model and showcases distinctive features, such as the Bluetooth, power liftgate or, in the case of the Passat, the remote-start function.
Today, marketing executives speak of product “integrations” rather than “placements” and differentiate between minor integrations, in which a vehicle might appear passively in a shot, and major ones, in which it is written into the dialogue.
Dionne Colvin, national manager of media planning in Toyota Division’s marketing department, says Toyota frequently seeks out such deals that yield exposure for a feature or technology.
“I think the networks are realizing that if they work a little more collaboratively with advertisers, they can find a happy middle space where, once we brief them on some of our features, they become more enlightened on how to integrate a certain feature into a story line,” Colvin said.
Take, for example, a 2011 episode of TNT’s crime drama “Rizzoli and Isles,” in which the two title characters, a detective and her colleague, are on a daytime stakeout in Isles’ Toyota Prius. When Rizzoli complains about the heat, Isles presses a button next to the steering wheel to turn on the Prius’ ventilation fan.
Then comes the pitch: “Solar panels on the roof of my car,” Isles tells Rizzoli. “They automatically generate enough electricity to cool us off.”
Toyota began working with the producers of “Rizzoli” in the show’s infancy, before it was sold to Turner Broadcasting, allowing producers and writers to incorporate Toyota vehicles into the show early on. Colvin says such an arrangement isn’t uncommon.
“Instead of dropping off a vehicle — which is kind of what happened in the old days when somebody needed a car — we work with them and brief them on the technology,” Colvin said.
For producers of TV shows today, deeper integration of product and programming helps cement a financial relationship that helps underwrite their productions, as tighter budgets chase a more segmented audience across the expanding spectrum of TV channels.
For marketers, product integration offers a way to outmaneuver viewers who fast-forward through commercials with their DVRs and reach viewers who watch shows in a limited-commercial format on their tablets, smartphones, laptops or on-demand.
Despite their high visibility, product-integration deals remain one of the most murky areas of marketing. Typically, each deal is negotiated on its own, without any standard template or rate card. Many grow out of existing relationships between producers and ad agencies. Sometimes, automakers approach studios or producers for opportunities to insert their new vehicles into shows. Sometimes, it’s the other way around.
Advertisers can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, to get their products featured in a show or film, with top-rated shows commanding the biggest money, according to one TV industry executive with experience in such deals. Other deals involve no cash at all, just a supply of cars. Auto marketers declined to comment on financial issues related to product placement.
With every deal, both the marketing and programming sides face a delicate task in balancing brand exposure with the creative integrity of the program. While they may have an idea what to expect and get script previews or outlines, automakers and their agencies emphasize that producers and writers still call the shots creatively.
Marketing executives say it’s important to ensure that product placements make sense within the context of the show and its characters. Restraint is key.
“As an agency and a marketer, you’re used to being able to control what goes in that 30-second spot that you buy,” said Curt Jacksen, managing partner of brand content and alliances at Team Detroit, Ford’s ad agency. “We’re trying to lean on the networks to find the best way to weave the product into the show. It takes a little deference to get there, and being brave with it.”
Last October, Ford’s Fusion mid-sized sedan had a major role in an episode of the Fox sitcom “New Girl,” in which the adorably awkward Jess, played by Zooey Deschanel, fills in as an auto show model for her hung- over best friend.
The key scene is a roughly two-minute sequence on the show floor, with a product expert listing the Fusion’s features for a gathered crowd, while Jess bumbles her way around the car’s rotating display platform.
Jacksen says Ford’s role was merely to provide input on how to make the auto-show scene seem realistic. “We by no means wrote that script,” he said.
Steve Tihanyi, General Motors’ general director for branded entertainment, says the company is looking to do more product integrations on TV and in movies, as it begins an aggressive campaign of new-product launches. But it’s wary of trying too hard.
“You have to be careful that you’re not trying to force something that’s unnatural or contrived,” Tihanyi said. “You really do have to collaborate with the people that are controlling the content of the show, and there’s, quite frankly, a delicate balance and an art to that that you have to respect. Otherwise, people will see through it and say, ‘Hey, that’s fake and unnatural,’ and we just don’t want to do that with our brands.”
Steve Shannon, vice president of marketing for Hyundai Motor America, says it has gotten great mileage out of its integration deal with AMC’s popular zombie apocalypse drama “The Walking Dead,” in which a lime-green Hyundai Tuscon has transported the show’s heroes for the past three seasons.
But Hyundai is drawing the line at working the crossover’s features into the script. After all, such conveniences as satellite radio aren’t very useful when you’re fending off lurking hoards of the undead.
With a comedy such as “The Middle,” though, there’s more leeway to take such liberties, perhaps with a figurative wink and nod to the audience.
During the show’s VW-centered episode, “Passat” is mentioned five times by name. The mother of the family curses the car’s “roomy trunk” for being too spacious, and in an internal monologue, she waxes philosophical about her sense of empowerment when she’s behind the wheel and “deep in the bosom of German engineering.”
Jeff Sayen, advertising manager for Volks- wagen of America, says the integration worked for VW because it showed a family of five interacting with the Passat in ways that would be tough to replicate in a single 30-second spot.
He says it’s important to respect the integrity of the show and not force products on viewers. But he doesn’t think marketers’ messages need to be relegated to the commercial breaks.
“Before, you kind of had this church-and-state relationship” with shows clearly distinguishable from the commercials, Sayen said. “Now the lines are kind of blurring.”
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