Media Placement of Locations : An Exploratory Study of the Possible Trends within the Film Industry

Abstract: Product placement is a relatively new idea within marketing. Despite this, it has become a more accepted and used concept, especially within the motion picture industry. It has been noticed that exposure on screen has had a positive effect on sales of the showed products, even though there are still no clear method to measure its efficiency. Evidence has shown that there is an increased tourism to destinations exposed on screen. For example, the movie Braveheart increased tourism to Scotland, Notting Hill has brought attention to London’s district Notting Hill, and the books of Wallander has benefited Ystad. We therefore see a possible development of product placement, which so far only has incorporated products, to also include placement of geographical places (cities, region or nations etc), i.e. location placement. The exposures that to this point has occurred has been random, with no active participation from marketers or filmmakers. Our purpose is to investigate if media placement of locations (defined as paying for the placement) is a possible future source of revenue for location marketers as well as film and product placement agencies. We have interviewed people from three main areas: marketer of a geographical location, product placement agency, and representatives from the film production. Since we had some problems collecting sufficient data, we decided to complement our empirical findings with secondary data. We see a potential development of location placements. It does however require some conditions to be fulfilled. First, the placement must be seamlessly placed, should lead the story forward and should not be the main focus before the script. Second, the placement must be communicated openly throughout the entire production process and with all parties involved. Finally we see that placement must be founded on good relationships and having the right channels. The actors involved in a location placement are the marketer, product placement agency, location shout, director and other film production crew. To sum up, a well thought-thru location placement that are consistent with the overall location brand image and the story, would benefit both the location and the film.