How Does Product Placement Work?

It takes 5 BrainStuff hosts to reveal how placing product ads in media works. Learn which one has the most integrity and which one would sell their grandmother for the right price!

[BrainStuffShow]

To address the comments about our Dell laptops... that wasn't intentional product placement. Our company provides us those laptops to do our work on. In fact, Cristen and Lauren were multi-tasking and getting other stuff done in between takes!

But if Dell wants to sponsor us, we'll talk! ;)

[danielcoxon]

"People don't watch commercials anymore." I love how this vid addresses that fact and shows how companies are evolving to keep up with modern tech.

[oafkad]

I wonder how much that Dell product placement cost :o.

[ZoeHewittHosting]

I actually worked for seven years as an executive at a product placement agency. Corona, Ben & Jerrys, Volvo and Heinz were some of my clients. It's a really fascinating industry and sometimes things that seem like placements aren't--and vice versa. I do weekly movie reviews on my channel and talk about product placement in movies frequently. In fact, I talked about it a lot in this week's review of "The Fate of the Furious" with some insider information dating back to the first movie in the franchise!

[carlosparacio]

Nothing is free. Content creators need revenue to produce the content that we all enjoy for free. Keep up the good work guys.

[RedLeader]

Brilliant, well done video. That Shark Jawz disclaimer at the end was hilarious.

[octavianbaciu]

In Romania we have something like this (PP) on the begining of a tv show, or tv series. (PP) means Product Placement (Plasare de Produse - in romanian language)

[Lady_Azkadelia]

I've been finding some of the product placement in US shows really jarring lately. Such as in 'Elementary' when people keep pulling out Windows 8 Netbooks & we get weird close ups of the screen. The worst I saw was in 'Warehouse 13' when one of the characters suddenly started going on about how much he loved the features of the satnav in the car, whilst the camera sat there showing a shot of the car with the badge of whatever make it was.

[joekelly]

Man, Dell is a really cool product, I think I am going to go buy one today!!!

[Mallory-Malkovich]

Well, thank-you for taking the time to acknowledge the recent inclusion of ads in your videos. The ads remain tacky, but I understand you need compensation for your work. All we can do is continue to thumbs down videos where the hosts stop to sell us crap, and lean on video creators like you to find more respectable ways to get paid. Keep fighting.

[kingemocut]

a faouse example is the ET one, they asked one company and they said no, but they asked a second one and the sales trippled. it was in the scene where ET follows the chocolate trail.

[artionzens]

Guys, this is by far one of the most original video yet! Great job! :D
Nice pebble watch Jonathan ;)

[cabrita]

This is a difficult thing to pull off.

It's a combination of the hosts being personable, viewers seeing what goes on behind each episode, execution of the placement it's self.

The YT channels that have good viewership response to product placement have a host that people "get to know". This would dramatically change this channel because it's format is totally different. Many of the channels I follow sporadically talk about their families, or personal issues. This helps swallow the product placement pill because hey, his/her videos have gotten better in quality since she/he bought that expensive Sony QW48595 camera she/he mentioned in that vlog. Or he/she is sending their kid to college while dealing with his/her partner's blah blah blah.

This helps with the last point, but behind the scenes/getting to know those involved always helps. You get to like the camera man or maybe the graphics guys seems cool, well as annoying as these ads are, it keeps them afloat. Puts a face to the whole operation. This point is similar to the top point but is more applicable to larger scale channels.

Finally, executing the product placement.

You need to either be very clever or very honest. You guys tried to be clever but it killed the flow of the video and because it was the first time doing a product placement it came out of no where. Every mid-sized YT channel I have come across so far hits this crossroads where they are big enough to get product placement attention and they don't know if they want to do it because people might get upset. They usually post a video about their reservations,  do a pros and cons, and then ask people to vote what the YT channel should do with likes and dislikes. I have never seen videos like that get worse than a 80/20 like ratio.

TL;DR 

Let the viewers get to know the hosts and crew better, it makes viewers care about who they are. This way when they make money in obtrusive ways, viewers are more likely to not revolt.

Be more transparent about the channel. This way viewers aren't thrown off guard. Change is ALWAYS scary and bracing us while methodically implementing change over a long period of time is the way to go. I have specific ideas about how to do this, PM me @Brainstuff.

[savagegardenrox]

the best product placement is when the writers of a given show get passive aggressive and make the placement so obvious. Like anytime the characters on Bones are in a car there's a discussion about the navigation or the backup camera or the "lane assist".

[zacksthetics]

is this an advertisement for dell laptops?

[pixelparable]

I feel like seeing all of you in one room is overwhelming for me in a good way.  

I think that product placement is a necessary thing to be able to get money to fund things. Especially the brilliant podcasts you guys do and such. Personally I think when done with a certain level of tact and either obviousness or subtlety it doesn't bother me personally. People/companies needs to make money. 

[bradlemmond]

Not to be too pedantic (I'm being pedantic) the DeLorean Motor Company had already gone out of business before Back To The Future. I have heard tell they did that so they wouldn't get in trouble with a company for messing up their car. However, there were multiple product placements in that movie.

[eken]

Dell? The cans was taped over but not the logo on the PC. Was looking for products because I was expecting questions on it in the end of the clip.

[Pineapple-Lord]

I'm only okay with product placement if it is natural and needed. The needed is the key part, Watched a few episodes of House of Cards yesterday and i noticed a bunch of product placements that have no purpose to the plot and are so abundant that it ruins some scenes.
Also crew of Brain Stuff, I am subscribed to your channel because the questions you ask are interesting and obscure most of the time no other youtube channel has answered that question. I cant pinpoint the exact reason but when I am watching your show sometimes I feel like your talking down to me.. It makes the videos hard to watch.. Dont know if I am just odd in some way but no other youtube channel makes me feel that way.
Love the show though Thanks for being Awesome!

[xFuZeLeGeNDarY]

This was really good, you guys should do more vids like this one !