How Product Placement Can Work For Fashion Brands

Stacy Jones | September 14, 2022 at 9:00 AM

Costume Designers Are The New Influencers

Fashion trends are cyclical; if you look around right now, early aughts styles are back with a vengeance, thanks in part to social media influence and popular TV shows like Euphoria. Films and TV offer brands of all categories a phenomenal launching pad to showcase their products on the big or silver screen through product placement, and that's no different when it comes to fashion brands.

For fashion brands, many opportunities exist to simply loan products and gain high payoffs. Recently, I sat down with writer Booth Moore to discuss how fashion brands should treat costume designers as influencers and take advantage of this space. In this blog, Hollywood Branded introduces an article from Women's Wear Daily and shares how product placement is beneficial for fashion brands.

How Product Placement Can Work For Fashion Brands - 9.12.22

How Filmmakers Contribute To The Viewing Experience

Hello from the beach of Jacksonville, Florida. As I write this from my hotel room after a very long day of flying, with the doors of my hotel balcony open and the a/c off, I am enjoying the sounds of crashing waves and the mugginess of recent rain. It is amazing how different environments have their unique sounds, smells, and even air texture.

I'd be hard-pressed to try to truly bring this experience to life by just telling you about it with words. Showing you through a video would at least give you the sensory impact and make you feel like you are here too, to a degree.

That's what filmmakers on set do. They take a moment of life from words written on paper, and they build it into a multi-dimensional experience. The director is charged with crafting the overall vision from what the writers designed and then leading the cast - and crew - into building that vision into life, with layer after layer of effort added by hundreds of individuals on set. The right lights, the right settings, the right props, and the right clothes. Everything placed on screen during that filming process is done through being cast and approved by multiple decision-makers on set.

Check Out Women's Wear Daily's Article

Photo Credit: Liam Daniel | Netflix

The right clothes being cast are something that a lot of people don't necessarily think about. Unless it is a period piece where clothing is being stitched and created, costume designers act like stylists in that they pull together creations from real fashion in everyday life. And those designers and fashion brands that they ask to send clothing from as product placement? Mega winners - when they stop and head the call of opportunity.

I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with one of my favorite writers this last week, and she's on the top of my list not because I get awesome soundbites - which I usually do, and of course, I love that.

It's because she goes full throttle into whatever article she is writing. Her research is meticulous, and her fact-finding missions turn into incredibly well-written articles quoting interesting people. She puts her all into her writing every time and creates stories that are enjoyable, factual, educational - and to the point. I know that I always learn something valuable.

Not everyone goes to that extreme of putting that level of effort and pride into their work.

So on that note - I'm inviting you this week to read Booth Moore's article in WWD on how brands are working with costume designers to create on-screen starring roles that are making cash registers ring.

You can read it at:

Screen grabbed link
On the WWD site (really great publication to subscribe to - they provide a ton of insight on pop culture. Fashion is a major pop culture driver that, in my opinion, brands of all types should be tuned in to.)

Product Placement Works

Photo Credit: Eddie Guy | Variety

Product placement works for fashion brands and every other type of brand out there. When your brand is on screen, helping bring a character and the story to life, you win - every single time. You build brand clout. Traditional advertising just doesn't do that in the same impactful way.

Product placement is not only effective - it is efficient. You can secure exposure on the screen based on an "I scratch your back, you scratch my back" relationship builder - where you provide complimentary products on loan or trade to the very receptive prop masters, set decorators, transportation coordinators, and costume designers who are working on a budget to bring their set to life. Product in exchange for on-screen exposure aligned to massive celebrity talent... well, you can't argue the efficiency there.

Or you can provide cash fees paid that I promise you are more efficient than any ad you will ever buy - as that series or movie will keep on delivering just like the energizer bunny.. going and going and going. Airing over and over again, year after year, and driving CPMs down to pennies.

Besides blogging or creating your own branded content that lives 'out there' on your owned and operated socials and website platforms - what other advertising tactic keeps on delivery even a decade later? Very few, if any.

So take a few minutes now to dive into that link - you'll get to read what I had to share on the subject as well.