NBC’s hit series “The Office” returns at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, April 10.
That’s good news for its huge legion of fans, which includes “producet placement watchers” who are looking for the next brand name to pop up in the popular series.
“The Office” is known for, among other things, its liberal use of branded products on the set. Some companies—like Staples, Sandals Resorts, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Cisco, for instance—pay big bucks to get their brands in front of viewers.
If you have a consumer product that you want to get onto a popular TV show or onto the set of a movie, you don’t necessarily have to negotiate expensive product placement agreements like those companies have. Often, production coordinators will accept all kinds of products, from bottled water to artsy jewelry, and place them on the set for free.
Amy Bates Stumpf and Rebecca Lightsey, both experts at product placement, explained during an interview I conducted with them “How to Get Your Consumer Products onto the Sets of Movies & TV Shows” that the hard part is getting through to the right person. It could be the set dresser. Or the product placement coordinator.
The magic of technology can place your product onto sitcoms that have been in syndication for several years. That means that if you have a consumer product that’s a perfect tie-in with a show like “Home Improvement” for example, you might be able to get it onto the set.
I’ve been a big fan of the so called older shows like home improvement for some time and think it would be a shame to randomly splash products across their screens just to make a quick buck.