How to get your product in the movies

Tom Berton agrees. “The fact that you’ve been on the show is actually more important than the actual media and show. The publicity you get from that gives your business credibility," Berton says, "and from that point on, you can be relentless with it.”

Berton owns Shearwater Sailing, a tour boat business. In December 2005, his business received several minutes of exposure on "The Apprentice" when, as a reward, Donald Trump sent two contestants on a boat ride around Manhattan on the Shearwater, a 1920s-era yacht owned by Berton.

He isn't quite sure how "The Apprentice" learned about his business. He'd sent out packets of information to "The Apprentice" series, but those who called him seemed to know nothing about that. Regardless, Berton wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip away from him once the series came to him.

“I signed the most Draconian contract I’ve ever signed in my life,” says Berton, explaining that he was sworn to secrecy to not tell anyone about his company's involvement with "The Apprentice" until the episode aired.

“They can own your business if you ruin their ratings by gossiping to tabloids,” says Berton, explaining that the series understandably considered the scene of the contestants on the boat as proprietary information. “If word leaked out from anyone related to Shearwater, it was understood they'd have immeasurable damage and that we would be fully liable for it,” says Berton. “Basically, I was pledging my assets of the company to them.”

But he’s not complaining. And he's using the experience to his advantage. He prominently mentions his boat’s appearance on "The Apprentice" on his Web site. And when he talks about the experience to people, the reply is often, “That was your boat? That was amazing.” Although Shearwater had a certain cache to it, anyway—it is a luxury yacht—having Donald Trump’s name associated with it arguably increased it tenfold.

Landing a gig
Of course, you don’t have to wait for Hollywood to come to you to get your company name in lights. Producers like Carson encourage entrepreneurs to approach them. “We do a lot of deals with small companies,” says Carson, who thinks there’s something special about working with the underdog entrepreneurs. “I’m just a fan of business in general, and I have a lot of respect for entrepreneurs. You’re taking the risk, and the odds aren’t on your side as a business owner. I’m always happy if there’s any way I can give encouragement to a business by working out a trade-off or product placement deal.”

That said, Carson—or any other producer—isn’t just going to work something out because he likes the entrepreneur, and there is a definite way of going about the art of product placement. For instance, once you learn the name of the production company that produces a show (which you can get by watching the credits if you somehow can’t find it on the Internet), don’t call them ask to speak to the producer or someone in business development. You’re just going to put them on the spot and encourage a “no, thanks.”

Instead, send your pitch in writing. And when you do, pitch your product, not a scenario of how you think the series or movie should use your product. “That’s a turn-off,” admits Carson. “The best way to approach it is to present an overview of your company in general, and whatever product line you have, and then just maybe say, ‘We welcome the opportunity of how our product might be a part of your show,’ and leave it at that. On our side, we’ll know if it’s a fit or not.”

While the bigger players—the ones who can afford to spend big bucks to get their products placed in TV shows or movies—generally use an agency that specializes in product placement, like Norm Marshall & Associates, an international company headquartered in Los Angeles, you don't need to do that to land a gig. You can spend just a few thousand dollars and approach someone like Betsy Green, CEO of Media Matchmaker, a service that hooks up entrepreneurs with producers in the name of getting product placement deals worked out.

When it comes to placement, Green agrees with Carson. “Every producer has a filtering system, and they’ll only use your product if they deem it appropriate," says Green. "You really have to sell your product to the producer, and even then, there are no guarantees. Someone else in the production entity may say the packaging isn’t good enough or the product stinks. Or the star may say they don’t want it.”

In the end, it all comes down to putting on a good show. “It is a creative process,” says Carson. “It’s almost more of a gut-level decision that’s made, because these are creative people at work. But the one main guiding principle is that the product needs to be organic with the show. It can’t detract from the show in any way. One, we don’t want our shows to look like a television commercial, and that leads in to the second rule, which is to protect the show. I think if you do something over-the-top, where a character is holding up a product, practically modeling it as if he’s on "The Price is Right," that’s not good for us—or your brand.”

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