How to get your product in the movies

By Geoff Williams

updated 6:22 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2007

So you’re in the movie theatre or watching a sitcom on TV, and you’re thinking, “How’d this two-bit joke get into the script? They must have known somebody. Why couldn’t the audience be cheering for me?”

No, you’re not begrudging Will Smith, Julia Roberts or Jim Belushi their slice of fame. You’re wondering how Daniel Craig wound up wearing an Omega watch instead of the brand your company manufactures. You’re wondering how much dough Wonder Bread had to cough up to be the sponsor of the car Will Ferrell drives in "Talladega Nights."

As longtime consumers, we're a savvy bunch. The term "product placement" is old news to us. And we know it wasn't a screenwriter or director who insisted those products appear in their films — Omega and Wonder Bread paid big bucks to get their brands into the movies.

But anyone who watches a fair amount of TV or goes to the movies has also probably noticed it’s not just the Miller Lites and American Airlines of the world that are getting their 15 minutes of fame. Every once in awhile, an average Joe-type of product will be given prominent placement. And if you’re a serious and ambitious entrepreneur, you couldn't help but think, “They’re not a major conglomerate. How'd they do that?”

Or more important: “How can I do that?”

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Product placement is almost no different than being an unknown actor trying to make it into the movies or TV. And that’s both good news and bad. Because if you aren’t a company with an unlimited marketing budget, getting your product seen on TV or in the movies isn’t easy. But on the other hand, if you’re willing to pay your dues — and if you have some pluck and a little luck — your product, too, can be a star.

The encouraging thing to remember is that Hollywood wants your business, and getting your foot in the door doesn’t always mean paying a huge fee to get it there, says Joey Carson, CEO of Bunim/Murray Productions, which produces numerous reality TV series including MTV’s "The Real World" and "Road Rules" and FOX’s "The Simple Life."

“It’s such an important part of what goes on in television,” says Carson. “Nowadays, you’re either going to have a person in your company who works solely on business development or, at the very least, a big part of a person's job will be focusing on product placement and trade-outs.”

For those not familiar with the term, trade-outs is a form of product placement in which an entrepreneur pays nothing to get their product in a show or movie—except for what it costs to provide the product or service for free. That’s how it worked out for sisters Tag and Catherine Goulet, who own FabJob, a publishing house specializing in career guidance books.

A bewitching product
It was June 2004, when the set decorating coordinator for the movie "Bewitched," called FabJob. He told Tag that Nicole Kidman, who was playing the witchy Samantha Stephens, would be looking for a new career in the movie, so she'd be looking at career-oriented books at a bookstore and he wanted some of theirs.

The set decorating coordinator had found the FabJob website and was impressed by their operation, but the film's director, Nora Ephron, looked at the website while Tag was on that first phone call and wasn't as impressed. Tag understood. The site featured plain e-book images, rather than their actual printed books. In two days, she quickly put together with sample print books and even had her art designer create a fake book, titled "FabJob Guide to Becoming a Witch or Warlock."

Almost two months went by without a word before Tag got an e-mail from a new set decorator, saying they not only wanted to use the books—three copies of each—but that they also needed large cardboard book displays. And they needed it all in a week.

Fortunately, Tag was able to jump through the appropriate hoops and provide "Bewitched" with the necessary props they wanted for close to $1,000. And although the FabJob books aren't featured very prominently in the film—appearing so quickly that Tag admits, “It’s unlikely people would notice them if they weren’t looking for them”—there’s no question that the time and effort put into the product placement was worth it.

“The benefit to us hasn't been the fact that people can see our books in a movie,” says Tag, who notes that they received quite a bit of local media coverage, including a feature story in the Calgary Herald. “The benefit is that we can say our books have been featured in a movie starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman, which is great for credibility.”

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