`No Mr Bond... I expect you to buy'

The latest James Bond film Skyfall goes on general release today and the hype has been electric, with reviewers calling this the best Bond flick yet. This is Daniel Craig’s third outing as Bond. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace have made a combined $1.1 billion at the box office – the franchise is well and truly back and fully re-booted, as is the brand marketing.

The general effectiveness of using film/brand partnerships to launch new products remains debatable. The risk that brands take in allying themselves with movies, as well as other activities outside their core business, is always hit and miss – I can safely say that I can’t remember most brands placed in the majority of movies I’ve seen. Bond bucks that trend – whether it’s his Omega watch, Martini cocktails or the impressive succession of Aston Martins over the years, the list just goes on – brands seem to stick in the memory just as well as the bad guys and plot of the film.

The latest Bond movie doesn’t disappoint. The marketing push for Skyfall has been a long-haul assault, stretching far beyond the standard bus-side billboards and movie trailers. The new film also raises the bar for onscreen product placement – the products that appear in the movie are hardly undercover, from 007′s Omega Seamaster to his Tom Ford-tailored suits – as well as offscreen alliances ranging from Coke Zero, to perfume retailers, to his new drink of choice, Heineken.

There has been debate about this change in Bond’s choice of drink, but simply talking about it is all Heineken could have ever asked for. The Queen’s appearance as the newest Bond girl during the Olympic opening ceremony gave the film, and its partners, unprecedented exposure. Not only did this cameo raise awareness amongst a billion viewers that there was a new Bond movie this year, but it gave this very British brand a royal seal of approval.

Getting into bed with movies is not a science, and commercial tie-ins are nothing new in Hollywood, but the Bond blitz puts others to shame – can there be such a thing as commercial overkill when it comes to Bond? Critics have long complained about the movies over-enthusiastic sellout of Ian Fleming’s hero, but there’s no sign of a consumer backlash yet – in fact Tom Ford has sold out of the tuxedo worn by Daniel Craig to the premier and one of my colleagues bought Bond’s Omega watch this very week. The level of marketing force put behind a new product launch is a key component of success, and a Bond link up has a proven track record of turbo-boosting awareness and enhancing the value of a brand.

So, with product placement as firm a feature in the Bond franchise as pretty women and iconic theme-tunes, this is a win for new product launches certainly and (so far at least) without a negative impact on Brand Bond!

Joe Marshall is Head of Ipsos InnoQuest at Ipsos