Vancouver companies are increasingly placing corporate products in popular entertainment such as TV, movies and music videos, as marketing strategies become increasingly sophisticated. For example, viewers of Roman Polanski’s 2010 movie The Ghostwriter, which is now on DVD, will watch the lead character follow the Vancouver Canucks on TV in a hotel bar as play-by-play commentary mentions players such as Alex Edler, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin.
The National Hockey League was involved with Polanski and his co-producers in getting the Canucks into the movie. The team knew about the placement and approved.
“These types of integration happen beyond the team’s local market territory. Licensing is done through the league office,” Canucks spokesman T.C. Carling told Business in Vancouver in a January 11 email. “The league will not approve an integration if a team has an objection.”
The Canucks are not alone in using this strategy.
Internet dating entrepreneur Markus Frind paid a marketing agency to have his Plenty of Fish website displayed prominently in Lady Gaga’s controversial video for the song Telephone (see Markus Frind “Love Affairs” profile – issue 1082; July 20-26, 2010).
Rocky Mountaineer CEO Randy Powell similarly told BIV that after he took over the luxury passenger train operation in October 2007, he made a point of being innovative with its marketing.
He lucked out when Bachelorette reality show star Jillian Harris chose to board the Rocky Mountaineer in 2009 for the filming of a two-hour episode that Neilson Co. estimated attracted 6.63 million viewers. It cost Powell next to nothing.
He also proactively gave passes for free trips on his trains to producers of TV shows such as Live with Regis and Kelly on the condition that viewers would be offered the chance to win the trips (see Randy Powell “Track Record” profile –issue 1088; August 31-September 6, 2010).