Blockbuster Bollywood: A Boon for Brands

05 Mar Blockbuster Bollywood: A Boon for Brands

Quick quiz for the Bollywood geeks!

Remember the washing powder, Rajpal Yadav’s character Pandya used in ‘Chup Chup Ke’?

The phone, Shah Rukh’s character Rahul from ‘Chennai Express’ threw away from the train?

Which site did Naina from ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Dewaani’ use to book her last-minute trip to Manali? Or the courier service that took Aditi’s wedding invitation to Kabir?

Do you think these brands were randomly placed or was it all in the plan?

Product placement as a form of advertising is nothing new, especially in the huge fan-based Bollywood where such tricks have been in use since movies like ‘Mother India’ and ‘Anand’. Product placement is when a brand or a product is subtly slipped into frames or positioned into the character’s hand in such a way that it secretly finds a corner in your brain, where it stays until someday it occurs to you on a re-watch.

The Widening Horizon of Product Placement

While the placement started indistinctly in past, with time it started becoming more ‘on-the-face’. From a scene starring Salman Khan sipping Thumbs up in ‘Dabbang’, Shah Rukh Khan having a moment of win at the McDonald in ‘Chak de! India’ to having songs like ‘Fevicol se’ and then a whole movie based on a car called ‘Mere Dad ki Maruti’ and ‘Ferrari ki Sawaari’, the journey of product placement has sped up. From Bollywood blockbusters to regional cinema, with approximately of 1.2 billion viewers, brands have found the immense potential of tapping into their audience along with the crazy fans. With OTT platforms and the digital boom widening the scope, brands have found another platform to include themselves in the frames with people’s favourite characters making themselves more relatable to the audience. A recent example would be the conversation that sparked up when the brand ambassador of Realme, Shah Rukh Khan’s character was found using a Poco phone in his recent film ‘Jawan’.

The key to Product Placement: Making it all Relatable

Product placement helps products gain the characteristics of the character they are associated with. With films being the longest way of storytelling and narrative setting, what better way to form an image for your brand than associating it with a character similar to it? Though it might not guarantee a boost in sales, product placement promises brand recall. Of course, a Ray-Ban Aviator reminds you of a fearless Chul Bul Pandey, action-packed Vikram Rathore, or say the romance king Raj from ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’.  You dreamt of your ‘Hum Dum Suniyo re’ on a Kawasaki moment along the Marine Drives after watching Vivek Oberoi in ‘Saathiya’.

Evergreen Endurance

With the recent development of dislike for advertisement among the audience and the availability of an option to skip ads, product placement helps to achieve the target, that too in the subtlest way possible. Product placement has slowly also seeped into the content of social media influencers. Though the success of these placements largely depends on the success of the movie and the smartness with which the brand is placed. Certainly, you do not wish for the hero to stop mid-movie and tell you all the features of his bike as he rides to save the actress in distress. Hrithik Roshan’s character Krishna in ‘Krrish’ drinking Bournvita as an adult seems absurd but sure helps form a connection with its previous film ‘Koi Milgaya’ and its character Rohit. The recent ad campaign by Oppo using the characters from a generation’s favourite movie ‘Wake up Sid’ leaving the fans confused with the hope of a sequel can also be an example of product placement, though not exactly. Product Placement as an advertising form has stood the test of time and sees no near future perish and also places a long-term beneficial platform for both producers and advertisers. 

So the next time you see a brand being endorsed by your favourite actor know it’s all a part of the plan.