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For film and television producers the bit of icing on the revenue cake is product placement. Marketers have long scoured the visual spectrum for opportunities to gain, surreptitiously, a bit of product affinity with viewers. Producers exact a fee, which grows on the placement’s visibility. There are agencies specialized in making this happen.
Game of Thrones is, arguably, the most popular television series on the planet. It is in its last season. Its fans are rabid and miss nothing. In last Sunday’s episode (May 5), as broadcast on HBO in the US and a variety of outlets around the world, The sharp-eyed aficionados noticed something in one shot slightly out of place. In a scene typically designed to fit the medieval motif there was a take-out coffee cup.
Being the Millennials favorite TV show the take-out coffee cup was recognized instantly as from Millennials favorite coffee barista, Starbucks. Social media, of course, lit up, the one minute extract featured. HBO, the producers, the cast, the crew and the agents all denied the take-out coffee cup appeared intentionally. A mistake, said executive producer Bernie Caulfield, quoted by The Verge (May 6). “We’re sorry.” (See more about product placement here)
Within one day, brand placement specialists estimated, reported MarketWatch (May 6), the value accrued to Starbucks between US$1 million and US$10 million, with the social media action added.
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