News

Ad Age Honors 'Up in Air,' 'Transformer' Promos

By Robert Marich
   Dec. 28, 2009 – Movies have a spotty track record for tie-in promotion partners, so it’s a bit surprising that Advertising Age names two movies among the five best promotions of 2009. The two movies are Paramount’s Up in the Air starring George Clooney and Paramount/DreamWorks’ Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
    “This year was not a very good one for brands and celebrities,” with the latter referring to the Tiger Woods scandal and celebrity merchandise lines that flopped, says Ad Age.
   The Ad Age yardstick is how beneficial the promotions were for marketers and not necessarily the film companies—though presumably both are satisfied. In general, consumer goods marketers grumble about movies citing short shelf lives in theaters and the difficulty in gauging whether they will be hits or misses.
   But Ad Age figures American Airlines and Hilton Hotels hit the jackpot with Up in the Air getting great exposure while not paying for their extensive storyline integrations. Clooney patronizes both in the film. Their screen time is valued at $14.5 million by Front Row Analytics. The airline and hotel chain also mounted a sweepstakes tied to the dry comedy.
   The Transformer movie – which is the year’s highest grossing – was a “smorgasbord for brands,” per Ad Age article by Andrew Hampp. Kmart, Mars and Burger King mounted formal promotional tie-ins.
   “Separately, Audi, Apple, Budweiser, U-Haul, Ford, Mountain Dew and Southwest Airlines all made appearances, while LG and Cisco also received enough unpaid product-placement exposure valued at a combined $10.2 million, according to Front Row Analytics," says the article. A Chevrolet Camaro car received star treatment in Transformers, but the General Motors bankruptcy precluded significant Chevy marketing support.
   The three non-movie promotions in the Ad Age top five are a Subway fast food tie-in with NBC sit-com Chuck, Ikea furniture’s Easy to Assemble online videos that included a scene placement in Fox Searchlight’s summer indie hit (500) Days of Summer, and Microsoft’s Bing-a-Thon for its search engine.
   For full text, click links below:

adage.com/madisonandvine/article

www.marketingmovies.net/news/airline-hotel-link-to-clooney-movie/

www.marketingmovies.net/news/lg-mobile-flogs-transformers-microsite/

www.marketingmovies.net/news/carmarkers-woes-undercut-transformers-promo/

www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-4-tieins-prod-placement/