COVERT ADVERTISING

Covert advertising is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media.

For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where main character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them "classics," because the film is set far in the future.

I, Robot and Spaceballs also showcase futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos clearly displayed on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were used. Similarly, product placement for Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW and Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James Bond films, most notably Casino Royale. Blade Runner includes some of the most obvious product placement; the whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.

Hayabusa in Dhoom, John Abraham uses Hayabusa in the movie as a thief, from that time only many of Indians came to know about that bike.

Domino’s Pizza in Phir Hera Pheri Domino’s is known as much for the quality of its pizzas, as for its promise of “delivery within 30 minutes or free”. Paresh Rawal seen in the movie happily munching on a Domino’s pizza.

Covert Advertising in Video games

Today, advertisers are much more interested in the $24 billion video game industry. Spending on in-game product placement was estimated at $300 million this year, with projections of $1 billion in spending by 2010. 66% of males 18-34 own at least one game console, as do 80% of males ages 12-17. In 2006, 62.3 million game consoles were sold. Market researchers anticipate that this number will grow by an additional 26% in 2010.

Covert Advertising is different from Celebrity Endorsement

The celebrities endorse products and brands with commercial reasons, which normally comes in the breaks in television programmes or cinema halls.

Similarly commercials of cinema halls are found to be of low involvement as audience takes them as blocks between the reasons of visiting the cinema hall and the time available to them entertainment. Brand placements provides an opportunity where the involved audience gets exposure to the brands and products during the natural process of narration of movie or television commercial.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT

A product placement is the inclusion of a product, brand name or the name of the firm in a movie for increasing memorability of the brand and instant recognition at the point of purchase. It is an advertising technique in which the companies pay a fee or provide service in exchange for a prominent display of their product.

Product placement appears in plays, films, television series, music videos, video games and books. Product placement occurs with the inclusion of a brand's logo in shot, or a favorable mention or appearance of a product in shot.

Types of Product Placement

• Corporate Placement

• Generic Placement

• Idea placement

• Historic Placement

• Service Placement

• Negative Placement

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study is based completely on Secondary Research. The data has been collected from:- The collection of data was through books, journals and articles on covert advertising.

A lot of data was collected from the internet to help compile the entire study.

Data Collection :-

1. Covert Advertising and its scope2. Effectiveness of covert advertising3. Connection between brands and films4. Case Study

CONCLUSION

Advertising occupies a major place in Integrated Marketing Communication strategy of corporate It has evolved in sync with the changing media environment. They are constantly in search of innovative technique which has grabbed the attention in recent years is ‘Covert Advertising’.

A conclusion drawn from the research was that products placed prominently in films were better recognized than those placements placed subtly within the context of the film.

Another aspect closely considered in this research was the effect product placements have on the realism of the film.

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