For marketers, product placement has always been a promotion method that has proved to be efficient, and, depending on the place and time, cheaper than other marketing actions. Everyone knows that Carrie Bradshaw has a wardrobe full of Manolo Blahnik shoes; Charlie Harper from “Two and a Half Men” has a Mercedes-Benz or the jail guardian from Lady Gaga’s latest video logs in to the dating website, Plentyoffish.

There is no point in explaining why product placement is efficient because the reasons are plain obvious to everyone. You see your favourite star using a product, you dream of sharing the same lifestyle of your favourite character, and end up buying a product just to catch a glimpse of what life would be if you were Carrie Bradshaw.

Product placement + social games = match made in heaven

Social gaming has been a rising trend in the past year, and with applications like Farmville reaching more than 82 millions users, we foresee that this is just the beginning. Companies like Zynga and Playdom have managed to design social games like Farmville or Sorority Life that have millions of users, and could become a gold mine for both the creators, as well as for advertisers.

Bing gives you Farmville currency

Search engine Bing managed to triple its number of fans by advertising on Farmville. In a campaign that lasted 24 hours, Bing offered Farmville users something they really wanted, Farmville currency, in exchange for them to click the “become a fan” button of Bing’s Facebook page. The results were impressive; users actively promoted this campaign with their other friends and Farmville users on Facebook, causing Bing to tot up now almost 600,000 fans on Facebook.

Elite Taami Nutz on Farmville

The Israeli chocolate brand, Elite Taami Nutz and their digital agency developed a product placement campaign on Farmville, allowing the users of the application the possibility to nurture their own field of branded peanuts. The products will be available from the 14th of April; will cost 20 credits (coins) and will be ready for recollection in 16 hours.  The company decided to further engage with Farmville users by offering them the chance to design their own stable.

Which companies should place products on social games?

A great emergent property of social gaming, for marketing people, is that that the market segments are clear.  You can easily develop the profile of a Farmville user, or decide which main point of interest a Sorority Life user has. Specialized applications that allow the development of virtual Top Model profiles or Sex and the City characters are valid sources for marketers to build a profile of the user, and see if it matches the one they are targeting.

Almost any company evolving in the food industry could easily promote their products via special campaigns on Farmville such as the one by Elite Taami Nutz. According to the users profile of the application used almost any brand could find a way to promote their products on platforms that benefit from a major advantage: the majority of users already share an interest for the type of products they are selling.

One thing that should be considered before placing a product on social games is the geographical location of the audience, because Elite Taami Nutz decision was questioned, mentioning the fact that the brand has a clear audience located in Israel and other countries of distribution, while Farmville is a game that reaches people across the whole world.

The main disadvantage of this type of method is the fact that clients could get tired of being haunted by brands even in their spare time. The more brands apply this type of approach the more consumers might feel bullied by companies who approach them. Although, time has proven that strategic planning and creativity can transform even the most traditional marketing action into an effective and appreciated one.