Product placement is so 2009. Try brand integration instead

Hi {{first_name}} ,

Each month, I cut through the marketing noise to bring you real talk from other leaders, what’s actually worth reading, and the occasional hot take that makes you think.

In today’s newsletter:

My first job out of college was as the Production Designer’s Assistant on the film “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.” (If you haven’t seen it—yes, there’s a sequel to “Wall Street.” No, it’s not that good). As part of my role in the Art Department, I helped identify the products that would be a fit for product placement in the film. The goal was to identify the characters, scenes, and situations that would make the most sense for various companies that wanted their names and products on screen in exchange for giving some major $$$.

We had a dedicated corner of the production office for all our potential placements: Johnnie Walker Blue, Moët & Chandon Champagne, Coach and Dunhill briefcases, Davidoff cigars. These products not only made sense for your typical 2007 Wall Street bro to be seen using; they were relevant for the scenes and easily identifiable to the audience, no additional explanation needed. That’s what great product placement does: it’s authentic, aligned to the audience, and doesn’t require heavy-handed explanation.

Fast-forward to 2026 and audiences are more savvy, more skeptical, and more likely to trash your brand online if your product placement feels off. That’s what happened to Microsoft with their clunky and out-of-place Copilot product placement in the High Potential Season 2 finale. If you’re not a High Potential viewer (why not?! It’s legitimately enjoyable network TV), it’s a detective show with an unlikely civilian protagonist solving most of the crimes. The episode featured cop characters explicitly mentioning, using, and praising Microsoft Copilot to solve a case. Believable? Not at all. One character even interrupted the investigation to give a Copilot product demo. Not exactly authentic, and the internet didn’t buy it

Contrast the Copilot flop with a more aligned and authentic brand placement, Liquid I.V. in Amazon Prime’s Off Campus. In this college-age rom-com, Liquid I.V. is embedded into the narrative when the lead, a college hockey star, becomes a brand sponsor. It’s authentic: you’ve got college athletes who need nutrition and hydration, using a product for exactly that. It’s also relevantly woven into the narrative: he’s a brand sponsor, naturally, he’s going to get a shipment of the product at home. Sports arenas have branded ad placements, so of course Liquid IV would have one at the arena of their brand sponsor. By the fifth episode, you feel slightly hit over the head with the brand name and product, but at least the lead character is appropriately eye-rolly about it all alongside the audience.

And beyond embedding the brand into the story, they extended the world into their advertising placements with the stars featured in ads and a limited-edition product drop tied to the show. The partnership extends further to include shoppable ads, a co-branded feature on the Fire TV UI, a dedicated landing page, and Liquid I.V. as the official hydration partner of a hockey-themed influencer event produced by Prime Video. 

That’s more than just the partnership team writing a check and sending a product: it’s brand, campaigns, product marketing, events, and partnerships working together.

Great product placement isn’t product placement anymore. It’s brand integration: partnering and co-creating content and messaging that’s authentic, relevant, and natural. Plop your product somewhere it doesn’t belong, and you risk alienating your audience. Find a natural fit and a way to add value (and some self-referential humor) beyond an awkward mention, and your awareness spend will pay off.

Here’s where I share what I’ve found worthwhile among the myriad newsletters, podcasts, and open tabs across my devices lately. No fluff, just the good stuff.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 What are the Gen Z/Gen Alpha yuts (excuse me, youths) up to? Part of a good marketer’s job is to stay on top of emerging trends and what’s happening in the market. Casey Lewis is a journalist and trend researcher focused on Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and her Substack “After School” is a must-subscribe for a regular digest that serves as an examination of “youth culture.”

tl;dr: After School arrives in my inbox every day and serves as a roundup of headlines and articles focused on Gen Z and Gen Alpha trend analysis. While I’m not marketing explicitly to this generation yet, it’s helpful to understand not just what they’re watching on TV (:cough: Off Campus :cough:), but also their attitudes and expectations around technology and AI.

🎒 The 90’s are back, including the hacky sacks. We kicked off the year with nostalgia marketing thanks to Super Bowl ads, including a Good Will Hunting parody and not one, but two, ads featuring the Backstreet Boys. So it' should come as no surprise that Gen Z is getting in on the 90’s trend by bringing back hacky sack. And shockingly, I didn’t have to read about this first in After School—I saw it with my own two eyes on my high school campus.

tl;dr: Ryan Gosling’s Dr. Ryland Grace tossed an Earth-colored hacky sack around his classroom in this Spring’s hit “Project Hail Mary,” but the hacky sack was back long before Gosling made it cool. With Gen Z & Gen Alpha rejecting their digital-first lives in favor of dumb phones and IRL experiences, the hacky sack is a natural evolution of a phone-free existence.

A bit of my own writing, recent engagements, client updates, and things I’m doing.

🎤 Storytelling Workshop: This month I hosted a workshop on “The Art of Storytelling” for the networking group The Old Girl’s Club, condensing my 2-hour interactive workshop into a quick 1-hour overview for an audience of marketers, founders, sales leaders, and GTM execs. We talked how to tell product stories when the product isn’t quite there, and the difference between pitching your product to VCs vs pitching to customers.

Need a storytelling refresher? Respond to this email, let’s chat!

Don’t lose your use-it-or-lose-it training and professional development budget. Whether it’s training on AI workflows, storytelling frameworks, or how to build better product demos, or coaching for your newly promoted marketing leaders, I can help make sure that budget doesn’t go to waste.

If you’re hiring, let me know—I know a bunch of talented marketers from Senior Manager to VP looking for their next role, and I’d love to connect you! I like helping great people work for great people.

Jodi