CASE STUDY: SKYFALL

We discuss the article below on product tie-ins:

A view to an advertising killing

Analysis by Lucy Bannerman,  The Times, October 13 2012 

“Pierce used to say that it’s like being responsible for a small country,” Daniel Craig tells Vanity Fair in this month’s issue. “It’s like you have to look after it diplomatically.” Three films into his tenure, however, and Blond Bond seems more like CEO of the most powerful company in ad-land.
The franchise has amassed more than £3.1 billion at the box office worldwide over the past 50 years. Quantum of Solace made UK box office revenues of £50.3 million. Casino Royale took £65.9 million. Skyfall is predicted to beat them both — no small thanks to the onslaught of luxury brands rushing to bask in Bond’s glory through product placement. Heineken, which has paid $45million to make Bond a lager drinker, has covered nearly a third of the movie’s $150 million budget.

While Dom Pérignon, Rolex, Aston Martin and Walther PPK have been serving Brand Bond for years, other new tie-ins include Sony’s new flagship smartphone, the Xperia T, also known as “The Bond Phone”.The phone is apparently pre-loaded with Skyfall content including the 007 ringtone.
Coca-Cola’s Coke Zero tie-in is also predictably Bond-themed, while Sky TV has been running ad nauseam its advert featuring a car chase with all the men who have played Bond, to build up a following for its all-Bond channel.
Procter & Gamble has launched a 007 scent for men to celebrate the 23rd film and VisitBritain has launched its first international movie ad, which encourages foreigners to “Live Like Bond”.
But product placement is nothing new — Red Stripe was the first lager in a Bond film, in Dr. No in 1962 when Sean Connery punched an adversary into a pile of Red Stripe boxes in a bar in Jamaica.
Kentucky Fried Chicken made a sneak appearance in Goldfinger in 1964, while a BP petrol station had the honour of playing backdrop to an assassination in A View to a Kill.And in Tomorrow Never Dies, Q intercepted Pierce Brosnan’s Bond at an airport disguised as an employee of Avis car hire.