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Did you spot these 5 brand cameos in Marvel films?

Did you spot these 5 brand cameos in Marvel films?

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Product placements have become a norm in films. In fact, statistics from researcher PQ Media predicted global product placement to rise by 13.8% in 2021 to US$23.3 billion compared to 2022. Meanwhile, overall marketing spend was predicted to jump by only 5.9% to US$1.35 trillion, Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, market research company Concave Brand ranked 10 most successful brand integrations of movies from 2021, stating that these product placements formed 16.7% of all entertainment marketing value in the top 50 movies of last year. Among them were Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Luca, and Space Jam: A New Legacy.

More recently, Marvel's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has not only drawn online chatter among excited fans but also landed a product placement by luxury watch brand Jaeger-LeCoultre.  Actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Doctor Strange, can be spotted wearing the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Calendar watch in the movie.

dr strange watch
dr strange watchmaker

Originally introduced in the 2016 "Doctor Strange" film, the luxury watch brand said in a press statement that the watch serves as a tangible reminder of meaningful events from the character’s past and present and is also an essential reference at several key points during Doctor Strange’s journey into the mystic arts.

Meanwhile, Cumberbatch is the face of Jaeger's new advertising campaign, where the actor sports the inaugural Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris Perpetual Calendar. In the campaign video, he makes multiple references to time, and his ability to alter time in the Multiverse as Doctor Strange.

Here are four other Marvel films that featured brand cameos.

Captain America: Civil War
civil war vivo phone

Vivo's V series smartphones V3 and V3Max (pictured above) debuted in Captain America: Civil War in 2016 and were used by Iron Man and Captain America to make phone calls. Robert Downey Jr., who starts as Iron Man, also used a fictional futuristic Vivo phone to project 3D video holograms. 

Vivo enjoyed over a minute of screen time in the movie, with close-up shots where the V3 and V3Max were positioned directly in front of the camera. Vivo's CMO Alex Feng explained that the brand sought to market and promote the V3 and V3Max as dependable "superhero approved" smartphones, encouraging fans to purchase and own one for themselves. According to Vivo, movie co-branding is one of its key strategies in expanding into the international market. 

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings
shangchi bmw car

The BMW iX3 roared to life during an intense chase scene in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, where Shang-Chi and his accompaniments were desperately making their get-away. Along with the BMW iX3, the BMW M8 sports car in Melbourne red also made an appearance when the protagonist worked as a parking valet and was coerced into taking the car out for a spin by his friend Katy.

In a previous statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, BMW Asia's marketing director, Daren Ching, explained that the objective of this initiative, and every product placement for BMW in films, is to build brand affinity and raise awareness of featured models. By setting both cars to take center stage in action-packed set pieces the BMW group sought to showcase the power and agility of its vehicles, marketing its design, performance, and technology features.

Spider-Man: No Way Home 

spiderman hyundai car

The Hyundai Tucson made a dashing appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Touted by the brand as a "Multiverse Utility Car" and "The Multiverse-Ready Tucson", the car's moment of spotlight arrived when Peter Parker suited up and transformed into Spider-Man on the Tucson's roof, positioning himself into a fighting stance in light of imminent danger. 

At the same time, Hyundai's LONIQ 5 also appeared in a Hyundai TV spot ahead of the release of the film. In the long-form commercial titled "Only Way Home", Spider-Man is bent on clearing his name and comes out of hiding, only to find his web-slinging no longer works in a single-story word. Hitching a ride to New York with his best friend Ned in an IONIQ 5, the two characters cruise their way through an open country inside the vehicle, exchanging banter along the way. 

“We look at these partnerships as an opportunity to bring content to life that celebrates both brands. By putting Spider-Man in a one-story world, where he has only one way home, we were able to seamlessly give Hyundai a chance to save the day,” Barney Goldberg, executive creative director of INNOCEAN USA, explained. Hyundai worked with the ad agency on the campaign.

Additionally, Hyundai engaged in a dangerous stunt featuring the brand's IONIQ 5 hanging from the ceiling in Spider-Man's webbing in Sony Centre in Berlin. The brand went as far as to launch short videos across YouTube and other social media channels on the role that Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse had in transporting it there. According to Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, vice president marketing and product at Hyundai Motor Europe, the stunt underlines the ingenuity of both the famous superhero and the brand's new halo car. 

The Falcon and the Winter Soldierwinter soldier drinks tiger beer

In Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Winter Soldier, also known as James "Bucky" Barnes, was seen indulging in a bottle of Tiger Beer, a Singaporean beer brand, while on a date with a waitress. In fact, he had three bottles of Tiger Beer on the table in front of him at one point. The Tiger Beer bottle first appeared when Bucky and the waitress were discussing his online dating experiences. Though inconspicuous at first, the beer's moment of spotlight soon came with a close-up shot of Bucky gulping down the Tiger Beer and its logo positioned to face the camera.

Apart from visual product placement, the movie also doubled down on visual placement, as Bucky mentioned he saw plenty of weird pictures on online dating platforms. When asked what kind of weird, Bucky replied: "Tiger photos". 

Following the brand's surprise cameo in the film, it uploaded a cheeky reference on its Facebook and Instagram. The post features a Tiger Beer bottle with the caption "Here's to you, soldier". To make the reference even clearer, Tiger Beer said "Every superhero deserves a Tiger" while tagging Marvel Studios and the official social media accounts of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Wong Yee Ching contributed to this story.

Photo courtesy: 123RF

Related articles: 
Brands hijack Shang-Chi actor's past stock images on social media
Microsoft and Marvel play on Shang-Chi hype to train fans coding
Spider-Man returns to Marvel Universe after Sony and Disney patch up
Marvel's LOKI series logo gets fans flexing their own creative muscle instead
‘Ford vs Ferrari’: How to make a movie without overt product placement

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