Cars<\/a> aren\u2019t just background. They tell us just as much about a character as their costume and environment,\u201d says Ty Ervin, vp marketing partnerships, creative and product placement at Disney.<\/p>\n\n\tCarefully planned collaborations \u201callow the integration to extend far beyond the screen,\u201d Ervin says. In the case of TDWP2<\/em>, this meant extensive Mercedes ad campaigns featuring the car and its filmic connection, part of an effort to elevate the sequel\u2019s profile and help it \u2014 and its vehicles \u2014 become what Lee hoped would be \u201ca huge cultural moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tOther car manufacturers employ this same process. According to Sarah Schrode, who headed entertainment marketing for General Motors, Chevrolet worked closely with 2023\u2019s Barbie<\/em> to help introduce its 2024 Blazer SS and Hummer EVs, which were respectively driven by America Ferrera\u2019s and Ryan Gosling\u2019s characters. It also revived its Mattel \u201cDream Car\u201d heritage by providing Margot Robbie\u2019s titular character with a vintage pink Corvette.<\/p>\n\n\tBut in the realm of automotive product placement, no one can compete with James Bond. According to Alessandro Usielli, head of Ford global brand entertainment, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Ford have all worked with the Bond franchise to introduce new models by providing cars for the superspy, his coterie of comely conquests and his villainous adversaries.<\/p>\n
\n\tNot every placement you see onscreen is for sale \u2014 or even road-safe. According to Disney\u2019s Ervin, Porsche collaborated on the starship design for the 2019 Star Wars<\/em> spinoff,\u00a0The Rise of Skywalker.<\/em> And Lee notes that in 2025\u2019s F1,<\/em> Mercedes acted as in-film sponsor of Brad Pitt\u2019s fictional Apex racing team and provided a fleet of onscreen vehicles. The three-pointed star brand even worked two of its cars into the recent hit cartoon GOAT.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t think Mercedes-Benz would be in an animated movie, but it\u2019s part of our strategy to reach the next generation,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n
\n\tMovie partnerships create affinity, relevancy, relatability and, eventually, sales, Lee says. \u201cIn one study, three-quarters of viewers searched for a brand after seeing a placement, and more than half went on to buy a product from that brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEven, or especially, in an era of diminishing box office returns, such partnerships remain key. \u201cProduct placement is unskippable, unblockable and lives on in long-tail streaming,\u201d says Schrode. Still, with audience fragmentation, shorter attention cycles and decreased attendance, placements need to be more iconic. \u201cThe bar is higher now. Many times, I\u2019m looking for known IP or very innovative new IP,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
\n\tThese challenges have pushed automakers and studios to think more holistically about placement. \u201cInstead of a one-off, we build an ecosystem around it,\u201d says Schrode. This includes social content, behind-the-scenes footage, partnerships with talent and digital experiences that connect onscreen moments to the brand\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen it\u2019s done right, we see incredible amplification,\u201d says Schrode. \u201cThe Barbie<\/em> partnership for GM saw 10 times the engagement on social media than any other posts in the history of the company. That\u2019s a pretty powerful stat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThis story appeared in the May 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Miranda Priestly, the fictitious Runway editrix in The Devil Wears Prada 2, needs to get somewhere \u2014 a meeting, a photo shoot, a Met Gala-like ball \u2014 she is chauffeured in a vehicle befitting her Wintourian status: a $300,000 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. This is no coincidence. Mercedes placed the car there as part of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[973,4769,1769,707,62,3881],"class_list":{"0":"post-5278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"tag-devil","9":"tag-mercedesmaybachs","10":"tag-prada","11":"tag-role","12":"tag-star","13":"tag-wears"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5280,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278\/revisions\/5280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}