Feb 06 All News

Seesaw Media at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards 2024

It’s that time of the year again: the awards ceremonies are in full swing!

While we are patiently waiting for the Oscars to happen next month, we had the privilege to attend and sponsor the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Sunday. The awards took place at the May Fair Hotel in London, a star-studded event that celebrated the best of film.

As Seesaw Media has been working closely with countless films and TV shows for more than 20 years and helping productions and directors bring their visions to life with real-world products from cars to cruise ships, costumes to champagne, we were delighted to support the ceremony.

2023 has been a tremendous year for British cinema so it was fantastic to witness everyone’s hard work being recognised by the Critic’s Circle. We got to celebrate many wins for both newcomers as well as industry legends.

Seesaw Media sponsored the ‘British/Irish Performer of the Year’ category which the brilliant Paul Mescal won.

The overall winner of the night was the film ‘The Zone Of Interest’ by Jonathan Glazer which took home Best Film, Best Director as well as Technical Achievement for best Sound and Music.

Among other well deserved winners, Andrew Scott won the Best Actor category, the British indie hit ‘How to Have Sex’ by Molly Manning Walker won two awards and Jeffrey Wright won the The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film.

‘All of Us Strangers’ by Andrew Haigh won Best British Film of the Year and Justine Triet and Arthur Harari took home ‘Screenwriter of the Year’ for the excellent ‘Anatomy of a Fall’.

It was marvellous to celebrate all these wins and we’re excited of everything that’s still to come from the awards circuit, notably with the BAFTAs taking place next week!

Jan 29 Blog

Seesaw Media’s 2023 Recap and a 2024 Sneak Peak

Now that January is coming to an end, this is the perfect time for us to look back at Seesaw Media’s favourite placements of last year!

But first, how can we talk about entertainment in 2023 without mentioning the writers and actors’ strike? The WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions ended up striking for nearly 6 months. After many negotiation rounds, both sides managed to come together in an agreement for fairer working conditions, compensation, as well as protection against AI. The long months of striking meant many productions were put on hold. However, this didn’t mean all films and TV shows had to be paused.

Today, Hollywood has evolved and is no longer a local and homogeneous business. Smaller independent film companies that respected the interim agreements were allowed to go ahead with filming. Additionally, in the last few years, many big Hollywood productions and studios have started basing their filming locations in the UK. This meant filming could go ahead over here. Some of 2023’s biggest films were shot in England. The list includes box office hits such as “Barbie”, “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning”, “Wonka”, “Ant-Man Quantumania” and “Fast X”.

Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie

As for Seesaw Media, the strike did not stop us from working and doing what we do best: securing our clients exposure in many of your favourite films and TV shows! 2023 was a year of many genres and fantastic movies. A multitude of films were released which allowed us to see the result of our work on the big screen with exciting action blockbusters like “Fast X”, “Meg 2” and “Expendables 4”.

Jason Momoa in Fast X

2023 was also the return of the rom-com in cinemas! We were thrilled to secure exposure in both Lily James’s film “What’s Love Got to Do with It” as well as ending the year with “Anyone But You”, the highest grossing rom-com since Bridget Jones’s Baby (another one of Seesaw Media’s films!). “Anyone But You”, still in cinemas, is delivering strong box office numbers and is now way past the $100M mark.

Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney in Anyone But You

From political dramas like “The Diplomat”, to the fan favourite final series of Netflix’s “The Crown” as well as Apple TV’s nail-biting “Hijack”, (which recorded a record-breaking 357M minutes of viewing time), 2023 was a great year for our clients on the small screen too!

Marvel’s latest spy series, “Secret Invasion” gave us an opportunity to once again dress the wonderful Emilia Clarke. And speaking of spies and espionage, we also got to work on the third series of “Slow Horses” which finally came out in December, with an ending making us wish series 4 would come sooner!

Emilia Clarke in Secret Invasion

On the lighter side of entertainment, we saw the return of TV’s favourite radio shrink Frasier Crane in the Paramount+ reboot. We learnt he still very much enjoys the finer things in life and has great taste in whisky.

Now that we’re well into 2024, we’re looking at the year ahead and are very excited and grateful to be off with such a strong start already! The Netflix movie “LIFT” starring Kevin Hart has been number one in 82 countries resulting in client exposure having been seen by 36.5M viewers in one week alone! And that’s not the only action-packed film that is currently available to watch, “The Beekeeper” starring Jason Statham is now in cinemas.

Kevin Hart in LIFT

Now that everyone in this industry is back at work, 2024 is shaping up to be a great year for entertainment and Seesaw Media! Stay tuned for more…

Sep 27 Blog

Blockbusters (And Brands) Back On The Big Screen

After the pandemic brought cinemas to a stand still in 2020, it now looks like 2022 has seen the return of the movie blockbuster and audiences with it. Flooding back to local cinemas and multiplexes box office numbers are close to pre-pandemic figures. 

 

Not only are the blockbusters and audiences back, but so are the many brands who partner with movies and benefit from their on screen exposure, through product placement.

 

As the big studios have released their summer blockbusters, we take a look back at some of this year’s biggest and best and the brand partnerships contained within them.

 

The highest grossing film of this year with $1.4 billion worldwide is Tom Cruise’s aerial phenomena: Top Gun: Maverick. This critically acclaimed and highly rated sequel responsible for bringing thousands of moviegoers back to the big screen. Its also currently the 11th highest grossing film of all time (according to Boxofficemojo). Just as in the original 1986 blockbuster that helped cement Tom Cruise as a Hollywood movie star, Maverick has a number of brands appearing on screen, many of which appeared in the original. From the Top Gun recruits drinking Budweiser in the bar, to Maverick riding alongside a jet on his original Kawasaki motorcycle, to pilots sporting the requisite pair of Ray-Ban’s – the latter seeing the similar increase in sales that they did when they appeared in the first movie 

Top Gun: Maverick 2022

 

The 2nd highest grossing film of the year is Jurassic World: Dominion, the final film in the Chris Pratt led trilogy, is also just shy of the billion dollar mark. Whilst it doesn’t feature as many brands as Top Gun, this monster of a movie that was filmed during the midst of the pandemic, still has a few noticeable companies that help bring the big screen adventure to life. Jeep, the official automotive partner of the movie, not only appeared in the movie but also implemented a global marketing campaign. In terms of two wheels Owen Grady (Pratt) can be seen tending to his Triumph as featured in the earlier films at one point drives through the streets of Malta on a Honda Montesa 4Ride.

Jurassic World: Dominion Poster (2022)

 

Marvel’s first film of the year Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness takes 3rd place, also close to the billion dollar mark with a very respectable $955 million. Whilst the superhero blockbuster is slightly lighter on recognisable products due to its multi-dimensional story there are one or two stand out placements. The most noticeable is Strange’s Jaeger-LeCoultre, the watch Doctor Strange was given by his love interest in the original movie. More than just a prop, the watch book ends the sequel showing how Strange’s life has changed over time.

Doctor Strange’s Jaeger-LeCoultre (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022)

 

Rounding off the list is the first Blockbuster of the year back in March, the Matt Reeves/Robert Pattinson/Zoë Kravitz/Paul Dano critically acclaimed gothic masterpiece The Batman with $770 million. The gothic superhero movie uses product placement to ground their movie, to connect to the audience using brands and imagery they know to make the characters and locations feel real. The Batman is set in the gloomy fictional city of Gotham, illuminated by a Times square esque set of billboards featuring real world brands everything from Puma to Little Caesars, Westin to Ardbeg whisky. 

Gotham’s introduction (The Batman, 2022)  

 

Whilst these may be the biggest films of the year so far, there are plenty more cinematic releases enticing audiences back to the big screen, many of which are full of brand partners. The most noticeable of which is the high speed Brad Pitt actioner Bullet Train which apart from the iconic mode of transport as referenced in the film’s title, and the Breitling worn by Brad Pitt’s character (who coincidentally happens to be a Breitling ambassador), gives a large portion of screen time to the Tumi briefcase that everyone is after – a marketing tagline that Tumi used when promoting their association globally in stores

 

Tumi X Bullet Train campaign (2022)

 

However, the biggest placement goes to Fiji Water, who not only appears throughout the movie but gets a whole scene dedicated to it. According to co-star Brian Tyree Henry’s interview with hype.com; “I didn’t know that you could make a Fiji water bottle another character but we managed to do that.” The Fiji bottle was a scripted feature and something the studio Sony took directly to Fiji water, showing how a recognisable brand can steal the show when placed in the right movie.

Ladybug, Lemon and the star Fiji water bottle (Bullet train, 2022)

With big films still left to come this year including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: Way of the Water hopefully audiences and brand partners will keep returning to cinemas and multiplexes as the film industry gears up for a packed 2023.

Nov 03 Blog

No Time To Buy? Why Bond is the Perfect Franchise for Product Placement

With No Time To Die on target to surpass Avengers: Endgame as the fifth highest grossing film in UK box office history, as usual a lot of media attention has surrounded the brand partnerships seemingly almost as iconic as the titular character himself. Twenty-five different brands are featured throughout the 2hr 43m runtime with fourteen paying nearly £100 million to attain partnership status and the potential commercial and advertising benefits that come with that position. While there is much debate on whether this advertising has gone ‘too far’, it doesn’t seem a concern for the brands increasingly eager to have their products featured and crucially, as Daniel Craig himself said on the making of Skyfall in 2012, “The simple fact is that, without (product placement), we couldn’t do it (the movie).”

 

Aston Martin advert in which Daniel Craig drives a DB5 (Source: Deadline)

 

With marketing spend pushed over the $100 million mark due to COVID-19 enforced delays (the first main trailer was released in December 2019) and a production budget around $250 million, funding from product placement is a key component in allowing the intense action set pieces that audience’s love to be greenlit by executives in the first place. However, the return these brands see from their investment can be significant. Casino Royale saw Bond famously wear the La Perla Grigioperla Lodato swimsuit that is perennially sold out to date, the pair Craig wore himself sold for nearly £45,000 at auction a few years later. Apparel seems to be as close to a guaranteed hit for brands, if you’re dressing Bond, be it for a publicity still, a trailer or the final cut itself, it’s unlikely that any of your items will be in stock just days later. Towards the end of Skyfall, Craig picks up a Barbour jacket that retailed at £400, those same jackets were selling for over £2,000 on eBay later that week after selling out in-store and online. Bond is not just a fictional character; he is a modern-day trendsetter and style icon whose tastes consumers respond incredibly quickly to.

 

Daniel Craig in Skyfall wearing a Barbour jacket (Source: Bond Suits)



The two years of build up to release has not been without challenges for integrated brands as the devastating impacts of COVID-19 took hold, nonetheless, in the world of product placement, some faced more than others. The tech industry is dominated by a rapid development pace, innovation is the core tenet for success for products where many consumers look to upgrade annually. Nokia, the official phone provider for No Time To Die, were unsurprisingly not pleased that their significant investment into the franchise would not only lead to Bond and co not having cutting edge technology, but the audience frequently having more advanced devices in their pockets while watching. In January of this year there was an explosion of articles that placed the majority of the blame for another delayed released date at the doorstep of Nokia, due to reshoots taking place in order to update the tech to a more recent line. The 2019 trailer featured a Nokia 7.2 smartphone with more recent ones changed to include a 8.3 model instead, clearly, even if this these claims aren’t entirely accurate, Nokia have understood the importance of their investment showing off their latest (and most expensive) devices.

 

Lynch’s updated Nokia 8.3 smartphone in No Time To Die’s 2021 trailer (Source: Tech Radar)

 

In the Bond films of the 20th century, product placement was similarly prevalent, but over the last fifteen years more creative marketing efforts means that you’re now more likely to see 007’s face on the small screen than the big one. Craig’s has appeared frequently in Heineken adverts, the latest a charming swipe at the impatient, in which the star is shown quietly drinking a beer before informing us it’s “well worth the wait”. However, for possibly the first time, the female lead in Lashana Lynch is enjoying a comparable partnership push. Over the past two years she has featured in photoshoots and adverts for the Nokia phones that her character, Nomi, uses throughout the film. It might have come as a surprise for fans to see Lynch use the slightly more rugged profile of the Nokia compared to a sleeker Sony device of character’s past and this isn’t an accident. Evolution is a key theme of No Time To Die and that means some of the quirks of the older films, like Q’s longstanding patience with the state that Bond leaves his gadgets in after every mission, will have to go – there are no broken handsets this time around. Net sales for Nokia have doubled since last year, but it remains to be seen if this is purely down to the recovering COVID-19 economy or if their global Bond campaign, and the product placement within, have had a part to play.

 

Heineken advert starring Daniel Craig (Source: Ad Week)

 

While much of the Bond operating software has received a much-needed update in 2021, one aspect of his character hasn’t changed. For as long as James Bond has existed, he has been a perfect agent for brands to advertise their products. Bond’s charm, sophistication and prowess are aspirational and have kept the character relevant to audiences and advertisers for the past five decades. Despite the exorbitant costs there is still no one better for brands targeting a successful product placement strategy.

 

Apr 27 All News

Big Brands Back on the Big Screen

With cinemas set to reopen in the coming months, film fans have an action-packed year ahead. Whilst television and streaming services have saved many from boredom in lockdown, nothing beats the big screen experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on cinema: many screens across the globe have been shut for over a year, and in March theatre giant Cineworld recorded a $3bn loss. Cineworld is hoping to regain pre-pandemic levels of admission by 2023 and share prices by 2024, so the reopening of cinemas is a welcome relief to both visitors and investors, and it is arriving not a moment too soon. Summer is traditionally the most exciting and profitable season of the film calendar, and major distributors are lining up to release long-awaited blockbusters. Pre-pandemic, we were seeing a boom at the box office from hits like Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King, and 2019 box office figures broke records with $42.5bn takings globally. Such figures this year would breathe some life into the industry and, hopefully, restore it to its pre-pandemic glory.

 

 

But it is not only cinemagoers and the distributors who are keen to see them released, it is big brands too. The brands that have worked with productions through product placement and by investing media dollars to promote their partnerships, are eager to see their products hitting the big screen this summer. The return of major franchises throughout the year, such as Bond, The Matrix, Fast & Furious, Kingsman, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Black Widow), plus the arrival of long-awaited sequels Top Gun: Maverick and Venom, will no doubt be accompanied by promotional tie-ins from companies looking to publicize their product placement. Expect to see big campaigns from the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin, Omega, Ray-Ban, Heineken, and Nokia, whose latest commercial in partnership with Bond has the 007 agent Nomi showcasing one of their latest models whilst on a mission.

 

So, with cinemas starting to fill up their screens and brands promoting the big movie partnerships, it looks like 2021 could hail a revival of cinema.