Although the star of the new movie Basic Instinct 2 is undoubtedly Sharon Stone the actress shares her screen time in the opening minutes with something equally sexy: a Spyker C8 Laviolette, writes David Robertson.
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For a boutique manufacturer like Spyker, which makes just 50 to 60 cars a year, getting involved in a movie like Basic Instinct 2 is a huge marketing opportunity.
Spyker cannot afford to run its own Formula 1 team or indulge in the high-end marketing projects that other, more established, marques get involved in. Instead, it relies on word of mouth, savvy dealers and auto shows to spread the word.
The chance to display the car to a movie audience, particularly in a movie where Sharon Stone romps inside the vehicle, is, therefore, unprecedented.
“It gives us huge exposure and that’s so important for a small company,” Spyker chief executive Victor R. Muller told just-auto earlier this year. “The movie producers were looking for a something a bit different because Sharon Stone’s character is a not the sort of person who drives a regular car. We were able to help out.”
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By GlobalDataAuto manufacturers are increasingly treating product placement as a vital part of their marketing and getting the right vehicles into the right movies is now an industry itself, although few companies go to the lengths Dutch-based Spyker did in getting its movie deal.
When Basic Instinct producers saw the Spyker at last year’s Los Angeles Auto Show they asked the company to audition along with Bentley’s Continental, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes MacLaren.
According to Muller, Bentley, Lamborghini and Ferrari dropped out leaving Spyker to compete with the Mercedes.
“It was looking as though Mercedes would get it so I jumped in a truck, put a car on the back and drove to Pinewood Studios [near London]. The director had never seen a Spyker before and he took one look and said ‘that’s the one’.”
As with most automotive product placements, Spyker did not pay to get its vehicle in the movie but it did supply four cars – two working and two shells. One of the shells was shot out of a cannon and into the River Thames, which at about $250,000 a vehicle is a crime worse than anything Sharon Stone’s character might be accused of in the movie.
(Muller said all four vehicles were returned, although one was still a bit wet.)
The lengths the Spyker boss went to to secure this product placement shows just how seriously car companies take this new form of marketing.
Product placement is becoming particularly important for the major manufacturers because consumers are tuning out of traditional TV advertising and the manufacturers need some other way to generate interest.
As a result all the major auto companies are cozying up to Hollywood. Volkswagen has signed a deal with Universal studios, General Motors has a relationship with Warner Brothers and Ford has a deal with Sony’s Revolution Studios.
Indeed, GM was so keen to get involved in the Matrix Reloaded a couple of years ago it gave the movie 14 hand-build prototypes of the Cadillac CTS sports sedan. GM also bolted together bits of Chevrolet Avalanche and Escalades to create the EXT just for the movie.
Ford’s deal with James Bond obviously involves the hero driving an Aston Martin (possibly the most successful product placement ever) but in his last outing, Die Another Day, the bad guy also drove a Jaguar XKR and Bond-girl Halle Belle drove a special edition Ford Thunderbird.
Ford estimated at the time that it generated $60m of publicity from the film.
Television and music videos are also big product placement areas and Ford has signed up The OC and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition while Cadillac’s new urban look continues to dominate music videos.
However, as this form of marketing becomes more sophisticated simply getting a car into a movie or TV show is no longer the extent of the exercise.
Research has shown that using traditional advertising to support the product placement increases the effectiveness of both and manufacturers are now supporting movie openings (and TV programmes) with substantial tie-in advertising campaigns.
Myles Romero, Ford’s global brand entertainment manager, said: “Ford is the first of the auto makers to bring all its entertainment marketing into one division and I think that sends a message about just how important we see product placement. We have a large number of brands, which makes it very attractive for Hollywood to talk to us. Big movies will need a lot of different types of vehicle and we can get them everything from a Ford to an Aston Martin from just one office.”
But Romero admits that he is careful in selecting the type of project Ford gets involved with. “We read scripts very carefully and say no to a lot of projects because we don’t feel it is right for the brand image. I don’t have a problem with ‘bad guys’ driving our cars. In fact, the XKR in Die Another Die was a very successful promotion. But I don’t like seeing things like SUVs rolling over or our cars crashing.”
While a number of manufacturers have specific deals with studios most producers want to audition cars before agreeing to place them in a movie – the placement has to work for both automaker and moviemaker.
As with Spyker, this can often mean that a director or movie star has the final say. When Ford agreed to supply the upcoming Mission Impossible 3, for example, it auditioned its vehicles in front of Tom Cruise.
Ford also hosted a party before the Academy Awards to audition the new Jaguar XK – a car that is just screaming to be put in a movie. Romero says that he has had a lot of requests to use the XK but he won’t sign any deals until Jaguar can guarantee him sufficient vehicles.
How much product placement actually costs the automakers is hidden in overall marketing budgets but this is clearly a form of promotion that the industry is very keen on.
Fortunately, automakers appear to have learnt the lesson that too much product placement repels consumers so this form of marketing is likely to become even more refined in the future.
David Robertson
