It’s clever, it’s slick–and it could be the look of Hollywood’s future. As production costs soar, studios are turning to ever more ambitious schemes to market their movies while minimizing their financial risk. This Christmas MGM Studios has joine d forces with five big advertisers–Heineken, Smirnoff, BMW, Visa and Ericsson–in an unprecedented cross-promotional partnership. Besides sprinkling their products throughout ““Tomorrow Never Dies,” the five are spending $98 million worldwide in a blitz of ads tied to the newest addition to the James Bond franchise.
During the past week TV audiences have been inundated with clever commercials-cum-movie-promos featuring Bond careering around in his BMW sedan and motorbike, chatting on his Ericsson cell phone and leaping from a roof onto a Heineken truck. The pa rtnership is a can’t-miss proposition for both sides: the sponsors get to link their products to Bond’s sophisticated, sexy image, while the film studio, which has been struggling in recent years, doubles its $40 million U.S. marketing budget–at no extr a cost. ““People are becoming numb to movie ads,” says Karen Sortito, MGM’s executive vice president for worldwide promotion. ““You have to do something to break through the clutter.”
MGM began to exploit the potential of cross-promotions decades ago. In the original, 1960s-era James Bond movies starring Sean Connery, the suave superagent sipped Smirnoff vodka and tooled around in a British-built Aston Martin sports car. But in 1995 the then studio president John Calley dumped the Aston Martin for a BMW both to update the character and to create a new marketing partnership. It was a bonanza for everyone involved. ““GoldenEye” grossed $350 million–and sales of BMW’s Z3 sports c ar, which was introduced in the movie, took off.
These days 007’s sponsors are even helping to shape the creative process. When the director Roger Spottiswoode was searching for action props for ““Tomorrow Never Dies” last year, he toured BMW’s Munich factory. Spottiswoode noticed the prototype o f an R1200-C motorcycle. He promptly went back to his storyboards–and added a BMW motorbike chase through the crowded alleys of Ho Chi Minh City.
The cross-promotional game hasn’t worked for everyone. Chevrolet’s commercials hooked to Tom Cruise’s stock-car-racing flop ““Days of Thunder” were instantly forgotten, and Volvo’s tie-in with Val Kilmer’s ““The Saint” failed to brighten the automa ker’s stodgy image. Still, as more movie budgets bust through the $100 million barrier, the relationship between moviemakers and advertisers is certain to grow even tighter. ““It doesn’t make me happy, but with large global productions there’s really no choice anymore,” says Spottiswoode. The way things are going, it won’t be the villains of SPECTRE who achieve Total World Domination; it’ll be the admen of Madi- son Avenue.
