How do you identify when you’ve got an opportunity for product placement in your script? It’s pretty easy! I’ll teach you how I evaluated scripts for product placement both as an indie film producer (I secured over 15 products for one short film!) and as an advertising executive (I reviewed proposals from Star Wars, Shrek, and others).

First, you will look over your script and find all those places where real-life products could be used.  Use the factors below to determine whether or not the product is a viable one for product placement!

Genre
The genre of your script plays a big part in whether or not you’ll be successful for product placement.  Adventures, comedies and romantic comedies all fare well as they are categorically “positive” movies. Dramas, horror and extremely explicit content may have a bit harder time securing product placement deals only because they limit their reachability as most brands try and stay mom-friendly.  However, whatever your genre I am sure you can find product placement, some just may be a bit harder sell than others.

Positive Role
The product 99.99% of the time has to be seen in a positive light to get a product placement deal. For example, a sports car company would only consider product placement if their car was the fast, turn-on-a-dime successful getaway car, not the car that breaks down and sputters, forcing the good guy to get caught.  For example, consider the amazing car chase scenes in Italian Job featuring Mini-Coopers, this was great positive product placement! 

Target Audience
Will the product be in a project that is aimed at their target audience?  You must consider that products are pretty particular about whom they are focused on to advertise to, so they expect that you pitch them a script that will appeal to their target audience. For example, it would’ve done Hanes Her Way no good to have done a product placement deal with Friday Night Lights, but the deal worked out fabulously for Under Armour.

Interaction with the main/key characters
A product that is seen in the hero’s hands, or featured being used by the main character is an excellent choice for product placement.  For example, think of what Manolo Blahnik did for Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City, and think of what Carrie Bradshaw did for Manolo Blahnik. Women all over the world wanted those shoes after a mugger demanded that Carrie "Give me your purse...and your Manolo Blahniks!" They went from being a brand only upper-class women knew of, to the brand on every woman’s cosmo-stained tongue. 

Key Role
Does the product play a key role in the story? This is the product placement opportunity that every advertiser wants. A story that cannot happen without their product in the story is the pinnacle of product placement. 
As an example, let’s look at Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity both for the filmmakers and the product. White Castle saw the advantages of reaching their target audience right away and jumped on board. It was a match made in slider heaven.

Cameo Appearance
The product appears in the story, almost as a cameo guest would make an appearance. For this example I go to E.T. and Reese’s Pieces.  Watching that adorable E.T. pick up the Reese’s trail, eat them and then utter “mmmmmm Reese’s Pieces!” A perfect product cameo! The interesting part of this story is that Mars Inc, the parent company of M&M’s, initially turned DOWN the offer to have M&M’s featured in the story. Their loss.  Hershey’s, the parent company of Reese’s, said “yes” and saw sales of Reeses’s jump 65% after the film’s release. Now that’s a story to tell when you pitch for product placement!

Featured Location
Maybe your characters go to the same store every day to eat lunch or they are going to take a trip to an amusement park. It’s a lot easier to just use an existing store or amusement park, with all it’s signage, than creating your own.  For example in You’ve Got Mail, Tom Hank’s character goes to Starbucks and buys his daily cup.

Featured Props/Wardrobe
Products love to be a part of a featured props/wardrobe list. Especially if they are on-screen for almost the whole movie, are used positively, and/or are on the main character(s).  Imagine what Top Gun, Mission Impossible and Men in Black did for Ray-Ban! Ray-Ban loves to be included in product placement deals, because they know how great the returns can be.

Background/Background Signage
Let’s say your characters frequently hang out on the corner before school and there is a billboard overhead. Or say they are going to read a newspaper and there is an ad on the page. These are places where you can absolutely make up “Greek” advertising, but you can probably pitch out to get products involved.

Props/Wardrobe
You can absolutely approach products to be used as your props and wardrobe. This happens quite a bit and usually smaller brands are willing to get in the mix to gain some exposure.

Congratulations! You’ve got all the proper tools to evaluate your script’s product placement potential. You are now on your way to securing some excellent partnerships, if you only knew who to talk to…
Five Sprockets has you covered! 
Check back for our next Product Placement installment for the details on “How to Find the Product Placement Players.”