License To Sell Cross-Marketing Of Movies And Products Hits Peak With 007 Ads

James Bond is everywhere. There’s 007 outrunning bad guys on his BMW motorcycle, sipping a Smirnoff vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), making a call on his Ericsson cell phone.

What about his new movie? It won’t be out for another two weeks. But products that have cameo roles in “Tomorrow Never Dies” are already being heavily advertised in an all-out license to sell.

The strategy, while not new, seems to reach new extremes with the Bond movie.

Agreements with eight “promotional partners” got the film $100 million worth of publicity before MGM had spent a dime on marketing.

And the manufacturers are happy because they get to turn the suave, debonair man of mystery into a human billboard, making it hard to tell where the advertising ends and the movie hype begins.

MGM executive vice president Karen Sortito bristled at the suggestion that the deal is somehow unusual.

“You need to put products in movies to make them realistic. Why shouldn’t we get something out of it?” she said. “This is a guy who’s been picking up gadgets and getting in cool cars for decades. Do they really want us to scratch out the logos?”

Indeed, placing products in Hollywood movies has evolved into a fine art since 1982, when an unpaid appearance by Reese’s Pieces in “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” was followed by an increase in sales of the candy.

Getting companies to pay for shots featuring their products now routinely helps studios defray marketing costs, which have skyrocketed to between $15 million and $50 million a movie.

“Everyone today in the entertainment business is trying to figure out how to leverage their marketing budgets because it’s becoming so expensive,” Lieberman said.

“Tomorrow Never Dies” could use some leverage. It cost $100 million to produce and is being released Dec. 19, right in the heart of the crowded Christmas movie season.

In addition to BMW, Ericsson and Omega, MGM approved Bond ad campaigns for Smirnoff vodka, Heineken beer, Avis rental cars, Visa credit cards and L’Oreal cosmetics.

“James Bond uses his Ericsson for all his close calls,” reads the kicker on one full-page newspaper that shows a movie still of actor Pierce Brosnan on a cellular phone.

In a Smirnoff magazine ad, twists of lemon floating in a martini spell out “007.” The ads highlight a long-standing penchant for vodka martinis that goes back to Bond No. 1, Sean Connery.

On television, the familiar Bond guitar riff plays over a chase scene from the movie as an off-screen announcer warns viewers not to try the stunt at home. The product: the BMW Cruiser motorcycle Bond is riding.

BMW returned to the Bond franchise after successfully using the previous Bond film, “Goldeneye,” to help launch its Z3 Roadster.

“About 10,000 pre-orders were directly attributable to the film,” said Jack Pitney, a company spokesman. “It was by any measure a smash success.”

Like other partners, BMW did not pay the studio a placement fee, but agreed to promote the movie in its ads. In all, MGM got $48 million worth of movie promotions in the United States and $52 million overseas before launching its own multimillion-dollar “direct” campaign, Sortito said.

In turn, the products hitch their wagons to the movie in an attempt to profit from what the industry calls a “halo effect.”

What if “Tomorrow Never Dies” dies at the box office?

Said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz: “If the movie turns out to be latenight TV fodder, then you get a loser halo.”