VW and NBC Universal – Not A Happy Product Placement Marriage

Two years ago with a huge amount of hype from both sides NBC Universal and Volkswagen signed a three-year product placement deal. Originally it was said the deal would be worth some $200 million but by the time the ink was dry it was more like $40 million.

For that, Volkswagen got its cars on display at Universal’s theme parks, placed in movies, and even having VWs transporting stars to Universal movie opening galas. There were ads in DVDs released by Universal and a slew of other promotions, but getting the cars placed in Universal’s TV shows never did come off.

So, after two years of this is the German automaker happy? Apparently not. “ The placements we’ve had so far are not up to the standard we had expected when getting into this deal,” according to Martin Biswurm, VW international entertainment marketing manager , in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Universal, on the other hand, says its done real well with the placements, in 17 movies, the car were used in 56 premiere events, and the brand is in some 40 million DVDs released globally.

 “Product placement and the movie industry are a growing factor in car promotion,” gushed Bernd Pischetsrieder, Volkswagen CEO when the deal was being negotiated. But Biswurm now says, “Until recently, the placements have been marginal. That weakness is a cause for our disappointment. We are still waiting for the big films to be able to activate around.”

And that time will soon be here, for Universal’s upcoming “The Bourne Ultimatum” features VW’s new Touareg 2 in a major chase scene. VW and Universal are co-coordinating the release of the film and the launch of the car with VW planning a multimillion-dollar campaign to include television, print and the Internet.

If that all works then VW may look more favorably of its dabbling in Hollywood for another two years. – July 19, 2007

Keywords:brand marketing,newspaper advertising

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