Beyond Product Placement: The Positive Partnership of Lexus and Black Panther

When marketers use product placement, they pay to have their product included in nontraditional situations, such as in a scene in a movie or television program. This activity is important because, by doing so, they attempting to increase the visibility of their products.

By understanding how best to entice customers to purchase or consume a particular product, a firm can develop promotional elements that are of interest to and achieve the desired response from those customers. The goal of this activity is to demonstrate your understanding of product placement and how its used to appeal to customers.

Read the case about the Lexus product placement campaign and then answer the questions that follow.

What do you expect to see in a car commercial? A sporty car doing donuts in a desert? An SUV driving up the side of a mountain? These examples, and the likely images they immediately provoked for you, raise critical questions for car brands: How can they stand out in a crowded market? How do they revitalize their brands, develop a strong image, and appeal to a wide audience?

When Lexus sought to differentiate itself, after 30 years on the market, it undertook a 2-year project to create an advertising campaign in partnership with Marvels Black Panther movie. To start, though, with the realization that its branding had grown a little stale, Lexus decided to overhaul its brand marketing, including its tagline, changing The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection to Experience Amazing. The idea was to present the company more like a lifestyle brand, which means engaging emotionally with customers as well as developing a new advertising approach.

To promote the first new vehicle conceived with this new marketing strategy in mind, Lexus partnered with Marvel to feature the car, the LC 500, in the Black Panther film, hoping to be part of a cultural phenomenon.¹ Lexus hired Walton Isaacsonan ad agency it works with for Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ communicationsto spearhead the innovative Black Panther campaign.² Other car companies had inserted their products in Disneys Marvel movies in the past, including Audi (featured in Iron Man, Captain America: Civil War, and Spider-Man: Homecoming), Ford (Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2), and Acura (The Avengers). But Lexus campaign went far beyond just product placement.³

The LC 500 is not just on screen in Black Panther; it is a central feature that adds to the narrative, showcased prominently during a critical and lengthy car chase. The vehicle masterfully races around a South Korean city, with TChalla, the hero of the film, surfing on the roof. The pivotal scene was even featured in the movies first trailer, which received 89 million views within 24 hours of its release during the fourth game of the NBA finals, as well as being posted to social media sites.

Then a massive ad campaign for Lexus accompanied the release of Black Panther. The actor playing Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, was also featured (as the Black Panther/ King TChalla) in a Super Bowl ad for one of Lexus other new vehicles, the premium flagship luxury sedan LS 500. The association with the film led to the marketing of the LS 500 as fit for a king despite it not being featured in the film at all. Prior to the release of the film, Lexus also commissioned an original graphic novel that built on aspects of the film but also showcased Lexus own impressive technology. The comic, Black Panther: Soul of a Machine, featured a Lexus master craftsman and the LC 500.⁴

For a car with a suggested retail price of $92,000, Marvels audienceaffluent and multiculturalis an ideal target market. The median income of the Marvel fanbase is over $100,000, and Black Panther was expected to do well with African Americans. Lexus has recognized the importance of appealing to a diverse audience, noting that one-third of its customers had multicultural backgrounds. In this sense, a partnership with Black Panther aligned with their values.⁵ Furthermore, when Black Panther was released, African Americans were spending $20 billion on new cars and trucks, and research had shown that product placement in movies and television series particularly resonated with this demographic group.⁶

Black Panther also appealed to Lexus as a promotional vehicle (pun intended) due to the plot of the movie and its characters. Black Panther is set in the fictional Wakanda, a technologically advanced nation featuring a sophisticated hero. Lexus by association hoped to be viewed as technologically advanced and sophisticated as well.⁷

Although Lexus could not guarantee Black Panther would be a big hit, it had conducted enough research to be confident that the release would be successful. The marketing campaign for Black Panther was itself a massive undertaking, with Disney buying ads during sports events, partnering with Kendrick Lamar, creating an experience at Fashion Week, and undertaking many other promotional efforts.⁸ Thus, it might not have been surprising that Lexus bet on Black Panther paid offnot only was the movie a global success, but in the week following its release, online searches for Lexus were up 15 percent according to Autotrader, and searches for the LC 500 were up 10 percent.⁹

References:

1. Tanya Gazdik, Lexus Enjoys Huge Success of Black Panther, Media Post, February 19, 2018.

2. Adedamola Agboola, Black Ad Agency Brokered Partnership between Lexus and Marvel for Black Panther, Black Enterprise, February 23, 2018.

3. Laurence Iliff, Lexus Basks in Black Panther Glow, Automotive News, March 4, 2018.

4. Christian Sylt, The Marvellous Marketing Vehicle for the New Lexus, Forbes, February 26, 2018.

5. Tanya Gazdik, Lexus Enjoys Huge Success of Black Panther, Media Post, February 19, 2018.

6. Daniel Granderson, Lexus Genius Product Placement in Marvels Black Panther Movie Highlights Growing Influence of African Americans Buying Power, Packaged Facts, March 12, 2018.

7. Adedamola Agboola, Black Ad Agency Brokered Partnership between Lexus and Marvel for Black Panther, Black Enterprise, February 23, 2018.

8. Pamela McClintock, Disneys Black Panther Playbook: A Peek at the Marketing of a Phenomenon, The Hollywood Reporter, January 21, 2018.

9. Christian Sylt, The Marvellous Marketing Vehicle for the New Lexus, Forbes, February 26, 2018.

The Lexus and Black Panther product placement campaign is an example of

Multiple Choice

personal selling.

advertising.

sales promotions.

direct marketing.

social media.