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I’m going to assume that you’ve watched the latest, too-long instalment in the never-ending money-printing franchise called the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, I’m talking about Avengers: Endgame. If you haven’t seen it — this article will contain a minor spoiler for the film, so proceed on your own risk. Still reading on? Good. Full disclosure: I watched it twice, even though it was 3 hours per shot and I didn’t exactly enjoy it. That’s probably told you everything you need to know about my life, as is what I’m going to tell you next — I loved the scene where Tony Stark zooms up to the Avengers building in an Audi. It’s not high cinema by any means. Although it’s played for laughs, it’s laboriously filmed. The focus is on the loud and brash car, not on either Tony or Captain America. Millions of people in the world have been forced to watch it. In other words, it’s an extremely effective ad.
Product Placement in Films
Product placement in the Marvel films is hardly new. Audi’s been in a few Marvel films now, and there was a period where they lost the sponsorship to Lexus. It’s hard to be that excited about a Lexus ad, even if Black Panther is involved:
Lexus went one step further, commissioning an 8-page comic called ‘Black Panther: Soul of a Machine’ that followed the film and had its car featured on the cover. Integration with the film was key to Lexus’ strategy for the LC500:
[T]he Marvel partnership was built into Lexus’ promotional strategy for the LC 500 from the ground up as the initial discussions about it took place the year before it went on sale.
The Black Panther production team was shown the only prototype in the United States at the time and MaryJane Kroll, media manager at Lexus marketing, says that Coogler climbed onto its roof to mimic the iconic pose that the hero takes during the car chase. It convinced Lexus that the car would be a crucial sidekick and Kroll explained to Forbes that it is all part of a plan to drive interest with a relevant audience.
Association with a franchise as big as a Marvel film can do wonders for the image of a product. In 2007, a Wall Street Journal article mentioned the consumer perception of a Lexus car as “kind of expensive, always respectable — and a little boring.” Many years later, it still lags behind German brands in sales. Now that the car’s been front and centre before millions of eyeballs, having a central role in a film that’s one of the most successful Marvel films of all time, it’s managed to shed some of its past perception.
Further, via Autoblog:
Packaged Facts’ research revealed that product placement in movies and television shows resonates with African-American consumers. For example, black consumers are more likely to remember the brand name product characters use in a movie and try products they have never tried before that they have seen in a movie. Seeing a product used in a movie is also more likely to reassure black consumers that the product is a good one. Furthermore, when African-American consumers are online or in a store and see a brand name product they recognize from a movie, they are more likely to buy it than its competitor.
[…]
In the end it proved to be a shrewd strategy for Lexus. AutoNews.com reveals that there was “an explosion” of ad impressions across TV, social media, and in theater due to the film and the product tie-in. Further, in the week following Black Panther’s domestic premiere on February 16, online searches for Lexus at shopping site Autotrader were up 15% from the previous week. Likewise, Autotrader revealed that online traffic for the LC 500 specifically was up 10%.
Product placement works — even if it’s gratuitous. Just check out Lexus’ latest dip into the product placement game: MiB International:
Gratuitous Placement
You can’t talk brand placement in films without bringing up one of the most product-placement-heavy film franchises of them all: James Bond.
Product placement is ubiquitous in James Bond films, and lucrative too. Via the BBC:
There are a few moments in the Bond films which even the most forgiving 007 fans can’t recall without wincing. There’s Pierce Brosnan’s hang-gliding off a glacier in Die Another Day. There’s Roger Moore’s Tarzan impression in Octopussy. And, up there with the worst of them, there’s the Casino Royale scene in which Eva Green asks Daniel Craig if his watch is a Rolex. “Omega,” he replies. “Beautiful,” purrs Green. “Eurgghh,” groans everyone in the cinema.
[…]
Daniel Craig said as much when he was making Skyfall in 2012. “The simple fact is that, without [product placement], we couldn’t do it,” he commented. “It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is.” And yet Skyfall went onto rake in $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office, against a budget of under $200 million. Surely such a staggeringly lucrative film shouldn’t have to advertise beer and watches to make ends meet.
[…]
How much money these brands are paying is rarely confirmed, but astronomical sums are bandied about: $45 million has been cited in relation to Bond’s swig of Heineken in Skyfall. The brewery, you might think, is going to have to sell a lot of beers to recoup that outlay.
$45 million? Ouch. Given how popular the James Bond films are — disclosure: I’ve watched most of them, and all of the recent ones — surely they don’t have to resort to the many brand partners listed on their official website to pay their actors. As an advertiser marketing towards a particular audience though, the money might be well-spent. You know that James’ watch is an Omega, even though it’s a Rolex in the books. You look at an Aston Martin and think about secret panels and hidden missiles. You look at a martini and think “shaken, not stirred”, even though that’s the wrong way to drink a martini. Product placements in films like this can often work better than traditional ads because the audience is already predisposed to admire and like the character pushing the product. I can relate. I tried to buy the coat that James wore at the end of Skyfall myself, but couldn’t. It had already sold out within hours.
Interested in chatting more about product placement? Get in touch.
Doom Eternal was announced at E3 with a new trailer and Doomguy now has traversal abilities and new maps built on this additional mobility. Via PC Gamer:
There can be no argument that the life of the Doom Slayer has been filled with countless badass moments, but his most badass moment of all happens in Doom Eternal. You can watch it in the video embedded above or here on YouTube.
The Doom Slayer has fought his way across Phobos, cutting demons open with his chainsaw, roasting them with his new shoulder-mounted flame-thrower, and firing his grappling hook into cacodeamons and swinging around the joint like an ultra-violent Spider-Man. But now he needs to leave Phobos and get his ass to Mars, which has been torn up so badly the core of the planet is exposed.
In order to get to Mars, he needs to reach a escape pod located on a chunk of the base that’s floating through space, far from Phobos. So The Slayer stalks over to a massive, mounted cannon. He lifts the hatch and pushes the heavy torpedo out of the way with his boot. Then he climbs inside the cannon and fires himself through space like a goddamn human rocket, smashing through the outer wall of the base like a bunker buster.
After thirty-ish years living on this slow-dying planet with only a vague idea of what the stock market is or how to engage with it, I’ve finally decided to teach myself how to trade. While doing some basic research — like which online stockbroker to use, which stocks are blue chip, what ETFs are, how dividends are paid out — I read articles from a group of different sites for a few days. You’d think from the ads I’m now being served that I’ve become some kind of Aussie Wolf of Wall Street. Website after website have been serving me ads along the lines of “Don’t buy another share until you read this!!!” and similar breathless screeds from sites like the Motley Fool. Fast forward a couple of days. I’ve been browsing cat food, trying to find something hypoallergenic that isn’t soy pellets*. Now every ad I get involves cats in some way, which admittedly is an improvement because the photography is cute.
Here’s what I saw only just this morning when reading an unrelated article on The Atlantic, an American news site:
Programmatic ads know that I have a cat, that I’ve been dabbling in stocks, that I work in Burnley, and that I’m an expat. Never mind the FBI agent in your laptop meme, tech companies like Facebook and Google already know everything about you. If you like targeted ads — and sometimes targeted stuff, when crafted well and with a trustworthy message, do appeal to me — then move on from this article. If you think things are getting a little TOO creepy, read on.
Going Dark
Want to get rid of creepy programmatic stuff? It’s possible. “Wait, wait,” I hear you say. “You work in advertising — why the hell are you telling us how to get out of being advertised to? What’s your game?” I believe in targeted ads, sure, but I also believe in strategic ads. Ads that come across as too creepy, or that aren’t relevant, or worst of all — annoy the public — don’t work. Advertising online isn’t just a matter of slapping some images and text together and uploading them through the Facebook platform. As a representation of your brand online, they also need thought. At Starship, we routinely create targeted strategies for integrated digital campaigns that hit KPIs while being a solid ROI. Clients who go off into the advertising wilds by themselves without professional help often risk blowing their budgets on little return.
For everyone else frustrated by unwanted ads, here are things you can do right now to limit the ads that you get served:
- The Do Not Call register is a secure register by the Aussie govt where you can register private/personal phone numbers. Advertisers who aren’t charities won’t therefore be permitted to call you (exceptions apply). You can report anyone who contravenes this — I have.
- Reporting unsolicited SMS spam: You can report any sort of commercial SMS that is unwanted or unsolicited by forwarding it to 0429 999 888. You should then block the number. Sadly being on the Do Not Call register does not stop you from getting spam SMSes. It works: Service Seeking Pty Ltd was recently fined by the ACMA to the tune of $50k for SMS spam.
- Using fully anonymous browsers like Tor to browse the internet: This will affect your net speed though.
- Using VPNs like Private Internet Access to scramble your true IP address: This often gets me served hilarious mis-targeted ads. I tended to get a lot of USA voting ads this way.
- Check your privacy settings on your favourite websites/social media. Many sites like Twitter etc will have options where you can limit your ad tracking.
- Do a full Cookies etc clean as often as you can stand it.
- Use encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp.
- Remove yourself off data broking sites.
- Remove everything you’ve ever searched from Google. While you’re at it, you can also remove all your Location data.
- Delete yourself off websites that you no longer use. Close old email accounts.
- Limit ad tracking on your phones. There’d be an option to do this on iOS: Go to Settings – Privacy – Location Services – System Services.
- Opt out of Ads Personalisation on Google.
- Switch to Firefox: it’s much better with privacy, and highly customisable. It does seem to run hotter on my Macbook Pro than Chrome, and is iffy with Tweetdeck, but hopefully that’d all be fixed soon.
Let us know if there’s anything we’ve missed.
Article updated on Friday 14 June 2019.
*Note: Before you freak out that I’m killing my cat, hypoallergenic cat food is not actually 100% soy. It does contain chicken and taurine. It is a prescribed vet diet.
Commander Keen is back! This game was a staple of our childhood growing up in the 80s, a problem-solving top-down game with a great soundtrack. The new one looks… a little different. Via Kotaku:
The good news: Commander Keen is back! The bad news: everything else about that piece of information.
The Commander Keen games are an international treasure. Kicking off in 1990, they showed—on a platform awash with strategy games and flight sims—that the PC could be home to quality platformers as well. The originals still play well to this day, but Keen’s cult status and place in history have long been calling out for a modern interpretation of the character and his side-scrolling action.
Bethesda took to the stage earlier today during their E3 press conference and…kinda did that. But instead of announcing a new Commander Keen as a vibrant take on a 90s classic, a faithful reimagining of a long-running and important series, we got some free-to-play mobile gaming bullshit.
… Welp.
Gods and Monsters is a Ubisoft game that was featured at E3, with a cartoonish look to the artwork that resembles Breath of the Wild. Via Endgadget:
Ubisoft’s latest game goes back to classical mythology with ‘Gods & Monsters,’ which the publisher showcased with a cartoony first trailer at E3. According to Ubisoft, it’s an “adventure about a forgotten hero on a quest to save the Greek gods.” The player will have god-like powers and battle Gorgons, Hydras, and Cyclops. More details should emerge before the launch date of February 25th 2020.
Keanu Reeves has made a surprise cameo on Cyberpunk 2077, going so far as to make an unexpected appearance at E3. Yeah, E3 is on, one of the biggest gaming events in the world. With games being an even bigger money printing machine nowadays than films, we’re going to spend the week looking at some of the highlights that came out of E3.
I confess I’ve been waning on the cyberpunk genre to date. Cyberpunk 2077 looked exciting when CD Project Red introduced it years back, but over time the gameplay trailers have continued to look as like more of the usual. Western cyberpunk franchises, not to put a fine point on it, pretty much look like modern Asian megacities without (m)any Asian people. Just take a close look at the latest Blade Runner. This new franchise didn’t look like it would be much different, but then Keanu’s random appearance at the end is promising. We’re looking forward to the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl3Te28qBsk
Captain Marvel has released a deleted scene that has the neckbeard section of the internet up in arms for her behaviour. Don’t ask her to smile. Also, if this makes her a villain, then so’s Colin Firth’s character in Kingsman for this scene:
I just got an email from @Adobe that I'm no longer allowed to use the software that I'm paying for. Time to cancel my subscription I guess.
Share plz. pic.twitter.com/ZIIdqK5AkM
— Matt Roszak 🍞 (@KupoGames) May 10, 2019
Adobe programs are to creatives what a tennis racquet is for Roger Federer, if there was only one brand of racquet available to all tennis players and the brand could make everyone pay every year to use the racquet, and raise their prices whenever they liked. If the racquet became more and more bloated and heavy over the years but everyone still had to use it because it was the industry standard. This has been a known and ongoing problem with Adobe software in the industry — since they have a monopoly and know it, they’ve been steadily just bloating their software, tacking on the less-popular software into the suite that most of us don’t need. Adobe now allows you to buy per app, with an individual price, student, business, or university, but compared to similar professional programs like Microsoft, the subscription remains an eye-watering price for freelancers:
Adobe knows that most freelancers really only need the Creative Suite — Illustrator, Photoshop, and inDesign. Yet for the price of those 3 programs, you pretty much might as well get the whole swollen raft of stuff you’d hardly ever use. Many people are lucky enough only to need Photoshop for their work (photographers, digital artists etc). Yet recently Adobe also doubled the price of its Photoshop package, sending people into panic:
The $US9.99/month option still appears for many users visiting the site, and if it doesn’t, PetaPixel has confirmed that it can still be purchased by contacting Adobe’s sales team by phone, using the website’s online chat to talk to a salesperson, or by contacting an official Adobe reseller. The $US9.99/month option can also be purchased as a 12-month plan for $US119.88, which can be further locked down for an additional three years.
But by hiding that option on the website, it means that new Creative Cloud subscribers who aren’t familiar with the current pricing structure will simply assume the $US20.99/month option is the cheapest way to get Photoshop, and that’s a scummy way to take advantage of them.
It turns out that Adobe was just “testing the waters”. Yay?
Adobe Piracy on the High Seas
I remember the first time I saw an Adobe product. I was in school in Asia in the 90s, and I’d walked into a computer store with my parents. There was a display rack with beautiful artwork, including “Adobe Illustrator”, which at the time I’d erroneously thought was an art program like Corel Draw. I was about to ask my mum for it when I saw the price tag. At first, I’d thought it had a few zeroes out of place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when I finally taught myself how to use Photoshop for digital painting as a kid, I pirated the copy. It’s easy to pirate things in Asia. The internet’s extremely quick, and even if it isn’t, you can easily acquire dodgy copies of anything you want from shops.
Piracy is why Adobe embarked on creative cloud. Adobe products have been pirated for decades. Accessibility is certainly one way to address piracy: Steam/Valve, for example, famously remarked that piracy is simply a failure of marketing. However, Adobe’s eye-watering subscription price continues to make its software a draw for people who can’t afford the programs:
It’s often said that price and accessibility aside, one of the best ways to cope with piracy is to offer a superior service. Narayen says Adobe is doing just that with Cloud by offering unique features unavailable in ‘cracked’ software.
“As we’re delivering more Cloud-based services, as you know the only way to use the mobile apps and share content between the mobile apps as well as our Creative Cloud, is by having a subscription. So I think that’s also why we see more creative sync and creative profile being used, that’s certainly driving that,” Narayen added.
While it is indeed quite difficult to measure the scale of piracy of Adobe products post retail, the company’s popularity with pirates is still very visible.
Is this even still a viable strategy? Probably, yes. With the monopoly that they have on creative industries, it’s possible that Adobe might be able to trundle on, ever-increasing their prices on an industry that’s already in a state of reinvention or slow collapse. Traditional agencies are facing competition from consultancies. Adobe might not care about all the negative attention and bad press. It knows that the people who can afford to turn to cheaper alternatives are not its core audience: everyone who works professionally in the creative industry uses Adobe programs. It has an eye on its own stock price, which was recently upgraded to a Zacks Rank 2, reflecting an upward trend in earning estimates.
And Now This
Like many people stuck with Adobe programs, I use the old versions where possible. The newer versions tend to require faster and faster computers, tend to be more unstable, and have strange functionality changes that cost me readjustment time. Save for inDesign, of which I use the newest version because insisting that everyone else save idml files got annoying after a while, I use the older, stable versions of CC apps. They work with my MacBook, which I’ve been refusing to upgrade because the latest MacBooks have a terrible, easily-breakable keyboard.
Recently, reporting has indicated that people like me could be in danger of infringement. Can you really get sued for using old versions of Photoshop and Lightroom? Via Endgaget:
A spokesperson said in a statement sent to AppleInsider: “Adobe recently discontinued certain older versions of Creative Cloud applications. Customers using those versions have been notified that they are no longer licensed to use them and were provided guidance on how to upgrade to the latest authorized versions.” However, the spokesperson said Adobe can’t comment on claims of third-party infringement, as it concerns ongoing litigation.”
The company didn’t elaborate on what lawsuit compelled it to send out warning emails, but as AppleInsider mentioned, Dolby sued Adobe in March 2018 for allegedly not complying with their licensing deal. Adobe is contractually obligated to report sales of products that use Dolby technologies to the company and to pay the agreed-upon royalty fees.
According to court documents, Dolby is accusing Adobe of selling products that use its technology without paying at all and of refusing to provide the information it needed to conduct a meaningful audit of its books. At the time, Adobe told The Register that “Adobe does not agree with Dolby’s characterization of the issues concerning its audit of Adobe’s past use of its software.”
It’s not a great look for a company that’s already suffering from panicked exodus after the Photoshop stoush. It’s also unclear whether Adobe or Dolby can actually pin any legal responsibility on consumers: it’s not our fault that we were sold licenses for programs that Adobe didn’t have the rights to. Still, if you want to be safe, you probably should update. Bloatware and all. In the meantime, we still have memes:
Time to bring this back pic.twitter.com/eVMp3azZ26
— 👽Mari👽 (@biggaybutchbabe) May 11, 2019
Want to chat? Get in touch.
Nike Women’s World Cup Football ad is out, beautiful, inspiring… did you guys hear that New Zealand beat England in the warm up? Here’s hoping that the Women’s World Cup will inspire as much interest (and sponsorship) as the men’s… sometime in the future…