As any good producer will tell you, saving money anywhere and everywhere on a production is a priority. An even better producer will look at a script, not bat an eye and say, “I can make it all happen”. Being true to the story, while saving money, and gaining some extra exposure? That’s the work of a brilliant producer. Today, more than ever, brilliant producers use product placement to save money, gain exposure and create a more relatable story.  Here is why they do it.

Save money: Pay for Placement and Get Free Goods
It is expensive to produce quality entertainment! This is something anyone who has ever tried to produce anything knows. Good work doesn’t come cheap.
   
-    Pay for Placement
You got it. Brands give you cash money, and you put their brand in your work.  This generally happens for products that are seen repeatedly on screen, carry a positive role in the movie and has significant interaction with the main characters.
Ex: Under Armour in Any Given Sunday, Dairy Queen in The Apprentice

-    Free Goods for Placement
Brands provide you with free product or use of a location in return for the exposure generated in your film. This is a GREAT way for productions to save valuable cash. How do you think all those big budget movies save money on big car chase scenes that feature all the latest cars? (ex: Mini-Cooper in Italian Job) How do you deck your characters out in the coolest sunglasses? (Ray Ban in Men in Black). How do you get a scene in an established food chain? (White Castle in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle). The producers simply reviewed their scripts, props and locations and the pairing with brands began.

Your work can work for you: Exposure and Tie-Ins
Fortunately brands also recognize how expensive it is to produce quality work as well. An unspoken rule of production cost is that advertising is produced at grossly exaggerated costs compared to big budget and indie film and tv productions.
For example, you frequently hear of indie movies coming in at $2 million for the entire full-length picture. Well, there are tons of brands that will pay that sum for just a few short :30 TV ads! Then the brands have to buy ad time to get it out there!
Why does this matter to you? Brands are looking for cheaper ways to get in front of consumers, and your production can help them do that. 

-    Exposure and Tie-Ins
You’ve got a movie or show that needs exposure. A brand has a product that needs content featuring it. Voila! It’s a match made in heaven. The brand provides product to the production and the production makes available the content they produce.  The brand can then utilize the materials in their advertising buys, in store, on their websites, and the movie gets some exposure. Everybody is a winner!


Real Products Make your Production Realistic
Consumers today are savvy. They know product placement goes on and they are used to it. As long as you stay true to the story and don’t ‘push’ placement where it doesn’t make sense, the placement actually helps your story. The belief is that viewers relate to a character when they interact with products the viewer knows as well. This is why brands love to be associated with the likes of James Bond, for instance. Viewers will see a James Bond movie, watch him drink a Heineken and feel a connection. “I drink Heineken too!” or “I can drink Heineken too!”. This leads to the character relating to the movie and being brought into the story on a personal level, while also being reminded of how much they’d like a Heineken themselves.

In summary, product placement is good for your production because it can save you money, gain you exposure and make your story more realistic to viewers.