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Business Insider - Holtzman, the creator of Apple's Product Placement Program, now does the same thing for other brands. His company is Eclipse Worldwide.

If you watch TV today you're definitely going to see some real-life gadgets and brands.

Sometimes, those products are included in the shot because a company offered money to get their product on-screen for a period of time.

But other products are included in the scene because a prop or set professional on the production just needed stuff to fill out the scene, according to Jon Holtzman, who used to help Apple get free exposure on TV and movies during the early 90s, when it needed it. Think about the iconic Apple laptop Carrie Bradshaw typed her column on in "Sex and the City." Apple didn't pay for screen time — it never does — but it provided the product for free.

Now Holtzman does the same thing for other, smaller brands. His company, Eclipse Worldwide, talks to people in Hollywood who need believable, real-world products to complete a scene.

"We work directly with propmasters and set decorators," Holtzman said. "They can go to product placement agencies like ours, and say I'm doing an office, there are 10 desks, all have computers, and if it's the right kind of production for them we'll say yes, we'll loan them the stuff, and they save money."

And now that tech shows up in everything from comedies to serious dramas, there's more need for product placement agencies than ever.

For example, in the most recent episode of HBO's "Silicon Valley," you can see products and logos from tech companies like Square and Alphabet's Nest. Many of those booth logos and products were set up with the production by Holtzman. "Silicon Valley shot a scene recently that was supposed to look like a CES trade show, and there were 23 booths there and their signage, 10 of those booths were clients," Holtzman said.

Another success was when one of his clients, SMS Audio, found its headphones on Ashton Kutcher's head for nearly an entire episode of the "Two and a Half Men."

It's a time-saver for production people, Holtzman says. He first got the idea when he worked for Apple in the late 80s and early 90s, when Apple was at one of its low points. "I had to figure what marketing I could do for really no money," Holtzman said.

Ultimately, he believes his approach is better for shows than when big brands pay for screentime.

"A paid integration is where a company goes 'I want to be in this show,' and they make a deal with a lot of money with the network and tell the writers 'you have to write it in,' and they write it in and it looks stupid," Holtzman said. "Our rule is that any placement that takes you out of the story for even a moment is a bad product placement. And paid placements by nature do that."

It's hard to quantify the return on investment on hiring a company like Eclipse to get a router in the background shot of a sitcom, but Holtzman says it's an important part of brand marketing. "I always find it ironic when executives say that they would love to be like Apple, but refuse to do any type of brand marketing," he said.

So the next time you see a product on TV, it doesn't mean that it paid to be there — sometimes, the set designer just needed something that's realistic and free.

iGeekBlog - Apple’s Placement Strategy - Thanks to the efforts of Jon Holtzman, former Director of Worldwide Brand Marketing, Apple did a scintillating performance regarding Product Placement.

Product placement is one of the smart ways brands endorse their products. Anybody, a student of marketing or an end-user, should not limit this marketing strategy to popular TV shows and movie studios and franchises. This marketing plan can work anywhere on the earth where there are people (read crowd.)

Brands love to place their products in big events, whether it is a sports event like the Football world cup and Olympics or public celebrations. But these events are not regular occurrences. Multinationals want to win the “mind space” of their consumers, and for this purpose, they look for contents their potential customers engage with often or every day.

Apple’s Product Placement Strategy: Migration from Movies to TV Shows/Web Series

For any marketing professional, Apple is the best example to follow as this tech giant has successfully done product placement with a meager budget and sometimes at gratis.

Since the mid-1990s, Apple products have been featured in many movies and then in popular TV shows. The integration of Apple products is achieved with such finesse that it helps Apple grow its brand value leaps and bounds. Thanks to the efforts of Jon Holtzman, who was appointed as Director of Worldwide Brand Marketing at Apple, the company did a scintillating performance regarding product placement.

Slowly and gradually, from the silver screen, Apple turned its attention to the small screen. This strategic shift raised questions in the minds of many people. Why Apple is becoming more open about product placements in TV shows? In this editorial, I have made a sincere effort to understand Apple’s strategic shift in product placement.

Cheaper Than TV Commercials

It is nothing new. Apple knows that movie stars charge humongous fees to flaunt iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macs in their hands or laps. For Apple’s marketing team, it is far easier to convince the creative team to insert Apple devices.

Advertising rates make a big difference here. According to Variety, promotional placements in TV shows are “substantially cheaper” than TV commercials.

Though every TV inserts or mentions don’t come complimentary, “they are substantially cheaper than traditional TV commercials. And that frees Apple up to spend heavily in more obvious ways. Among 2016 and 2017 TV programs, Apple spent the most on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” according to Kantar Media, a tracker of ad spending. Last season, the average cost of a 30-second ad in that show was $728,434, according to Variety’s annual survey of primetime ad prices.”

Reach is another important factor for choosing TV and web series to place products. Studios release their movies in specific geographic locations. The omnipresence of TV allows Apple to promote its products in every nook and corner of the world.

In the last five years, digital distribution has seen a tremendous surge. This has inspired content creators to migrate from traditional TV to the digital media players to deliver or stream their contents.

Look at the speed at which online distribution channels (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube, and others) have evolved in the last five years. This new wave has changed the way content consumed by users, especially the young generation. At the same time, it has created opportunities for brands like Apple to connect with their consumers.

Apple has got the most out of this revolution. Web series can be aired anywhere in the world; this gives producers a larger mass and companies like Apple capitalize on this fact.

Long Shelf Life

It is a given that movies today hardly run for 120 minutes. Producers know that there is a massive production cost involved in making a movie. Moreover, they want to earn more in less time; perhaps this is the reason they hire more screens and run the shows four to five times a day.

Unlike movies, TV shows and web series have longer runs. A single episode of any show or series takes nearly 30 to 45 minutes. For every season, producers prepare at least ten episodes. So if you count the total length of one show or series, it comes to 350 to 450 minutes.

The bottom line is that you have a chance to place your product prominently in the hands of leading cast. A movie is usually shown for a month; if it is a super-duper hit, it goes for two or more months. A successful web series or TV show runs every week, and there are at least 10 or more weeks allotted for such popular shows.

For example, the famed 9-1-1 will hit the TV sets in September 2018, and this time the series might have more than ten episodes. Interestingly, this show was first aired from January to March, and now it will be run in the last quarter of the year. One must have noticed that the characters of 9-1-1 continuously use Apple’s smartphones to stay in touch with each other.

For 9-1-1, however, Apple has paid some amount to the producers or creative team as you can see closing credits with an alert “promotional consideration sponsored by Apple.”

Can place the latest products

Web series and TV shows have a fixed date of release. Though movie studios have shown a superior level of professionalism, it is difficult for them to release their movies on a specific date. Among the many reasons for not keeping the set date, the primary one is the availability of screens in multiplexes.

For a web series or TV show, producers work on a tight schedule as they have to air an episode every week. Since shows on small screens run during the different times of a year, Apple can insert its latest products or services in the show.

Nearly two decades ago, Apple’s Jon Holtzman, had successfully placed Apple’s Powerbook in the first part of Mission Impossible movie franchise. Unfortunately, Holtzman had to use a six-month-old product in a movie, which was to be released 12-18 months later.

Though moviedom has drastically reduced this long gap between the production and release of the movie, the date of Apple product release and movie release may not match all the time.

Natural Integration

As mentioned earlier, it is not easy for any brand to convince popular movie actors to show the products in their hands. Movies offer limited opportunities to integrate products naturally. Paid product placements would always sound unnatural or artificial. This will not benefit Apple in any way.

A TV show or a web series has an ensemble cast, and therefore, it sounds quite natural that two or three leading characters own Apple products in the show. In movies, there is only one central figure. So if Apple shows its products in the hands of that central character, it appears a paid product placement effort, which is not convincing at all.

However, there is a downside of putting your product in the web series or TV show. There are chances that other characters in the program are using products of the competition. But then Apple makes sure that its products do not show up in the hands of evil figures on the program.

Can integrate its products & services into entire show/episodes

Apple’s initial success in brand placement started with Modern Family, a family sitcom, which was premiered on ABC in 2009. A year later, in 2010, Apple’s iPad was woven nicely in the storyline of Modern Family, wherein Phil Dunphy held an iPad in the key scenes during the episode. Five years later, Apple got another success in placing its product in the same situational comedy. This time, the series featured an episode with the action displayed entirely on Apple device screens.

The best thing about Apple product placement in Modern Family is that the entire episode took place online, with excitement shared via instant messages, mobile apps, and Apple’s video chatting service – FaceTime.

The full episode (except for some post-production rendering) of 2015 Modern Family season was shot on iPad and the then released iPhone 6.

In both the above instances, Apple didn’t pay a penny to the broadcasters or the producers of this popular series.

Apple can do this magic in other popular shows and series, which can be replete with Apple products and services.

Beyond TV and Movie…

In an interesting observation, Quartz noted that Apple was the winner of the FIFA World Cup 2018. Apple was successful in placing its product subliminally as many players flaunted Apple’s AirPods and Beats headphones while boarding or alighting from the bus or while entering their dressing rooms in the pavilion or disembarking planes.

During this soccer extravaganza, Apple has cleverly integrated its products and set the best example of ambush marketing.

Summing up…

The rise of product placements in traditional TV and new era web series stem from the fact that millennials don’t watch TV in a traditional fashion. Holtzman has rightly observed, “They use technology, whether that is streaming or a DVR. In both cases, they don’t watch or pay attention to commercials. If they are forced to watch them, they mute the sound.”

About the paid product placement Holtzman added, “As far as being receptive to product placement, I would actually say they are not receptive to the blatant paid product placement I previously described. Just the opposite. But they do like watching what the actors do and say, and subliminally emulate that. What phone does their favorite actor use in the show, what do they wear, what do they drive, what makes them cool? So if products are included in a natural way that makes sense for the script and its characters, product placement works well.”

Bloomberg News - The promotion in “Mission: Impossible” solidified Apple’s leadership in the not-always-so-subtle art of product placement.

Jon Holtzman said there was internal fighting at Apple over his idea to do a promotional tie-in with 'Mission Impossible.'

Back in 1996, Apple was in trouble – far worse than the public even knew. So when Jon Holtzman pitched management on a sweeping promotional tie-in with the new movie “Mission Impossible,” some executives scoffed.

“It was a big fight internally,” said Holtzman, a marketing Director at the time. “There were those who said, ‘Why would you want to have anything to do with a movie called “Mission: Impossible” when we were struggling?’ To me, I thought it was perfect because the ‘Mission: Impossible’ guys always succeeded in the end.”

As did Holtzman, who prevailed with the support of marketing executive Satjiv Chahil and others. For several years prior, Holtzman had been laying the groundwork for getting Apple’s products into movies and TV shows, building up a Rolodex of set designers and prop masters and securing an inventory of products that could be delivered to them in short order (read more in the story Andy Fixmer and I did this week in Bloomberg Businessweek).

The strategy started to work, to the point that when Apple executives hesitated to embrace his proposals, he would half-jokingly tell them that “you may only have 10 percent market share in the real world, but I have 90 percent market share on the silver screen.”

The promotion in “Mission: Impossible” solidified Apple’s leadership in the not-always-so-subtle art of product placement. In exchange for a leading role for its PowerBook laptop in the movie, Apple agreed to heavily promote the film in its TV ads and to create an online “Mission: Impossible. The Web Adventure,’” where fans could click around virtual locations for clues to a spy mystery using Apple’s then-edgy Quicktime VR.

Ever since, rumors have circulated that Apple paid at least $5 million for the PowerBook’s starring role. Part of the reason for the speculation was the fact that Cruise allowed his carefully-guarded visage to be used in the ads.

Holtzman insists that’s not the case, and that the $5 million was the amount it planned to spend on a new ad.

“Please kill that rumor,” he said.

But Cruise’s image almost didn’t appear in the ads. As the premiere for “Mission: Impossible” approached, Cruise asked to see the promotional materials that had been created. Sitting in the star’s van on the set of “Jerry Maguire” along with a Paramount Pictures executive, Cruise asked why he wasn’t shown in one of Apple’s posters for the movie. The answer was that the studio’s rules forbade it, for fear Cruise’s image would be pirated online.

Holtzman, stealing a glance at the Paramount executive, told Cruise, “You want it to be you? It’s you.” A few months after the film came out, Holtzman left Apple to start product placement firm Eclipse Worldwide, whose clients include Polycom, Jawbone and Symantec. He quickly learned that wooing producers and prop masters was a lot tougher when you weren’t from Apple.

“I quickly learned just how easy my day job had been,” he said. “The Apple brand is so cool that people want to be associated with it. You didn’t even have to tell anyone about the latest products, because they already knew about them. It really wasn’t a sales job.”

Placing most companies’ products definitely is a sales job, especially if you’re trying to go up against Apple. But he does see some signs of a backlash to Apple’s huge popularity in Hollywood.

“There’s a small number of producers who absolutely will not use Apple products,” he said. With its massive market share among the glitterati and huge cash hoard, “the feeling is that ‘there’s absolutely no way I’m going to give that company more free publicity.’”

--By Peter Burrows

SFGate - When Jon Holtzman was an Apple marketing manager in the early 1990s, the company had no inventory reserved for set decorators and prop masters.

For most of "Gossip Girl's" first four seasons, none of the hit show's glamorous teens carried the most talked-about smart phone of the last five years: Apple's iPhone. Because of a product placement deal, they could only be seen with phones chosen by Verizon Wireless. Then, this season, shortly after the deal lapsed, several main characters started receiving their "Xoxo, Gossip Girl" texts on Apple's hit device.

The cast's sudden conversion cost the Cupertino company nothing. Apple has spent decades strengthening its subtle but powerful grip over Hollywood, and unlike many companies, says it never pays for its products to appear on television or in movies.

The company's gadgets were discussed or shown 891 times on TV in 2011, up from 613 in 2009, according to researcher Nielsen. In the same year, iDevices appeared in more than 40 percent of the movies that topped the weekly box office, according to Brandchannel, which tracks product appearances. That's nearly twice the penetration of the next most common brands in Hollywood - Dell, Chevy and Ford.

This dominance comes as product placement's importance grows. Due to DVRs, fewer people watch TV ads. Many more purchasing decisions are driven by the chatter on Facebook and other social media - and much of that is driven by movies and television.

When Jon Holtzman was an Apple marketing manager in the early 1990s, the company had no inventory reserved for set decorators and prop masters. Filmmakers interested in using an Apple product had to wait for reporters to return review models and often got older devices. Holtzman successfully lobbied to make product placement as much of a priority as the editorial loan program and privileged access for employees' friends and family. And that made the newest devices available to Hollywood.

Useful tweak

Holtzman also tried to persuade higher-ups to make a small but important product change. In the 1990s, Apple's PowerBook laptops included a company logo on the lid that faced the user sitting at the computer. When the lid was opened, the logo was upside down. Holtzman knew this was inconvenient to filmmakers and had stickers printed to cover the actual logo and have it appear correctly onscreen. A few years after Steve Jobs returned in 1997, he flipped the logo for good.

Apple was struggling in those days, and then, as always, refused to pay for product placement, though the company did acquiesce to the occasional quid pro quo. In 1996 it secured a starring role for its PowerMac laptop in the first "Mission: Impossible" film in part by agreeing to promote the movie in its ads. The resulting TV spots were essentially clips from the movie with a few Apple logos mixed in.

"We saved almost $500,000 in production costs - and got Brian De Palma to direct and Tom Cruise to act in it," says Holtzman.

Such barter deals are common today, and Apple is rare in having the luxury to skip them. The latest "Mission: Impossible" movie, directed by Brad Bird (who directed two movies for Pixar Animation Studios, formerly owned by Steve Jobs), featured eight minutes of screen time for iPhones, iPads and iMacs, according to Eric Smallwood, senior vice president with Front Row Marketing Services. Smallwood estimates the value of that screen time at $23 million.

What others do

BMW cars were also featured prominently in the blockbuster, but the carmaker agreed to make a number of investments to support the film, according to Ruben Igielko-Herrlich, co-founder of Propaganda Gem, which arranged the deal. BMW spent millions making custom cars for the film and shipping them to sets in Dubai and elsewhere. It also featured the movie in its own ads and hosted screenings at dealerships.

Jim Christensen, a longtime public-relations executive with Hewlett-Packard, runs a program that loans HP gear to movies and TV shows. His annual budget is "not even close" to $100,000, and HP gets lots of free product placement, but usually in scenes where filmmakers want the setting to feel, well, typical.

"If the studio is using the product as it would be used in the real world, then it makes perfect sense to select HP," says Christensen, who has gotten HP desktops on the sets of "The Office" and "CSI." "Government agencies use tons of HP."

BMW cars were also featured prominently in the blockbuster, but the carmaker agreed to make a number of investments to support the film, according to Ruben Igielko-Herrlich, co-founder of Propaganda Gem, which arranged the deal. BMW spent millions making custom cars for the film and shipping them to sets in Dubai and elsewhere. It also featured the movie in its own ads and hosted screenings at dealerships.

Jim Christensen, a longtime public-relations executive with Hewlett-Packard, runs a program that loans HP gear to movies and TV shows. His annual budget is "not even close" to $100,000, and HP gets lots of free product placement, but usually in scenes where filmmakers want the setting to feel, well, typical.

"If the studio is using the product as it would be used in the real world, then it makes perfect sense to select HP," says Christensen, who has gotten HP desktops on the sets of "The Office" and "CSI." "Government agencies use tons of HP."

Interbrand Brand Channel - We chatted with Holtzman about his Apple breakthrough, why to never pay for product placement, Millennials, who’s doing it right these days and a few anecdotes.

Before Dell and Lenovo became common onscreen stars, Apple was pioneering product placement in Hollywood films. But before the brand was a frequent winner of brandchannel’s annual Product Placement Awards and before it had its own section in the Wikipedia entry for “product placement,” Apple was just another brand trying to generate some buzz. That’s when an Apple marketing manager named Jon Holtzman pitched a gambit to tie the brand’s new PowerBook laptop into a little Hollywood reboot titled Mission Impossible in a then-landmark cross-promotional and product placement deal with Paramount.

That was 1996. This year Holtzman is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his post-Apple agency, Eclipse Worldwide, a product integration, celebrity seeding and co-promotional opportunity agency. We chatted with Holtzman about his Apple breakthrough, why to never pay for product placement, Millennials, who’s doing it right these days and a few anecdotes.

brandchannel: You were on the cutting edge of placing Apple’s products on the big screen. How did that happen the first time, and did a lightbulb go off after?

Jon Holtzman (right): Apple is a great marketing company. However, for many years during the late 1980s its marketing focused entirely on specific products, like Macintosh, or ingredients or Quicktime. Very little attention was given to the brand of Apple. In fact, in Europe at that time, most people thought Macintosh was its own company, as the ads ended with a Macintosh logo, not an Apple one.

This was due to the decentralizing of regions and product marketing groups. Around 1990, I was part of a new centralized marketing team to help streamline this and put more emphasis on the Apple brand as a whole. I was named Director of Worldwide Brand Marketing. However, I was given very little budget to start this endeavor. So I spent a lot of time thinking about what we could do that could have a huge impact with very limited resources. That’s when the light went off—product placement. You could get hundreds of millions of people to see your brand in action at minimal cost. And nobody in the tech industry was doing it.

All I needed was some product. However, even that was not an easy sell. I was unable to get any (marketing) funding, even for product. So I had to put my thinking cap on. I knew that the PR group loaned lots of equipment to reviewers, who most times sent the product back when they were finished with it. That was usually about 6 months. I made a deal with the PR group to let me take those returned units and use them for product placement. So at first, I was placing six-month-old product into movies that would be released 12-18 months later. Not great, but it was a start. I was able to prove its worth and funding for product appeared. The program grew to be the most successful product placement program in any industry. In fact, when I presented updates to the executive staff, I noted that they only had 10% market share of PCs sold, but I had 90% market share of the silver screen.

bc: You argue that companies should never pay for product placement (reports to the contrary). Why?

Holtzman: Product placements should feel natural, not forced. It should not be blatant or obvious. Any placement that is so in your face that it takes you out of the story, for even a second, reflects poorly on the brand. The problem is that when a company pays for a placement they view it like advertising. They want a specific number of seconds of product and logo exposure for their investment. But that often conflicts with the flow of the production.

For example, take a show like 24, which moved at lightning speed, with cuts every second and multiple screens running at once. Cisco did paid placements on this show about once per season and demanded their ‘seconds’. The result was a fast-paced show that all of a sudden slowed down for a tight shot of a Cisco logo, held it and then moved on. Everyone at Cisco probably cheered when they saw it. However, everyone else watching it said to themselves, “WTF? Cisco just screwed up my show.”

bc: You’re a fan of how product placement can reach millennials. Why is that generation more receptive to product placement?

Holtzman: Millennials don’t watch TV in a traditional fashion – They use technology, whether that is streaming or a DVR. In both cases, they don’t watch or pay attention to commercials. If they are forced to watch them, they mute the sound. As far as being receptive to product placement, I would actually say they are not receptive to the blatant paid product placement I previously described. Just the opposite. But they do like watching what the actors do and say, and subliminally emulate that. What phone does their favorite actor use in the show, what do they wear, what do they drive, what makes them cool? So if products are included in a natural way that makes sense for the script and its characters, product placement works well.

bc: What’s the biggest threat to product placement today? Is it that there’s too much?

Holtzman: The biggest threat is paid product placement. It gives it a bad name. No one wants to see commercials in their favorite shows. Not even me. Certainly, there will be more of it, but it would actually be difficult for it to take the place of advertising revenue for the networks for many reasons. First, it takes a long time to negotiate each paid placement, with scripts going back and forth, major cash with major contracts to review and sign. There is just not enough time to get that done in most circumstances.

Most TV scripts aren’t even finished until a week or two before they shoot, and sometimes not until the day of shooting. Second, even if there was the time, how many paid placements can you do in an hour episode? Compare that to the number of ads that run over the same time. Finally. while the studios like the added income, the production creative teams are artists. They don’t want to be told what to write, even if it is a good idea!

bc: What are a few brands that you think are doing product placement right today?

Holtzman: Well, it’s been 20 years since I ran the Apple program, but I think they are still doing a great job. To my knowledge, they never pay, and while they are seen on lots of shows, they are very particular about what shows and characters use their products, and they don’t insist on specific amounts of time.

I think BMW and VW seem to be doing a great job as well for the same reasons. From what I have seen, their products are naturally integrated into the story and the characters that drive them are reflective of their target markets.

On a side note, we sometimes get approached by companies who want to do product placement, but insist that they will only do it if their logo shows as their product looks very much like all of their competitors. I respond “In that case, you have a lot bigger problems than product placement.”

bc: One final story?

Holtzman: One of the last placements I did at Apple was the Powerbook that saved the world in Independence Day. It was used throughout the movie by Jeff Goldblum, and in the final scene where he inserted a CD into the laptop, communicated wirelessly through space to an alien ship and planted the computer virus that took down the aliens’ defenses and saved the world.

It was a fabulous organic placement, but I did get several calls from the product manager of that particular PowerBook, and he was not happy. At the time the movie was shot, no Apple laptops had built-in CD drives. However, inserting the CD was a key part of the last scene, so the production mocked it up to look like there was one. The product manager was very upset that the product was misrepresented in this manner and went on and on about it. However, nowhere in is rant did he mention the fact that communicating wirelessly though space with an alien spaceship was also not a capability that model possessed! Also of note—by the time the movie came out, that particular PowerBook model was no longer available and the new ones didhave CD drives.

Lure Of Mac - 11 Ways Apple Used Product Placement To Mess With Your Subconscious

Call it creativity, call it reckless abandon, call it fearlessness. The fact is, Apple’s never been too shy to grab its target audience by the shoulders and insist “you’ve got to try this.” Its eerily predictive “1984” ad, directed by Ridley Scott, still stands as a testament to what a simple commercial spot can do to inspire the imagination of potential consumers – and to challenge the status quo in terms of both product and marketing innovation.

Of course, the times, they are a-changin’, and with DVR and streaming video services it looks more and more like television commercials are old and busted. It may be a long time before they go away for good (or likelier, adapt in such a way that causes viewers to think of them as less intrusive and more compelling). For a company to survive, it’s going to have to be well ahead of the curve.

Product Placement’s Shortcomings Versus the Apple Strategy

Doing so has been important for companies like Apple, particularly since it’s been established that product placement is an effective marketing strategy when used appropriately. Whereas companies like Coca-Cola and Ford have historically paid insane amounts of money for product placement in TV shows and movies, product prominence has become something of a nuisance to the viewer. Compare that to Apple, whose flagship product offerings are virtually synonymous with smart phones, MP3 players, laptops, tablets, you name it – and whose products appeared in more than one third of all box-office hits throughout the 2000s.

What’s more impressive than that? How incredibly effective Apple’s product placement is.

What’s even more impressive? Apple doesn’t pay a dime for product placement.

Let’s take a look back at some of the most memorable moments in Apple product placement.

1)      Star Trek IV (1984). You remember Star Trek IV, right? No? What if we mention its subtitle, The Voyage Home, and the whales, and that unforgettable scene where Scotty attempts to beam up a plan to save those whales – and the world – by talking into a computer mouse? The Macintosh Plus turned out to be the Enterprise’s saving grace, despite the implication that the technology wasn’t advanced enough for his liking. (Lighten up, Scotty. It worked, didn’t it?) Even so, one can’t help but marvel at the fact that the Mac Plus was considered advanced enough to interface with technology hundreds of years into the future, a testament to the perception of the computer’s abilities in 1984.

2)      Back to the Future 2 (1989). We can only imagine what Apple’s going to offer us by 2015, when the 1985 version of Marty McFly is due to visit Hill Valley’s antique store. One of a number of things that the movie got right about the future was the once-popular Macintosh computer collecting dust in the window of an antique store. What a curiosity, considering the processing power of the iPhone Doc is sure to bring with him to the Wild West in the third installment.

Check out the video below – the fun starts around 1:44.

What’s brilliant about this piece of product placement is the implication – that the Macintosh computer, which was expressly a product of the future, would (at the time) unfathomably end up in an antique store in just three decades’ time!  As with the Star Trek flick, this moment captured, in a sense, the enduring popularity of Apple products.

3)      Mission: Impossible (1996).  With Apple struggling in the 90s, Marketing Manager John Holtzman developed a plan – instead of offering filmmakers outdated devices, which tended to make set decoration seem less realistic, why not offer them up-and-coming product models to sweeten the product placement deal? Along with this decision came a couple of key realizations; to wit, the Apple PowerBook logo faced the user when the laptop was closed, but was upside-down when opened. Holtzman required stickers to be placed to the laptops so that they’d face the television or movie viewer, which was adopted by Steve Jobs as a company-wide strategy in 1997. In 1996 – again, with no money changing hands – Apple got its PowerBook a starring role in Brian de Palma’s Mission: Impossible revamp, restoring its image as a cutting-edge machine built for the future, and kick-starting the company’s push toward product prominence in the 2000s.

4)     Independence Day (1996).  Just months after Tom Cruise saved the United States from a potential international conflict, an intergalactic struggle was narrowly avoided thanks to the inspiration of President Bill Pullman (God bless ‘im), and the quick-thinking of Jeff Goldblum, whose Apple Macintosh PowerBook 5300 was able to upload a virus directly into the mothership’s operating system.

Now how, you might ask, would a piece of Apple technology (advanced though it may be) be able to take down an alien civilization with thousands, perhaps millions, of years worth of technological innovation? This has been a topic for discussion for nearly two decades now, but as it turns out, the plot point isn’t so far-fetched within the context of the film. According to scientists in the flick, the 1947 Roswell Incident recovered an alien vessel whose technology was studied at Area 51 for some five decades, with many of its advances incorporated into the latest and greatest innovations in global computing.

(If that’s not enough to convince you of the logic, other people have given it more thought than we have. A lot more thought.)

Once again, Apple comes out looking like the technology of the future, which in the right hands can outsmart space aliens whose ships travel at light-speed.

5)      You’ve Got Mail (1998). This sweet romantic comedy drew a distinct parallel between dying industries and the trends that threatened to put them out of business. Ironically, the business in question was a mom-and-pop bookstore which faced an uphill battle against a huge conglomerate. Fast-forward to today when even the conglomerates are struggling against digital book sales for tablet devices, the most popular of which is – gasp! – the iPad. In any event, watch the trailer and count the times you see that sexy Apple laptop:

While corporate curmudgeon Tom Hanks favors the uptight businessman’s IBM desktop, free-spirited and independent Meg Ryan prefers her sleek PowerBook 3400. Whenever it came to the heroine of the movie tapping out an email, Apple dominated the screen.

Yet again, while other companies ostensibly paid for placement, again, Apple didn’t.

6)      Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).  With the inclusion in this third installment of the highly popular film series, Apple’s 21st century push for product prominence was in full swing by 2002. This time it was the PowerBook G4 that was featured, once again implying that when it comes to spies and espionage, the power of an Apple can’t be matched. (Interesting how easily a spy from the ’60s and a foxy glamour girl from the ’70s can use such an incredible piece of technology, perhaps a nod to Apple’s imminently user-friendly interface. Even your totally groovy granddad will love it, baby.)

7)      The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). When you want to sell your stuff on eBay, it turns out that an all-in-one iMac was your best bet back in 2005. The 27 featured products and nearly 60 appearances only netted Apple 2% of all product placements and 37 seconds of screen time. However, look for its appearance in this memorable scene where a confidence-lacking Steve Carell attempts to make conversation with a customer who slipped him her phone number.

(Earmuffs for the kids, please; this one’s got a foul language alert.)

8)      “The Office” and others (2006).  A Washington Post article from 2006 described how Apple products seemed to be dominating the small screen, particularly on network television’s most popular shows: “CSI: NY,” on CBS Fox’s (recently resurrected) “24” and “Las Vegas,” which appeared on NBC. However, the focus of the article was on a particular scene in a beloved show that just wrapped this past year. You know the one.

“The Office” was one of television’s most popular programs in 2006, and one episode prominently featured bumbling boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell, by now of 40-Year-Old Virgin fame) giving one of his employees a gift that would turn the rest of the office green with envy. That gift happened to be an iPod. If you remember the episode, the scheme worked.

9)      Sex and the City (2008). While this show is known for its use of Apple products throughout its run (check out the upside-down logo in season 6, a confusing reversal of Jobs’ positioning policy), the first spin-off flick gave Apple products more than ten minutes of screen time – of the dozens of products and appearances in the film, Apple scored 13% of all featured products. The message here is pretty clear: a decade after Meg Ryan used her PowerBook 3400 to woo Tom Hanks, the choice for the independent woman looking for love (or, uh, something like it) remained Apple.

10)      “Modern Family” (2010).  Product placement is one thing, but this episode of Modern Family got a ton of attention when it featured a story line that revolved around the iPad before the product even hit the shelves. Unfortunately Dad’s highly anticipated iPad wasn’t pre-ordered in time for his birthday, so the family scrambles to procure one just in the nick of time. This clever marketing trick played on the near-pandemonium surrounding the June 2007 release of the iPhone, positioning its amazing new product as the must-have device of 2010. What’s so great about this placement, as alluded to in the article, is that it touts the iPad as a revolutionary piece of technology while simultaneously being suited the average guy.

It was a match made in Heaven on the hit television show, by the way. According to Modern Dad Phil Dunphy, it was “like Steve Jobs and God got together to say, ‘We love you, Phil’”:

11)   “House of Cards” (2013).  How many Apple devices can you fit into a scene? The current record is nine, set by Netflix’s critical darling “House of Cards,” starring the inimitable Kevin Spacey. Although an initial review from Engadget was harshly critical of the product placement, as it turns out, it makes perfect sense in the context of the scene: they were monitoring police scanners, news reports, and waiting on important calls from colleagues in an attempt to stay precisely up-to-the-moment.

The Engadget editorial was updated shortly thereafter to clear up any initial incredulity. The revision explains that the product placement was the decision of the producers, who 1) had mainly Apple devices at their disposal, and 2) felt that, in keeping with the show’s realism, they were the most appropriate choice. The ubiquity of Apple products actually enhances the scene rather than distracts from, making the product placement both a smart move on the part of Apple and the producers of “House of Cards.”  As one reviewer pointed out, “in most instances [Apple’s product placement] actually lends more to the credibility of the show.”

Well, there’s our not-so-brief rundown of Apple’s product placement in television and film – but the takeaway point here isn’t just that it happens, or even that Apple doesn’t pay for it. Rather, it’s that fact that in a word of advertising gone amok, Apple’s approach to product placement is actually working like gangbusters. Given the widespread popularity of their product offerings among techies and tech-illiterates, early adopters and latecomers, it’s clearly a winning strategy that’s likely to continue well into the future.

St Elmo's - Holtzman's persistence has paid off: Apple continues to work closely with the entertainment industry to this day and continues to make a name for itself with its product placements.

Product placements have long found their place in the marketing mix.

Initially, the Apple logo was upside down when the PowerBooks were opened. It wasn't until 1997 that it was turned 180 degrees. Since then, the backlit apple has been a perfect eye-catcher for every product placement. A simple and ingenious trick that should pay off for Apple.

Mission Possible

In the mid-1990s, ten years after Steve Jobs turned his back on Apple after disputes with its CEO John Sculley, the company ran into major economic problems. At that time, Apple's Marketing Manager Jon Holtzman was already well connected in the film and television production landscape and he managed to place Apple in the film "Mission Impossible" with Tom Cruise. He had to overcome great internal resistance, but finally triumphed with the argument: "… you may only have 10 percent market share in the real world, but I have 90 percent market share on the silver screen." Success proved him right. Also in the matter of the logo shoot, which he was only able to implement much later, after the return of Steve Jobs.

Who invented this technology?

Holtzman's persistence has paid off: Apple continues to work closely with the entertainment industry to this day and continues to make a name for itself with its product placements. But is Jon Holtzman the inventor of product placement? Probably not. In 1894, the inventor of the light bulb, Thomas A. Edison, started his "Black Maria Studio" and later the "Edison Studios", where almost 1,200 silent films were made. At that time, Edison's film team recognized the opportunity to create win-win constellations with the railway companies that purchased products from Edison's companies. The railway company transported the film crews with their equipment and their brands were used for this – for example, the express train “Black Diamond Express ” – featured prominently in the films. Since these beginnings, there have been several success stories that show how clever product placement can affect the awareness of brands and products.

Placement Coups

The product placement story of Steven Spielberg's “ET - The Alien”, one of the greatest commercial successes in cinema, is legendary. The boy named Elliot lays a trail of chocolate candy to lure ET into the house. The request from the film production company Amblin Entertainment, whether M&Ms could be used for this, was rejected by the manufacturer Mars. They then used Reese's Pieces from Hershey, a much less well-known product. However, Hershey recognized the huge opportunity, built a million-dollar campaign around the topic and implemented an extensive package of co-promotion measures. The result? Both ticket sales for “ET” and Reese's Pieces' sales skyrocketed.

James Bond films are considered record holders in terms of product placement. Special mention should be made of "Golden Eye" (1995), the seventeenth film in this series. It was the first Bond film with Pierce Brosnan and the first in which "M" was played by a woman. It was also the first in which Bond did not drive an Aston Martin. Instead, he was behind the wheel of a BMW Z3, which acted as the launch for the new roadster. It was the start of a very successful three-film deal for BMW with the Broccoli family production company.

The HBO TV series “Sex and the City ” ran from 1998 and 2004, which was jokingly referred to as the “Super Bowl for Women” due to numerous product placements. In any case, Manolo Blahnik shoes would never have reached such a high level of popularity and recognition if Carrie Bradshaw had not led us through the many episodes of "Sex and the City " on the red soles of their "Manolos". Today, almost everyone knows the shoe brand.

For an apple and an egg?

Many stories are also related to the cost of product placements. Because, for example, Tom Cruise can be seen in many parts of the Mission Impossible series with the PowerBook, rumors arose that Apple had paid $5 million for the placement. Holtzman, who now runs his own product placement agency in Los Angeles, continues to deny this vigorously. Rather, he emphasizes that such charismatic brands as Apple tend to upgrade the equipment and that outfitters simply like to see such brands on the set. In the reality of Hollywood productions, however, money usually flows today when it comes to significant placements as in the Bond films. And this money is already taken into account when planning the production budget.

Product placements in Germany

In Germany, product placements are more strictly regulated. After the topic had been in a legal gray area in Germany for a long time, the legal framework for product placements was laid on April 1, 2010 – following an EU directive for audiovisual media services (AVMS) from 2007. The 13th State Treaty on Broadcasting essentially transferred the contents of the AVMS guidelines into German broadcasting law.

Specifically, this means that product placements are limited to entertainment formats and must be identified as such. Interventions in the dramaturgy are not permitted, as are direct purchase requests. There are also a few other rules for public service broadcasting. One is, for example, that production aids and supplies must be free of charge. Within the defined scope of action, brands can now include product placement in their marketing mix on the German market and legally use this effective form of brand communication.

Digitalization and the competition of “streamers”

The digitalization of the media is increasingly disrupting the old order between producers, film, television and viewers. Although the viewing time for linear TV is a good three and a half hours a day, it's still significantly higher than the use of online videos*, but television use is declining among younger age groups and online and VoD use is increasing overall. The major TV broadcasters counter this by constantly optimizing their online media libraries.

The big "Game of Thrones" takes place on the Internet: In addition to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney and Apple have now stormed into the streaming arena. Disney+ comes with competitive prices, huge programming assets and famous brands (in addition to Disney also Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic). Apple TV+ started its service in 100 countries at the same time, installed its new app on 900 million iPhones and also offers free packages for buyers of new devices.

The German streaming providers are also actively in the ring. Deutsche Telekom has renamed its Entertain TV to Magenta TV and is experimenting with the first in-house productions. ProSiebenSat.1 launched the Joyn streaming platform with Discovery. Joyn focuses on local programs and aims to reach 10 million customers in two years. In addition, there are other fee-based and free streaming offers that compete with classic TV – not least YouTube, where you can also subscribe to YouTube Premium (YouTube and YouTube Music without ads) in addition to the free video clips.

The immense range of online TV offers creates great opportunities for product placements. The American branded goods industry has long recognized this and integrated it into their marketing strategies. And once again Apple manages to attract attention: "The Wall Street Journal" counted an average of 32 camera shots in each episode of "The Morning Show", which show an Apple product. "The Morning Show" (on air since November 1, 2019) is an Apple TV+ "Original" – as the streamers' own productions are called. NETFLIX earned $15 million in product placements in the third season of Stranger Things, according to the American Marketing Journal. Around 45 products from the automotive, beverage, shoe, retail and food sectors were registered.

Why so much effort?

But why do the marketers put so much effort into showing their products in entertainment formats? Quite simply because it's effective. Studies have shown that viewers perceive integrated products as a style-building element and do not find them to be disturbing. On the contrary, lifestyles and consumer behavior of protagonists from popular films, series and shows serve as an orientation for their own behavior. This creates opportunities to activate brands positively and to anchor them sustainably in the consciousness of consumers. But you don't have to shoot the "apple" or even produce elaborate TV formats yourself, as Apple does. If the story, protagonists and brand fit together, even smaller, smart and targeted placements can create awareness for the brand and charge it positively.

Wall Street Journal - "The thing we need to do the most is re-energize the Apple brand," said Jon Holtzman, Apple's director of world-wide brand marketing.

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple Computer Inc., faced with the possibly impossible mission of reviving itself, is turning to "Mission Impossible" for help.

The Cupertino, Calif. computer maker is set to embark on a $15 million campaign to promote its involvement in the Hollywood movie of that name starring Tom Cruise. In the takeoff of the popular television series by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures unit, Mr. Cruise and the other actors are filmed toting around Apple's PowerBook laptops. The film's U.S. debut is set for May 20.

Hoping to exploit that exposure, Apple is churning up a Hollywood-style publicity machine. The promotion will kick off Monday with television spots, featuring film clips intercut with PowerBook images and set to the "Mission Impossible" theme music.

Some Apple employees consider the outlay frivolous at a time when the company is struggling to recover from losses that totaled $740 million in the fiscal second quarter ended March 29. But Apple officials say the marketing is needed more than ever now.

"The thing we need to do the most is re-energize the Apple brand," said Jon Holtzman, Apple's director of world-wide brand marketing. "And you can't do that without spending money."