Product Placement integrations range from unobtrusive appearances within an environment, to prominent integration and acknowledgement of the product within the plot itself.
Placements can be Visual (the sight of Tony Stark in an Audi R8), Verbal (Forrest Gump’s repeated mentioning of Dr. Pepper), or both (the Reese’s Pieces shown, and talked about, in E.T.).
InView / OnScreen Product Exposure
A visual placement involves placing a brand into a piece of media where it is viewable. It could be an advertisement in the background of a shot, or it could be of more importance in a scene, such as a cast member eating a packet of branded potato chips.
Verbal Exposure / Mention
A verbal placement is the naming of a brand or product in the dialogue. There are varying degrees of audio placement, depending on the context of the mention, frequency and emphasis placed on the product name. Purely verbal placement is also called script placement.
Location / Signage Exposure
When an ad, logo or location appears on screen
Plot
If a brand’s product becomes part of the plot, playing a role in the storyline, this is a plot placement.
A plot placement that relies on placing the brand both on the screen and in the conversation provides an opportunity for both verbal and visual encoding, whereas the other situations would activate only one form of encoding.
Wilson in Castaway or James Bond and his Aston Martin
Corporate sponsorship
Presented by XYZ, from beginning to end credits
