The Most Under-Utilised Channel In D2C? How It Increased Brand Search by 22x

Ads are great. They’re at the heart of what we do.

But when it comes down to it, we’re all vying for the same eyeballs, and ads are just one way to win that attention, albeit for a split-second.

And in today’s Deep Dive we go into alternative ways of winning attention - product placements. Do they work? Are they more effective than normal ads? Well, one brand won big with product placements, via Netflix’s Stranger Things. We go deep in to the weeds of this under-utilised channel.

Comparative Ads are this week’s theme in The Science, the segment that goes behind-the-scenes of how we construct thumb-stopping ads that scale. We discuss the three things that all effective competitor comparison ads should do (with real-life examples).

We also go into how to to unearth emerging brands based on real Google demand data in today’s Quick Wins. Use it to find out how your brand compares. Or just steal some ideas from the most popular brands on Google.

And then there’s the latest video from the blimpp YouTube channel in This or That? The optimal cost for D2C shipping.

Let us know what you think in How Did We Do at the end!

Today's deep dive - why Product Placements might be the most under-rated channel in marketing.

We've analyzed a bunch of data to bring you an overview of the impact of this channel.

First on the agenda: which TV shows are most prolific for product placements?

Well, The Office (US) takes the crown with a staggering 1,448 product placements. Seinfeld and Sex and the City follow with 867 and 806 placements respectively.

Ok, these shows have been around for an age, so you’d expect to see higher volume of placements, but still - that’s a lot.

Looking at network-specifics - HBO (Sex in the City, Baller, Billions, Silicon Valley) are most likely to feature brands as part of storylines, with Netflix (Cobra Kai, Stranger Things) also keen.

Let's talk about brand performance in specific shows - Stranger Things Season 4.

According to YouGov data, Coca-Cola, Lacoste, and Reebok had the highest placement values in Stranger Things Season 4, with values of $1.83m, $1.81m, and $1.43m USD respectively.

But those are relatively huge brands, where quantifying impact may not be so clear cut. Instead let’s look at a smaller brand with less omni-channel presence - Jif Peanut Butter.

Now this isn’t a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it placement - the over-arching storyline incorporates the brand across multiple scenes involving a character named the 'Peanut Butter Smuggler', who smuggles the product into the Soviet Union.

According to YouGov, this exposure was worth an estimated $0.88m to the brand - however, that looks to be a tad on the conservative side when you look at some other data sources.

For example, here’s the Google Trends data overlay between the brand term and searches for ‘Stranger Things Season 4’ - we can certainly see a broader increase in searches aligned to the release of the fourth series:

But trends in isolation don’t tell us an awful lot - let’s also take a look at some Ahrefs data.

Digging deeper, we can see that brand searches for Jif Peanut Butter averaged around 22k searches per month before the exposure, and then cranked up by a startling 22x to 483k in May 2022:

So the moral of the story appears to be - with the right exposure, product placements can drive a meaningful increase in short-term brand awareness.

But this is just one example - what does the broader industry think of the effectiveness of in-content brand placements?

According to a 349-person marketer survey from BENLabs, 73% reported that product placements were somewhat effective or highly effective at driving cultural relevance for a brand.

But cultural relevance isn’t necessarily the same thing as marketing effectiveness.

To get to the bottom of the question of marketing ROI, we need to look at a few more data points.

According to a BENLabs consumer survey (Which, if any, of the following types of product or service do you think product placement is most effective at promoting?) 32% of consumers thought that product placements were effective for Electronics & Tech products, 31% for Clothes & Accessories, and 31% for Food stuffs:

And according to a 2023 research in the US of 656 respondents, 39% somewhat or strongly agreed that they were more likely to research a product online that they saw in a film or TV program vs. a product advertised on TV:

So marketers are telling us that product placements are effective in driving cultural relevance, and consumer data backs up this sentiment, with some verticals perhaps more effective than others.

But ultimately, for hard-nosed marketers, it comes down to moving the needle on sales.

And there’s also data here to suggest that product placements move intent to purchase in surprising ways - during the same study, little more than one-third (34%) of respondents said they purchased online either the exact product or a product from the same brand after seeing it in a product placement in the the six months preceding the survey:

Data is great, but without meaning it’s just numbers. So here are a few things you can do with this, today:

• Niche show placements: While the most popular shows may be out of your budget, you can still target niche shows with audiences that align closely with your target demographic.

• Amplify recall with YouTube: Episode reaction videos can rack up views in the hundreds of thousands. If you’re lucky enough to be featured in a TV show or film, then buying ads against reaction videos is a natural fit.

• Focus on high-impact product categories: If your brand falls within Electronics, Clothing, Food, Cars, or Beauty - prioritize product placement in your marketing mix.

• Create placement-specific landing pages: Develop dedicated pages for products featured in placements, optimizing for searches related to the product and the content it appeared in. Set up ads retargeting engagers.

• Look to X: X, formerly known as Twitter, is the place where people immediately come to talk about what they’ve just seen. If you’ve got a product tie-in, you should be all over the platform with ads focused geared around keyword-based targeting.

• Measurement: Perhaps the number one reason why brands shy away from product placement (other than perceived cost) is the difficulty in tracking its effectiveness. But a few ways you can - track social mentions, hashtags, brand search uplift, traffic increases to product pages featured in placements, and compare sales figures for placed products. And don’t forget to track customer lifetime value of any customers acquired within the product placement window.

As the old saying goes - there are lies, damned lies, and s̶t̶a̶t̶i̶s̶t̶i̶c̶s̶ platform attribution.

We now ad platforms generally tend to over-estimate conversion data. It’s in their interest to do so.

But this makes judging actual campaign performance a nightmare.

And it’s why third-party attribution is necessary (shout out to our friends over at Hyros).

But all this data dishonesty begs the question…

Comparative ads are everywhere.

Think of those ads comparing Brand A v.s B, or comparing before and afters, or an new process vs. an old process.

These ads are insanely effective, especially when it comes to engaging with in-market audiences.

So let’s look at some key elements of these ads.

A good comparative ad should do three things:

1. Establish a clear, relatable problem

2. Create perceptual separation

3. Be grounded in product truth

Effective comparative ads identify a common pain point or frustration that the target audience only knows too well.

This makes the ad relatable and ensures that viewers see part of their everyday reality reflected in the ad.

You also want to tap into an specific core emotional trigger: stress and worry are particularly effective triggers for comparative ads.

One of the key objectives on comparative ads is to clearly differentiate your product from the competition or the status quo.

This can be achieved by using visuals and text to emphasise the contrast between two or more options. Here’s what you can do:

• Highlight relevant USPs

• Use visual contrast

• Utilise trust builders such as reviews and money-back guarantees

The important part is how you visually communicate the perceptual separation. Use scene structure, colour, and comparison as your primary tools.

You can establish a relevant problem and create perceptual separation, but it means little unless the overall narrative is grounded in a single product truth.

This is an underlying belief that is at the heart of what the ad is trying to convey. For example, if you’re selling supplements a comparative ad might press on the product truth that your supplements are made from all-natural ingredients, which leads to better absorption and fewer side effects compared to synthetic alternatives.

Or if you’re selling skincare - that your clinically proven, dermatologist-recommended ingredients deliver visible results without irritation.

The key is to be objective. Try and answer the question - it’s better, because of X. Then use that in your headline.

Does it pass the sniff test? - YES

• Establish a clear, relatable problem? PPC agencies charge too much money for too little return.

• Create perceptual separation? Use of visual contrast in the comparison table.

• Grounded in a single product truth? The agency model is expensive and inefficient. The Future of Customer Acquisition is pay-for-what-you-need.

Does it pass the sniff test? - YES

• Establish a clear, relatable problem? Too many agencies, means too many external stakeholders to manage. For example, working with five agencies, means potentially five meetings per week, five different ways of working etc.

• Create perceptual separation? The Swiss-army knife graphic presents a nice visual contrast. One tool, to do the same job.

• Grounded in a single product truth? All things considered, a one-stop solution is more convenient than working with multiple agencies.

Does it pass the sniff test? - YES

• Establish a clear, relatable problem? Again, too many agencies, means too many external stakeholders to manage.

• Create perceptual separation? The Old Me vs. New Me narrative is underpinned in split-screen, using contrast colours, icons, and visual reference to a Google Calendar schedule.

• Grounded in a single product truth? All things considered, a one-stop solution is less stressful than working with multiple agencies.

DTC nerds: What’s the optimal shopping cost? Is there a point where people start to abandon their carts in droves?

Well, yes - $6.

That's the maximum you should charge for shipping before people really start to have second thoughts about buying (according to a recent consumer insights survey).

Here's the data in full - on delivery cost likely to deter respondents from following through with their purchase:

• 📦 Not buying unless shipping is free - 6%

• 📦 $1 - 13%

• 📦 $2 - 2%

• 📦 $3 - 5%

• 📦 $4 - 6%

• 📦 $5 - 6%

• 📦 $6 - 24%

• 📦 More than $6 - 21%

• 📦 Undeterred - 17%

Want more content like this? Subscribe to our channel here.

Your CMO wants a running report on trending brands in your vertical.

Where do you look first?

Google keyword planner? Ahrefs? Facebook Ads Library?

Well, how about Google Merchant Center. No, seriously.

We use this report to:

• Identify scaling brands worth targeting directly and indirectly across Google channels.

• Anticipate which trends are likely to be ‘the next big thing’ within a given product category.

• Identify who’s putting in the work (and $$$) across demand generation.

• Identify which products and product categories competitor brands are pushing at any given moment in time.

• Understand how our brands compare, relative to emerging brands.

• Keep copycats on our radar.

This report started out as a pretty basic overview, but now allows you to keep tabs on competition based on relative demand, price point, category, and other variables.

Check out the Google Merchant Center how-to below.

1. Open up the Best Sellers tab in GMC:

2. Set your primary filters:

3. If you’re looking for above or below average AOV brands, then set your price range.

4. Set you date filters - either by month or week.

5. Analyse trending brands, filtered by popularity:

6. Popularity is based on the ‘Relative Demand’ metric - definition below:

7. Looking for up and coming brands, rather than all-out most popular? Then click on the ‘Up and Coming’ pre-set filter to analyse newer brands or products based on your current primary filters:

Increase Your Amazon Position Before Oct Prime Day

Send free products to Micro-Influencers using the platform Stack Influence which automates influencer collaborations at scale (get thousands of collabs per month). Brands like Magic Spoon, Unilever, and Farmacy have been able to get to #1 page positioning on Amazon and increase their monthly revenue as high as 13X in as little as 2 months.

• Pay influencers only with products

• Increase external traffic Amazon sales

• Get full rights image/video UGC

Increase your listings search positioning before Oct Prime Day is upon us!

Get 10% OFF signing up before Oct Prime Day.