When Daniel Craig finally dons his Tom Ford tuxedo and drives his electric Aston Martin in “No Time to Die” next weekend, it will be the end of a long road, not just for Craig as 007 but for multiple brands associated with the movie.
The movie opens Sept. 30 in the U.K. and Oct. 8 in the U.S., but it is debuting an incredible 18 months after it was first scheduled for release in April 2020. Since then, the pandemic has intervened and the date has been pushed back twice to protect box office earnings.
When long-time James Bond brand partner Heineken’s latest campaign broke last week, featuring Daniel Craig in his role as 007, viewers were treated to a little humor from the brand. In the spot by Publicis Italy, Craig is sitting in a bar and slowly pouring himself a glass of the brew. He waits a few seconds before sipping it and quipping, "Well worth the wait."
According to Publicis Global Chief Creative Officer Bruno Bertelli, the idea for the new TV spot actually came from Craig himself. “It was a nice suggestion and a good way to pick up the partnership again in time for the release of the film,” he says.
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For Bond fans as well as for Heineken, the wait has been a long one; even prior to COVID-19, the film had already been delayed by a year after director Danny Boyle was fired and replaced by Cary Joji Fukunaga. The most recent prior Bond movie "Spectre" came out in 2015. “One of the reasons Heineken partners with James Bond is because it’s every four years," says Bertelli. "It’s a fixed appointment. Normally, markets plan well ahead on properties like this."
When the pandemic struck, Heineken had already gone live with its first Bond-themed ad with Craig, whereas some other brands partnering with the film waited until later to release their tie-in spots. DHL's ad by 180 Amsterdam, for instance, was only released this month, although it had been filmed by a team including Smuggler's Tom Berg before the pandemic. The original Heineken commercial, “Dry Spy,” had more of a specific product tie-in promoting Heineken’s zero alcohol brew, with a spot featuring Bond choosing not to drink alcohol (something viewers are also expected to see in the movie, which has been dubbed "the most woke Bond ever.")
While the Bond movie is finally opening, yet more big Hollywood releases are being pushed back by the studios as the coronavirus delta variant surges in the U.S. “Mission: Impossible 7” is delayed from May 27 to Sept. 30, 2022, while the long-awaited “Top Gun” sequel "Top Gun: Maverick" will now debut Memorial Day weekend 2022, rather than this November. The latter, already delayed by COVID-19, has tie-ups with brands including Ray-Ban’s Aviator sunglasses (as worn by Tom Cruise in the original iconic movie), as well as a toy deal with Mattel.
Product placement
For marketers planning brand tie-ins with these movies, the logistical nightmare of the past year continues; and industry experts say advertisers are having to rethink their partnerships with movie releases as a result.
“If a theatrical release changes, advertisers who have built their marketing strategy around a film partnership typically will have to change their plans too,” says David Born, director of London-based Born Licensing. “Advertisers can certainly experience plenty of benefits when hitching their wagon to the hype and power of a theatrical release, but there is always a level of risk as we’ve witnessed over the last 18 months.”
Born says his firm’s most successful work is now with advertisers who work with popular entertainment franchises and characters outside of theatrical windows, giving the advertiser control around launch timing; for example, U.K. insurer Direct Line is working with characters from the Robocop and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchises, but as none of them had a new film releasing during the advertising, Direct Line was able to launch its campaign when it best suited the brand.
Then there is the matter of product placement. While it may not matter so much for a beer like Heineken, for a tech brand, a movie delay of two years can result in its product being completely out of date. While some things can be altered in post, any marketing based around that product is bound to be disrupted. So how much does this matter?
“While I’m sure that there will be frustrations from a budgetary, scheduling and planning point of view, at least with Heineken the product isn’t changing,” says Ed Warren, the L.A.-based group chief creative officer of branded entertainment agency The Sunshine Company.
Warren also makes the point that for brands in movies, it depends whether the product is being used as textual background (such as Dell computers in the “Fast and Furious” movie or Ford cars in “Avengers: Endgame”) or is being used for “character building,” as with Ray-Ban and “Top Gun.”
“The reason why Bond is powerful for Heineken is not because he’s going to explain the brand, but because he’s the ultimate example of a highly aspirational character,” he says.
But he points out that delays could conversely also prolong the life of a product association. “If you look at the extension of 'No Time to Die,' in some ways it has extended Heineken’s ability to talk about the campaign. I thought their ad was brilliant, playing with the context that they’re in.”
Merchandise spoilers
Beyond product placement, delays can be a logistical nightmare for brands tying up with movies on the merchandise front.
“Merchandise doesn’t get created in 25 minutes,” says Marty Brochstein, senior VP of industry relations at New York-based Licensing International. “If there’s a kids’ movie that has a toy line attached, there is a lot of development time. When a movie gets taken off the schedule, it affects everything. The goods are probably being shipped and are having to sit in somebody’s warehouse.”
This has meant that in some cases over the past year and a half, merchandise has sometimes reached shelves ahead of the movie opening, for example with "Wonder Woman 1984." "But then you’re not getting the big crescendo of promotional activity that the toy company is depending upon,” Brochstein says. Plus, as he points out, there is another potential problem; as Variety outlined, some of the merchandise for the Wonder Woman movie actually included spoilers from the movie (including a Mattel figure of Kirsten Wiig’s character in her final form as a cheetah).
Still worth it?
The big question now for brands is whether blockbuster movie partnerships are still worth it. According to Publicis’ Bertelli, marketers are increasingly choosing to partner with streaming platforms like Netflix and Apple on TV shows rather than focus on big box office openings.
“You will see more and more partnerships with Netflix,” he says. “They are faster, more precise and they share the content with you—it is much more manageable for brands. It’s becoming too difficult to partner with big productions where you don’t get to see the script or know when the film will be released. You can also choose the series that is most suitable for your brand.”
It's not just TV of course; over the pandemic, more big movie releases have been released on streaming platforms. Licensing specialists believe most contracts will be around theatrical releases of movies, rather than streaming. But things are changing. Bertelli believes that with streaming, the lack of the big box office opening does not necessarily matter because “with Gen Z, the effect can be even bigger."
Licensing International’s Brochstein is a little more circumspect over streaming. “If you are dealing with a movie that is just being premiered on a streaming platform, that story is still being written,” he says. “With streaming, everyone is feeling their way, because you are not getting the big crescendo of the opening weekend. It’s very much a case of an industry in flux."
Sunshine’s Warren also predicts an “acceleration of volume of high-quality content and a blurring between feature and TV," although he points out that that the current crop of box office releases are still heavy on product placement. "You can't turn around without bumping into a BMW in 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.'"
"Bond is an interesting case study because all of that marketing machine was in place and everything changed the week before it launched. But in the intervening 18 months, we have had massive sea changes in how people watch movies.”
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