Product placement in digital media is a crucial and growing part of several companies’ marketing strategies. Global spending on product placement was approximately $23 B in 2021, a 14% increase over spending in 2020. However, as well-known brands pay millions for a seconds-long slot on the Netflix’s latest hit series, one company found a clever, albeit short-lived, workaround.
The North Face, iconic retail brand known for its outdoor and cold-weather apparel, skipped past the expensive streaming platforms and straight to everyone’s favorite free info media site – Wikipedia. They leveraged Wikipedia’s no. 1 rule, that anyone and everyone can edit articles as they please. The North Face’s Brazil group took photos of hikers, climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts wearing their apparel at famous outdoor destinations and sneakily added them to the destinations’ associated Wikipedia pages, which pushed the brand’s photos to the top of Google’s image search results.
But as every evil genius cannot help but brag about their master plan, North Face too could not keep their brilliant scheme to themselves. Together with an ad agency, they created a video as part of their “Top of Images” campaign in which they boasted “We hacked the results to reach one of the most difficult places: the top of the world’s largest search engine.” And of course, the backlash that followed was to be expected - the branded images were swiftly taken down and the company issued a public apology. The incident is a few years old now but remains a great example of how brands are constantly being compelled to be more creative in their marketing strategies, with mixed results, and how absolutely no place on the web is safe from advertising.
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